We all see the gym become progressively quieter in the second and third months of the year. According to a 2023 poll from Forbes Health, just under one in 10 people, or 8%, said their new year resolutions only lasted one month, while 21.9% reported two months. 22.2% reported their resolutions lasted four months, and only a small 1% said they managed to keep up with their goals for 11 or 12 months.
Why do people quit the gym? In the past, I remember quitting the gym when life got too busy, and I was traveling a lot. Looking back, I wish I had made more time to prioritize gym sessions and working out in different ways because that’s when I probably needed it the most to keep up with my fast-paced schedule. Strengthening my body with exercise could have helped me keep up with the demands of frequent travel.
We see more and more people shifting to at-home workouts due to the convenience, privacy, comfort, accessibility, and affordability. At the same time, many of us get caught up in the busyness of the day-to-day and life changes, and the gym and working out anywhere takes a backseat. Recent data from Pure Gym in the United Kingdom reveals the top reasons why people quit the gym.
Recent data
Pure Gym released new data about people’s gym habits.
The data reveals the top five reasons why people quit the gym:
- 30% or almost a third of people had canceled their gym memberships because it was too expensive.
- 20% or 1 in 5 adults said that their personal circumstances changed, for example, becoming a parent or feeling too tired and stressed.
- 15% reported that they just didn’t have the time to go anymore.
- 7% didn’t like the experience.
- 5% said that gyms were only open at times that weren’t convenient for their schedule.
Additional insight
The Pure Gym data also revealed that:
- 17% of people in the United Kingdom are currently gym members.
- Men are more likely than women to be gym members, with 18% of men surveyed compared to 15% of women.
- 17% of people plan to join a gym within the next calendar year, which amounts to approximately 12 million people in the UK, according to Pure Gym.
- 20% of men are planning on joining a gym within the next year, compared to 14% of women.
How long do people stay at the gym?
It varies how long people stay at the gym depending on their goals, schedule, fitness level, and other factors. The recent data showed that the average gym visit lasts 1 hour and 9 minutes.
Concluding thoughts
It’s clear that people quit the gym for various reasons, including a lack of time and the price of memberships. Things like more affordable memberships, longer opening hours, and shorter workout sessions could draw more people to the gym; that being said, since the pandemic, we’ve seen an uptick in at-home workouts and remote personal training.
It’s up to you if you’d like to work out at the gym, at-home, or both. You won’t really know if you like the gym or not until you give it a try on multiple occasions at various times. You might find that powering through that one-hour morning gym sesh revitalizes you, or maybe you like to blow off some steam at the gym after work or on a weekend where you have access to lots of different machines and personal trainers and gym staff. There are plenty of benefits to working out at the gym and at home.
