Exercise adherence - can anyone point me to the right place?

T

tonyreptiles

0
Hi all.

I'm a newbie and yet to trawl through the old posts. I'll be doing that over the next couple of days but in the meantime...............

I'm a fitness professional in the UK specialising in exercise adherence (or member retention as the industry calls it) and thought this may be the right place for me to be. I don't see any specific boards for the topic, which suprises me considering that without it everyones programmes are redundant!! :)

Seriously though, is the topic discussed here anywhere? Is it something this board needs? Is there another place?

Thanks in advance.

TR
 
hello_kitty said:
What does it mean and why should there be a specific section for it?
Click to expand...

Hiya Kitty,

As a newbie here of course I should point out that I'm just dipping my toe in the water here and by no means attempting to bowl the board with my own criteria. Just so you know. :)

Not sure where you are, but here in the UK there is a huge focus on member retention. The boom period for health clubs has reached a peak and so clubs are looking to retain as many members as they can. It's debatable how well they are doing.

You can probably appreciate that the great proportion of people starting an exercise programme drop out within the first few months. As is the case for any lifestyle change, changing behaviour and creating/breaking habits is hard work. That's not to say that there is no science to it. That's where I specialise.

Over here retention is a big focus as I mentioned. I've researched and implemented retention strategies for 5 years now and I'm always looking to extend/use/adapt my knowledge. As the google number one hit I'm hoping to join this community and learn a thing or two, plus pass on what I know.

As for why I deem it so important, well ask anyone who has tried and tried again to get slim/get beefy/get fit/get healthy and dropped out. It's a nightmare. All of the great advice from the contributors on this board is little use if it is never actually physically used. The same goes for the programme the instructor wrote or the new diet book or whatever. Thinking about it achieves nothing - only the doing brings results. (In fact, to be more specific, only doing it REGULARLY brings results.)

That's why I think exercise adherence information is important and that's why I thought I may find some common ground with others on this obviously popular site.

What do you think?

Kind regards
TR
 
I'm in London and I suppose you're one of the people I should not like :D I hate going to the gym in January and February when all the 'resolutionists' start trying to shift their pudgy bellies.

As to this website, most people are quite motivated and excercise adherence is not an issue. I think when you reach a stage where you start doing a research on the internet and join a fitness site you're pretty determined to achieve your goals and will not stop (at least it was this way for me).

However, there are few people on this website who ask the same questions over and over again and it looks like they are lacking the motivation. Suppose if we can help them to stick to their programmes it would be great.

There is no specific section for it here but this forum has been recently redesigned so I'm sure if this proves popular enough they may change it again.

Go luck with what you do. It will be interesting to read some of the posts.

Got to get out of here now, go home and enjoy my weekend. Have a nice one.
 
That's a very good point. I suppose when people get to this point there's a chance that they are already a little more committed.
There's a "Stages of Change" model that we use to map how far through a lifestyle change someone is. From other sites I use I notice similar trends to the ones I see in healthclubs. Eager eager eager then things taper out until they quit. Perhaps this site is different? We'll see.

If there is nothing specific here, perhaps someone could point me to the most appropriate place on this board for me to post info? Or is there another site with a more appropriate board?

TIA

TR

(PS, I generally train at 6am for the whole of Jan and Feb!)
 
Heh I don't know why I'm helping you cuz more people @ the gym means less equipment for me to use when I need to use it but since you're in the UK I'll let you in on a little secret and apologies to you hello_kitty for those who end up in your gym because of me. :eek:

You know the difference between those who quit after a couple of months and those who are here on these boards besides the length of time spent in the gym? The answer is positive reinforcement. Most people who sign up for a gym membership assumes that all they need to do is exercise a lot and they would lose weight or get lean. And for a while, that's exactly what happens despite a horrendous workout routine and diet but as I've learned here on the boards, the body adapts quickly but minds don't. They think how they lost so much weight, packed on so much muscle when they first began and expect it month after month and end up giving due to poor results. Obviously most people at the gym don't talk to each other much less ask each other for advice so without guidance or support, it's easy to say "I'm giving up because it's impossible".

As you can see, I'm fairly new to these boards myself, but unlike most of the people at the gym, I decided that I would first educate myself before getting serious at the gym. So like you I ended up here, reading, asking, learning what I could and I'm hoping(if this forum doesn't fail me) to see much better results than the average joe at the gym. Not only did the nice folks here saved me tons of money from buying useless supplements and equipment, they taught me how to eat and exercise. And if god forbid I see poor results I could come back for guidance and support, best of all, it's FREE!

If I hadn't found this forum, I'd still be running 2 hours a day on the treadmill and lifting weights for only a couple of muscles. Instead, I now have a proper full body routine 3x/week 2 cardio days with various workouts and 2 rest days. I'm spending a lot less time the gym and getting far greater results. Plus my eating habit has changed significantly after reading on tons of nutrition threads. Surpisingly I still have a lot to learn.

Basically if you want to keep members from leaving, you gotta give them more than just the access to the equipment. You need to give them hope when things turn sour, you need to give them advice and support. Fortunately it's just a click away. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top