TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– As January rolls around, many will begin working on their New Year resolutions they set for 2023.
One of the places you can find people working on their goals are at gyms across the area. Kevin Selby, the manager and head fitness specialist at Stan’s Fitness Center, said the new year typically brings a surge of new members.
“Usually, we up our membership about 10-15%, sometimes, even 20%,” he said.
The increase is welcome for gyms like his. Selby said they help new members find a program to best fit their goals. He said burnout in the first few weeks is a real concern.
“Some people come in and go too strong and too fast, and they end up crashing,” he said.”They can’t stick with the program, because they’re too sore, they hurt too much, they have too much DOMS, which is delayed onset muscle soreness.”
His best advice– take it slowly, and understand it will be a long process to get to the finish line.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’s a marathon and not a sprint,” he said. “You can’t just take off and go as fast as you can, pump out max weight when you first come in. You have to come in and build a base. Base endurance, base strength, and work your way up from there.”
Wade Thacker has been a member at the gym for years. He said he’s used to seeing new faces every January, and the best way to ensure you fulfill your resolution is to make it through the first few weeks.
“If you make it an everyday habit, it becomes more of a lifestyle than a resolution,” he said. “It makes things easier. One thing I always tell people, a one hour workout is only four percent of your day, if you look at it that way, you can get in here.”
Selby said the gym is also looking to continue to bounce back from the pandemic, which hit many fitness centers hard. He said, at one point in 2020 or 2021, they were down about 30% in memberships, but they recouped much of that in 2022.
“We have bounced back now,” Selby said. “People are starting to get healthy, people got the vaccine, they feel safer going out and about.”
