“The most important key in achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move.” – John Wooden
According to the Center for Disease Control, over two thirds of Americans are classified as overweight, with a great percentage of them being considered obese. Given this, only about twenty percent of Americans belong to health clubs. Why is this? What is stopping people from working out? The point of this post is to point out a major misconception about this issue.
Myth: Overweight People Don’t Believe Exercise is Good for Them
The George Washington University Medical Center conducted a study last year that debunked this myth. It said that overweight people actually are more likely to think that exercise improves self image and overall health versus normal weight people.
Truth: Overweight People Are Intimidated By The People In Health Clubs
In the same study, they found that overweight people (especially women) tend to be more embarrassed and intimidated by working out with people who are more fit than them. It also said that they were put off by the salespeople as well. It said that overweight and normal weight people felt the same about complicated equipment and exercising with younger people. So obviously, the problem is the negative self image of the overweight person. They feel as though they are being compared to the fitter person.
The Solution
So as it turns out, laziness isn’t the reason people don’t workout. It’s the negative self image that overweight people have and the health clubs perpetuate. It amazes me when I see the turnover rate these large chain gyms have. The average health club in the United States renews 13% of it’s members!! 13% ?! These clubs don’t do a good job of taking care of people after the sale. The staff at these clubs are so focused on selling memberships that, once they sell one, they forget about that person and move on to the next. If the health clubs focused on taking better care of their members, maybe that negative perception wouldn’t be there.
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