They're coming ……

Christmas is all too rapidly approaching ..

If you are anything like me you will consume too much dessert, spend more time in the sun than the sun block you lathered on allows for and tell yourself that you’ll start fresh in the New Year.

Now here’s the thing it’s not only you who waits for the New Year. If you are a gym regular like me you know that there is going to be an influx of new people taking all of “your” carparks, equipment and showers in the month of January.

It’s such a worldwide phenomenon that this “group” has been named “the New Years Resolutioners”

I have always been one of “those” people that can’t stand the “New Years Resolutioners” and I count down the days till Feb when 90% of them have decided that “this exercise lark” isn’t for them and they return to wherever they came from.

BUT a friend reminded me of something that quickly caused me to shove a needle in my over inflated head to allow the hot air to get out;

I was one of those Resolutioners that gym rats hate and more importantly I was a Resolutioner on more than one occasion!

I know first hand how hard it is to take that first step into a gym environment, because let’s be completely honest, most people who go to a gym regularly are “after” photos, they eat “well”, they don’t die after a 30 second jog on the treadmill and can even manage to go in the correct direction in a group fitness class (all whilst slightly glowing) while you are drenched in sweat after the warm up.

In fact, I still distinctly remember walking through the car park the first time I joined a gym and seeing a rotund person in front of me and thinking “Awesome! I’m not going to be the only fat person here”.

Little did I know that walking through those doors set me up for life. The people I met that day watched me leave school, get my first job, get married (twice) and pro-create. They’ve seen me at every size (at least three times) and have cheered me on during every endeavor I’ve taken on.

I literally grew up in a gym environment that instilled a strong sense of belief in myself. Whatever I wanted, I could have, I just had to put my head down and work for it.

So let’s spare a thought for the newbies;

Yes it’s going to be annoying to have some bloke doing bicep curls in the squat rack or watching the woman read the latest magazine whilst walking at .005 kph on the treadmill, but somewhere amongst them are the one’s who have drawn a line in the sand and are ready to make a change.

So in the coming year if you see an unfamiliar face in the gym, give them a nod and a smile, you never know, you may just be witnessing the start of something great!

Till next time