It was 6 p.m. and Veta Keys knew she was in trouble.
She had gotten stuck at work. Then rush hour traffic. So when she arrived at the Martin Luther King Jr. recreation center for her Wednesday night cycling class, she rushed straight from her car — without even changing — to the classroom.
No luck. She sat in a corner for a little while, then as high-decibel hip-hop blared, she dodged among the sweating spinners and left.
Happy New Year.
January is the month when gyms and health clubs are suddenly flooded with newbies, hoping to fulfill those resolutions and shed a few pounds. Good news for them and the gyms, which rake in membership fees. Bad news for the regulars, who now have to wait for equipment and fight for space in classes.
For three years, Michael Reynolds has faithfully gone to the gym five days a week. Like clockwork, he does two days of strength training and three days of cycling — rarely with any distractions.
That is, until the calendar turns.
“It’s a bit amusing,” said Reynolds, who works out at several LA Fitness locations. “I see people using equipment incorrectly, but I give credit for them just being there.”
Rebecca Colett, who has lost 103 pounds in the 18 months she has been going to the gym regularly, is a bit less tolerant — especially when she has to fight for treadmills, listen to cell phone conversations in class and endure glares when she stays on a machine too long.
“Amused isn’t the word,” she sniffed. But she knows she’ll outlast most of the interlopers. “By March they are back to eating French fries. … I will see them the same time next year.”
Newbies are not hard to spot.
They wear nice new clothes, usually something dri-fit and matching. Shoes are spotless. They carry notebooks to track their progress. Sometimes, they kind of wander. They get confused in class.
Kay Thabiti, general manager of an LA Fitness in Buckhead, said that, while there tends to be an increase in usage in January, bigger facilities hardly notice. Except between the magic hours of 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., that is.
“That is when we see the benefit of the new members,” Thabiti said. “And the sales department? We love it.”
Even specialized gyms — like CrossFit Atlanta, which focuses more on individualized training — feel it. Owner Dan MacDougald has seen a 25 percent increase in business this month.
“At bigger gyms, they try to get a whole lot of members at a lower price and pray that most of them don’t come,” he said. “We have fewer members and are more expensive, but we want everybody to come.”
He’s pragmatic, though. “Like all New Year’s resolutions, they are subject to be broken. I am pretty used to it by now. Things usually fall off in February and get back to normal.”
On his Facebook page, fitness instructor Reggie Allen posted a photograph of an empty studio titled “December 2013.” It was followed by a photo of a raucous crowd holding up a crowd-surfing woman, titled, “January 2014.”
Allen, who has been teaching since 2007, recently launched his own i.Robics program, which he teaches at studios and recreation centers, outside the gym environment.
“I used to teach at a gym where they piled the classes up in January, he said. “It was almost dangerous to be in there.”
Reynolds, meanwhile, makes the best of the influx of newcomers. He joined his gym in 2011, after a year of working out on his own. During that year he had dropped from 381 lbs. to a svelte 180 lbs.
In classes, he is the one in the back, pushing people to keep going. “I attempt to assist so that they don’t discouraged and quit,” he said.
It’s not just altruism: He enjoys the company, he said. “That’s why I often say encouraging words to them and try to keep them coming back.”
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