Many gym members never go finds British and Australian research

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

As New Year's fitness resolutions fade into distant memory, try these two questions:

Did you join a gym this year? And have you actually gone yet?

British and Australian research has found many people who sign up for workouts never go, wasting their money and providing a windfall to gym owners.

The overseas findings are backed by Consumers' Institute chief David Russell, but angrily rejected by local fitness centres, who say they work hard to keep new members and have the figures to prove it.

In Britain, Sainsbury's Bank predicts more than 500,000 Britons will squander about £200 million ($537 million) this year joining gyms but never getting to the first workout.

About 5.8 million Britons hold gym memberships, but Sainsbury's says the almost 10 per cent who make bold promises to lose weight then do nothing more than joining up could put their cash to far better use paying off mortgages.

A similar picture emerges from Australia, where the manager of one Sydney gym with 12,000-plus members paying monthly fees of more than $80 says fewer than 10 per cent are regulars.

In New Zealand, Otago University exercise psychologist Dr Elaine Rose says about 50 per cent of people starting fitness programmes drop out within six months.

But Sport and Recreation New Zealand says its "Push Play" campaign to get people exercising in whatever way they feel most comfortable helped to boost the proportion of "active" Kiwis from 66 per cent to 70 per cent over four years from 1997.

Active people are defined as those putting in at least 2 1/2 hours of exercise a week, whether at gyms, playing with their children, walking more or using the stairs at work.

Industry organisation Fitness New Zealand, meanwhile, estimates that 400,000 Kiwis visit gyms each year and most big operators claim more than 75 per cent of members attend at least once a month.

The owner of the nine-gym Club Physical chain, Paul Richards, said the industry was striving to retain members for longer than a year and could not do that without strategies to inspire them not to quit.

He said more than 80 per cent of Club Physical's 18,000 or so members made an average of three visits a week and at least half were likely to keep attending after a year.

Mr Richards, who prefers to charge $18 a week and a once-only $99 joining fee rather than annual subscriptions, said it took about six weeks for people to make a habit of a new exercise regime to the point of feeling physically uncomfortable if they missed a workout.

The gyms had therefore introduced incentives such as free tee-shirts for everyone completing six workouts in the first six weeks, and staff were expected to phone lapsed and low users regularly to remind them of missed opportunities.

"Some people get quite aggressive, but most are pretty happy about it and get more annoyed if we don't get around to phoning them."

Mr Richards said motivation to use gyms had strengthened substantially since his operation began 25 years ago, when most people attended just to look good.

A desire for good health amid a global obesity epidemic had long overtaken cosmetic concerns.

He hoped a new registration system for gym instructors being introduced by Fitness NZ, of which he is an executive member, would keep broadening interest.

Les Mills New Zealand chief executive Reece Zontag said 78 per cent of the chain's 43,500 members turned up in January, traditionally a light month for gym attendance, and they averaged 3.5 visits.

He was irked at Mr Russell's suggestion that gym operators were mainly interested in members' fees, saying ensuring regular attendance was crucial to staying in business.

His annoyance was shared by Judy Mexted, a spokeswoman for Contours women's fitness centres. She said they worked hard helping members overcome obstacles to exercising, but individuals had to accept final responsibility for keeping themselves motivated.

But David Russell remains cynical about protestations from New Zealand's $100 million-plus gym industry that it has the country's health at heart.

"The fitness industry depends on people signing up, paying their money and not going," he insists.

"People go along with the very best intentions then let it slip - it's human nature and gyms need that, it enables them to subsidise those who keep going.

"They rely on human frailty and on the initial concept people may have of the Body Beautiful."