How to Keep the New Year Momentum Going

You’ve been riding the New Year’s resolution wave for a few weeks now, but as it does every year, that wave will be crashing soon. Many of your students’ resolutions are going to be distant memories come early February. Here’s how to keep their motivation running straight through spring.

BOOTCAMPS
Debbie Wolff, co-owner of Coral Springs’ Fusion Fitness and O2 Yoga with Andi Boddie, told us, “While we don't often see a huge drop off after the New Year, some people start to slow down a bit. We try to keep them involved with fitness or yoga challenges.” Oftentimes Wolff creates six- to eight-week-long boot camps that have students coming in two or three times a week for the duration of the camp. “The idea is that these camps create competition amongst the students and the biggest challenge is in the commitment to the time frame.” On a granular level,Wolff notes each camper’s before and after body fat percentage, and takes before and after photos. Winners are then posted on the studio’s website and social media accounts, and on message boards through the gym.

MASTER CLASSES
Another way to ward off the mid-winter stagnancy? One-off sessions like workshops or master classes. Wolff hosts many of these each year as a way to keep things fresh and new. “We’ll create workshops with master instructors, some out of state, like a recent one with Erik Paskel from Los Angeles. But we also do workshops in barre, Jivamukthi, meditation, P90XLive, Insanity, Tabata—just to name a few. Master classes are usually a longer class with an outside instructor or presenter, and we make it more of an event than a regularly scheduled class.”

GET INSPIRED
Yes, inspirational quotes are a bit silly, but there’s a reason that Pinterest has thousands of them getting pinned and re-pinned everyday—they actually work! Consider printing and posting some quotes that align with your messaging around your space to uplift clients. The doldrums that follow the holidays can be rough, so every little bit of inspiration helps. A few of our favorites:

“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you”
“A journey of a thousand miles began with a single step”
“Sore? Tired? Sweaty? Out of breath? Good...it’s working.”
“3 months from now, you’ll thank yourself.”

RECONNECT WITH STUDENTS
You should have a file on each member of your studio, so consider making sit-down appointments with all your students to assess where they are in their fitness journey. Have they lost weight? Have they gained? What are their biggest obstacles? How can you help? The face-to-face connection you’ll establish during the meeting will reinvigorate your student and provide you with data about how you can better meet your members’ needs. Members who feel anonymous when they enter your gym are also likely to feel no pressure to come back frequently—which bolsters the argument that you need to be connecting with your students whenever possible.