A gym owner has said he is refusing to sign new members in January for one key reason.
Clayton Leigh says he will ban fresh faces at his Ascendancy Fitness facility in Penketh, Warrington, though admits it is an “unconventional approach” to what is seen as the fitness industry’s peak. The 31-year-old boss says the decision to bar new members from signing up in January comes from a quality, not quantity, approach for his facility.
A surge of physical health commitments tied in with New Year resolutions is one of the reasons Clayton has stopped new members from signing up, but the gym boss says sign-ups increased over the last two months of 2024.
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Ascendancy Fitness had an influx of members in November and December
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Courtesy Clayton Leah / SWNS)
He said: “We thought this year there was a real chance we could get a lot of sign ups in the New Year – because even through November and December we just continuously had grown in memberships. That was a warning sign that in January we could have a significantly busy month and that would then just annoy all of our existing members who have been with us for so long.
“We wanted to try and break the mould. Try and take an unconventional approach and protect our existing members – that is the most important thing for us.” Clayton is keen on encouraging people to adopt healthy lifestyles at any time, not just for a trendy start to the New Year, the ECHO reported.
He added: “People want to lose a bit of weight in the New Year and make a pact to join the gym and then obviously you get an influx of members. When you make those resolutions in December – because you are making them at that point in time it is only natural that the motivation is not going to be there forever.
“That is why you have this big influx in January and it comes February and people tend to drop off a little bit. The only negative response people have is a case of ‘I was going to join but now I can’t’. For those people I say ‘well, you should have joined sooner’.” Clayton’s ban on new members in the New Year comes as a fellow fitness expert suggests there is a “common mistake” people are making in their New Year goals, The Mirror previously reported.
London-based Luke Worthington, 45, said: “New year is absolutely the most popular time for people to start trying to implement healthy changes to their lifestyles – the obvious reasons being it’s right after a period often associated with over-indulging, and also the psychology of January 1 being a line in the sand, and wanting to start a New Year in a positive fashion.
“While there is absolutely nothing at all wrong with this approach, and I’m in favour of any motivation all that encourages people to make positive changes, I do think it’s important to think long-term when it comes to any changes we want to make.”