Fitness enthusiasts brace for New Year’s rush at Lethbridge gyms

Last year at this time, Julia Lennox’s New Year’s resolution was to start working out. Her parents bought her a gym membership, but she stopped using it after just two months.

“Do I want to?” she would ask herself after waking up at 5:40 am.

Levi Clampitt, who has been working out for 10 years and is familiar with the New Year’s crowd at his gym, says he doesn’t mind newbies crowding the floor but isn’t thrilled to see them quit either.

“Personally I don’t have a problem with it. I think the key is learning how to get them to stay,” Clampitt said.

Karina Brandt, who is a personal trainer at Action Conditioning gym in Lethbridge, says she is always doing what she can to encourage newcomers to not give up. Brandt says she eases her clients into a routine instead of trying to create a whole new lifestyle right away.

Brandt will also encourage other members who she does not personally train by remembering names and offering free advice.

“Even though they are on their own, they still feel like, ‘oh, people are paying attention to me and people notice when I’m here or not here.’”
One member from Action Conditioning began to work out two years ago because of a New Year’s resolution he had made with with wife. Although he still goes to the gym, he admits it was tough at first.

“If it was easy, everybody would be doing it,” he said.

Lennox, who is in university and working part time at a coffee shop, says she will try again this year and plans to adjust her schedule, in hopes of finding more sustained success.

“I just need to find something that fits into my routine of school and working which would just be later in the evenings. I think it would work out very nicely.”