Ban New Years Resolutions!

rs

Ok, this is going to be wildly unpopular but I know some people will agree with me.

Generally, I hate new years resolutions because almost no-one ever keeps them. In fact, I think that most people know they will not keep them before they even make them. It's just generally accepted that everyone make new years resolutions and everyone fails to keep them. So what's the point?

I mostly hate news years resolutions because of what happens at new years resolution time.

The gym is fecking PACKED!

There are two culprits here.

The first is the person who has a gym membership but never uses it. They signed up months ago and trained for a few weeks and have not been seen since. These people show up Jan 2 to Jan 6. and last about 3 - 4 weeks.

The second is the "lets join a gym in the new year and get fit" people. These people show up a little later. Usually about mid January. You will see them signing up over the next few weeks. They also tend to last about 3 - 4 weeks.

So for the first six weeks of the year I (and all the other gym regulars) have to deal with a packed gym. This pisses me off for two reasons.

1. at least 95% of these people obviously give up after a few weeks. I mean, if you're going to bother signing up and spending the cash, at least be serious about doing the work. I have a low enough opinion of the average person's will power, please don't reinforce it.

2. Generally, I believe that I have much more of a right to use the equipment than someone who is going to give up in a few weeks time. So why the hell do I have to wait for them. They'll just be getting in my damn way for six weeks and then they'll piss off.

I have always believed that regular gym users should be allowed to (physically) throw new years resolution people off a piece of equipment that they wish to use.

Now I'm all in favour of having people join the gym and generally lead a more active and healthy lifestyle. But not all at the same damn time!

If you are going to join a gym for the new year, either do it seriously and with a view to sticking with it, or save your money and take a nice weekend break to somewhere warm.

BTW: If you have recently joined a gym and you notice some fit people looking very impatient and irritated while they are waiting for you finish on something, perhaps I've shed some light on this. And please, stay the hell out of my way for the next few weeks

Brian Houlihan

Hello,
I don't do NYR's. I have all year round one's

tunney

Same here, my "new years resolutions" are really a set of goals that I want to achieve for the coming year -target times for events, new pbs, longer distances, etc etc. They're attainable but if I want to achieve them I have to work at them.

Things like "I'll go to the gym 4 nights a week" are just stupid, wheres the motivation? Wheres the goal? Without goals how can there be a sense of achievement(or failure)?

The other thing that annoys me about the nyr people is that they do all the exercises wrong and then you know that they will get injured, but if you try to tell them otherwise they generally tell you to f*ck off.

Genghis

LOL! Notwithstanding the overcrowding issue, I love seeing the NYRs.

New virgin-white runners, unworn tracksuits, designer T-shirts and matching shorts, they take a 10 minute stroll on the treadmill followed by five minutes on the bike, then a mess around with the weight machines, and 100 ab-stretches to 'tone-up'. Then its downstairs for a splasharound in the pool, a half-hour in the jacuzzi and a quick visit to the sauna. All done, the new me for 2004.


Tips for avoiding NYR gymers:

1. NYRs tend to come to the gym straight from work, with a meticulously prepared (brand-new) gym-bag, complete with the full complement of personal grooming products, fresh towels, and energy drinks. One thing they never think of is having anything to eat after lunch (for some, after breakfast - skipping meals and going to the gym is a fast-track sure-fire way to the new me!). Along with dwindling stamina, an over-ambitious session, and the lack of any meaningful food, NYRs have headed for the hills (or at least the showers) by about 8 O'Clock.

-> If you can, leave your session til after 8pm.

2. Mondays tend to be busiest, as this is both the start to the week, and the end of the weekend. Without any sort of a training plan in their head, each successive Monday in January becomes a mini-Jan 1, with new resolutions being made 'I must go back to the gym today'.

-> Make this your regular rest day / go for a run /cycle outside instead.

3. Wednesdays and Fridays follow as the next most busy - a lot of NYRs who resolve to seeing the gym again that week usually won't go on consecutive days (except the hard core, who, hell bent on going every day, injure themselves before the end of the month anyway).

-> Tuesdays and Thursdays are less busy.

Note: Fridays can also be relatively quiet - despite their best intentions, Friday evening drinks after work cannot be avoided.

4. Weekends are not particular favourites with NYRs - for many of them, gym work is an extension of the day job, and if they ain't going to work they ain't going to the gym. Besides, having done a full-on session on Monday, spent a good hour in the Sauna, along with another 200 Quik-tone ab-stretches Wednesday, and Friday (well lets not include Friday this week, Cynthia in accounts was leaving work, and a few of us organised drinks), not even counting the good intentions for next week, the hard-working NYR deserves a couple of rest days.

-> Weeknds are quieter. Mornings and evenings at the weekends are even better.

5. Not having been in enough water to submerge their entire bodies and allow for bodily movement in many years / living memory / their entire life, NYRs find a natural affinity with the pool. Some of them ambitiously join the lane swimmers (furiously splashing up the pool, catching their breath at the end, then splashing back down again, clipping, chopping and colliding as they go - and cursing themselves for not buying goggles along with everything else they picked up at the sports store). Others prefer to ease back in to swimming with widths (avoiding those pesky lane swimmers, eh!), while others still prefer to experiment with flotation and relative weightlessness, splashing about like something they've seen over Christmas on the Discovery Channel.

-> If you want to lane swim early morning weekdays and weekends are your only option.

6. The sauna and steam room attract more and more NYRs as the month goes on - as their January 1 ambitions prove a little too taxing in reality, long sessions spent 'sweating it out' in here help make the transition to packing it in altogether by January 31 somewhat more guilt-free.

-> Steer clear of the sauna and steam room until February; leaving these out of your routine won't impact on your own routine anyway.

7. Finally, as you curse the NYR you haven't been able to avoid, do bear in mind: NYRs refuse to compromise at the beginning - many of them pay upfront for a full year, believing that, in putting their money where their mouth is will create a real commitment to their fresh resolution. 12 visits in and they are done. Therefore, NYRs kindly subsidise your overuse of the facilities for a full year, without troubling you again from February until next January! ('cept of course for the week before they head to the Med during the Summer)

ur mentor

Gengis. I'm with you on this one.
Without NYR's there would be a huge increase in membership costs or less gym's around. give them a big welcome, Tell then it takes 5-6 years to look/get fit and be sure to tell them to bring friends to keep motivcation up.
Once they are all in they will meet to go to pub etc and you can get your gym back. The gym i use cost over €2ml to build plus about 500k to fit out. I have often been in it on my own. sub is €500 per annum. What a deal!. long may it last.

tunney

Another thing I noticed last night about these NYR people is that they aren't used to communal showers. You can always spot a nyr as they are the ones wearing boxers in the showers

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Easygainer

LOL - I've around a hundred gym rat tendencies in an email I got - I'll post it here in a while.

The funniest is when you're lifting and they expect to be able to bench nearly 300lbs as well so they load up the bar and get caught under it. Even funnier are the chest and biceps guys who train God knows how many times a week training only bench, cable crossovers and biceps curls. It's so funny to watch them!

I used to be a member of UCD so predictably that suffered NYR syndrome around October. Even worse it was like a house of mirrors so they'd do curls right beside the mirror to try and see any vascularity - lol.

I find Fridays to be quite busy as people seem to thing the pump from training chest/biceps will last a) the whole night or b)the whole weekend.

Ah well, w/o them there wouldn't be too many people to laugh at in the gym - except that annoying instructor who ALWAYS tries chatting up girls. :rolleyes: