Channel 9 Interview: New Year’s resolutions to lose weight mean gains for Iowa gyms

Personal Trainer & Personal Training for the new year!

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Using the New Year as a jumping-off point for weight loss goals is common, so much so that it means a boost for businesses in the fitness industry.

Bryan Pettit works one-on-one with clients as a personal trainer at his business, GoldenTrainer Performance Studio in Cedar Rapids. He said working closely with a handful of clients means he doesn’t see a membership spike in January. However, there’s a beginning-of-the-year uptick when it comes to selling supplements.

“If I went pre-COVID bump, then I would say, generally there’s a 20 to 30 percent increase in business in kind of the January-March range over the rest of the year,” Pettit said.

Or at least, that’s how it was. Pettit added, since the pandemic, the old trend isn’t as straightforward.

“I’ve just noticed that a lot more people have become conscious of what their health means,” Pettit said. “And especially with more of, say, the flu, COVID, all those sorts of things that people have been suffering from over the last two years, a lot more people are looking for the remedies to keep them healthy year-round.”

Pettit said his January bump was less pronounced this year since people “started asking for supplements as Christmas holiday gifts.”

It still seems, though, that a new year means plenty of people are making new goals.

KCRG-TV9 visited the Planet Fitness in Lindale Mall Sunday, where Rachel Hazen was just starting the work of meeting a demanding goal. Her resolution: “To work out 360 days in 2023.” Like with Pettit’s customers, for Hazen, the “new year” began pretty early; she started on her weight-loss resolution all the way back in November, when she and her friend signed up for gym memberships together.