It happens every single year like clockwork. All the people that have lived irresponsibly for I can only presume their entire lives show up about the 3rd of January with a new gym membership and they almost always work out too hard, hurt themselves, get really sore, and don't really do anything correctly and then by about mid-February, almost all of those new year new me people are no longer going to the gym.
Myself and some of the other regulars at my gym always loathe this time of year because while the newbies are polite, probably moreso than a lot of the other regulars, they are getting in the way while working out incorrectly and even potentially hurting themselves. My workouts always take longer for the month of January because all the people are convinced they are going to completely change their lifestyle because of some promise they made with a glass of champagne the week prior.
I have always been a big advocate of "baby steps" when it comes to fitness and especially when it is a radical change from how you have been living your life. I know some people and see a lot of people that try to go from "zero to hero" on day one and this is a recipe for disaster. You almost certainly are going to over-exert yourself and then end up horribly sore the following day(s) then you are going to feel less inclined to ever go back. I feel as though a smart approach of doing just a little bit when you first start going, or if you are returning, is much smarter, even if it doesn't feel like you are working out at the time. Trust me, your body will still get sore anyway if you have spent the last 10 years just sitting at a desk and on the couch. Give it time to adjust and learn how much you can do. If you overdo it you will sideline yourself for a long period of time and the mental game is really important during this time. If you truly want to be a zero to hero person then put that energy into your diet, that is the more effective method of weight-loss anyway.
When the newbie's 1-month pass expires at the end of January, we see about 80% of the people never return and that is a shame. So this year me and some of the gym bros have gotten together with the management and have suggested something that will help the gym as well as help the new people. We are going to offer not to be trainers, because that isn't legal, but to be someone that the can ask questions to if they need help. We are going to get shirts made up that identify us as people that you can ask things to while you are in the gym if you don't know how to use a machine or don't know how much to try to lift. We are not allowed to physically interact with the people, I presume because of insurance reasons, but we can at least show them with our own movements or tell them words to help them out.
I don't actually want the people who come to the gym in January to go away, as much as the increased amount of people at the gym annoys me, but it wouldn't be as bad if they were familiar with proper form and etiquette. Also, this is just a nice thing to do for other people and maybe even make some new friends. A bit thing that helped me to turn my own fitness life around was me becoming friends with people that were also into fitness instead of just being friends with people that liked to party. When you surround yourself with people that have good habits, you will find that making and keeping those good habits in your own life is a lot easier and effective.
The gym gave us the go-ahead to help out like this but only because we convinced them that this will help with customer retention. They have their own trainers that they offer of course but those cats charge like $100 an hour and that is too much.
Hopefully we can make some sort of impact.