Gym Membership

Today was, hopefully, the beginning of a new pattern of regular exercise at the gym. I have been a member for a little over two years now and I would have to say that my use of the facility has been sporadic. I usually will get into a pattern of going five days a week and then after about a month something will break the pattern. I don't really know why, but there will just be something that makes not going today easier if I didn't go yesterday.

All that being said, I have been there regularly enough to notice a pattern. I have been faithfully working away on the elliptical machine when someone comes in and signs up. You see them over the next month or so and then they disappear. I friend of mine told me that he bought a year membership and only went three times! I hope he got a great workout those times because he certainly paid a high price for them!

Why do we do that sort of thing? We pay for something and then don't get the benefit of it, even joke about avoiding it! If I knew the absolute answer to that I would write a book about it and make enough money to buy the gym. What I can say from my experience is that priority is critical. Just how high on the "To Do" list is working out? For me that translates into what I do first. In fact, I have found that when I determine to go to the gym first thing in the morning I am usually more successful in creating that pattern which all the exercise folks say is so important in improving overall health.

So, let me ask you, would you benefit from working out regularly? That is an important question, but the follow up is perhaps even more so, how high a priority will you set on this? Almost all of us would answer yes to the first question. How you answer the second question will determine if it is worth doing at all.