Recess vs. Paying Not To Go To The Gym

If you like paying for stuff you don't use - Join a gym!

Ok. Here we go. Picking a fight again.

A 2005 study by two California researchers, titled "Paying Not to Go to the Gym," examined nearly 8,000 gym members' attendance over three years. You might be surprised to learn that 85% of users who bought a monthly contract were spending more money than if they paid on a per-use basis. That's because most members paid more than $70 per month but only visited the gym 4.8 times each month. They paid about $17 for each visit.

How effective were those 4+ visit per month at actually transforming members' health? It's anyone's guess, but chances are a 30 minute workout on the treadmill and a couple of half-hearted bicep curls are hardly enough to make a dent in the number of calories found in daily latte, scone or other weekday indulgence.

Last month we kept it clean, but this month's fight could get ugly:



The 300 Pound Gorilla:
Gym Membership

Weighing in at an average of $50-70 per month, this hometown favorite is sure to pummel you with early cancellation fees when you realize that your 4 trips per month just aren't cutting the mustard.

The Contender:
Recess Personal Transformation Package

For the same price as a weekday latte and scone the Recess Personal Transformation Package will have you in fighting form. You'll meet more than one time every other week for a year with an expert at your home or office gym. By the time this fight is through you'll have tackled not just strengthening exercise, but also nutrition, cooking, lean body composition and calorie burn.

What is your vote? Would you rather contract foot fungus in a gym locker room or shower in your own bathroom? Weigh in with your answer in the comments below.

Corporate Gym Memberships - A Perk for the Healthy

Ask companies what they are doing to improve the health of their workforce and many respond that they offer a corporate gym membership.

In an era where growth of the cost of health care is surpassing nearly every other business expense, I can't help but feel like banging my head against the wall every time I hear this response. Here's why:

Poor Participation:
Chances are, people aren't using your corporate gym membership program. An article by Bradley Cardinal Ph.D. estimates that only 9-20% of employees take advantage of corporate gym memberships. Those who take advantage of the programs are often the ones who would have participated regardless of whether or not their employer subsidized membership.

Nationwide only 16% of Americans belong to a gym; however, more than 60% of Americans don't get enough regular physical activity. You do the math but the outcome is the same - for whatever reason most people don't like or are not able to go to a gym.

Ignoring Employee/Buyer Motivation (and reality!):
Hoping that offering a corporate gym membership will entice those same people to see the error in their ways and pick up the exercise habit is a bet with lousy odds.

A report in The Houston Christian Post cites an IHRSA official as saying "Despite the national obsession with fitness, about 85 percent of Americans do not belong to a gym, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. The most frequently cited reason for not joining a gym? A lack of time and intimidation, said Brooke Correia, the industry group's spokeswoman."

Raise your hand if you think offering a corporate gym membership is going to give people more time or help them feel less intimated by a gym. If you raised your hand you are a fool.

Not Rewarding Or Encouraging the Right Behaviors (i.e. increased fitness):
Even among the few who do go to the gym, statistics show they do not go enough to make a difference in their health. The Surgeon General recommends that Americans engage in a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week. Most health club members only make it to the gym 92 times per year and that does not speak to the quality or the duration of their visit - simply that they walked in the door of their health club.

As we all know many of those same clubs offer massage, tanning and other non-exercise activities - like standing around and talking to the tan, muscled up guy at the weight station to the right.


Return on Investment?
Those going to the gym are too few to impact your company's general health. And if those going are otherwise healthy (i.e. have fewer risks to reduce to begin with) then offering Corporate Gym Memberships is leaving a very substantial subset of your workforce progressing toward inevitably higher levels of disease risk as time passes.

What's next?
Keeping people's real motivations in mind, how can you make physical activity accessible and attractive to a larger portion of the working population?

1. Offer classes on-site as part of a larger multi-component wellness program that is convenient and appealing to employees.
   
2. Monitor attendance and market the program in a way that is attractive to high and medium risk populations.
   
3. Remove barriers to entry by emphasizing moderate intensity programming and comfortable, qualified instructors with experience teaching mixed level classes.
   
4. Award incentives to those with improved risk status, regular program participation, or, a combination of both.

Don't get me wrong, as part of a broader, multi-component corporate wellness program, offering credits for joining a gym can be a good way to reward folks who are already motivated to practice healthy behaviors. On the flip side, corporate gym memberships alone are not an adequate or even substantial substitute for an effective wellness program.