Fitness Stats - 72% of People Don't Record Their Goals

I enjoy a good list of facts especially when there are some statistics thrown in there and even more so when they’re about fitness. When I saw this one from Anax Fitness I found some of the facts quite surprising.

72% of people don’t work to a training plan or record goals! I was really surprised. How can they tell if they’re progressing? How will they know if they’re getting fitter? It would find it really difficult to keep motivated about going to the gym … I can see why gyms get quieter after the rush of new year resolution memberships in January. 

I probably only go to the gym 2 or 3 times a week, no more but when I do I have to make sure I know exactly what I’m doing and preferably have it written down. If I have no plan, I drift aimlessly from machine to machine not really achieving much. If I write a plan before I go I work much harder as my visit has a point ... otherwise what’s to stop me pressing the off button on the treadmill when I get a little bit tired? It makes it so much harder to stay motivated!  

Source Anax Fitness

I spoke to some friends about this as I wondered whether being used to training towards races and training to maintain my weight (after being 5 stone heavier previously) has made me look at fitness in a different way. 

Some of their answers:

• “I go because I know it’s better than lying on the sofa.”
• “I have a step tracker but it’s more for information. It doesn’t make me do anything else I wouldn’t have done anyway.”
•  “I go on the machine for ages then it tells me I’ve burned 300 calories, my legs are battered and that’s only a packet of crisps worth of food I’ve earned. So I don’t bother now.”

It was really interesting to hear their views and to see how they differed from mine and interesting to see the difference between working from a targeted plan and not having a plan – doing it because it is something that you ‘should’ do. And it was very much this – they felt they SHOULD do it but didn’t really want to. 

I do my sessions because I know it will make my races easier (the races are the fun bits!) and that – a lot of the time - I will enjoy the sessions while I’m doing them and I KNOW I will enjoy the sense of satisfaction afterwards. It’s rare I don’t have a race planned in – I use these as mini goals to keep me motivated and to keep the momentum going ... and I’m lucky that I have a partner who has similar motivations and who understands mine!

What do you do? Do you have a plan when you go the gym? I’d be really interested to hear!

p.s. Anax Fitness emailed me a copy of the infographic as they thought I might be interested but I wanted to pop it on here that it was sent to me as it contains a link and advertising for their site and products :) Didn't take any money or anything ... just quite enjoyed the stats!