4 Ways to Keep Your Gym Members Coming Back After Day 1

New Year, new me is probably THE biggest self-improvement cliche, but for good reason. The chance of a fresh start (especially after the festive period) is compelling, and there's nowhere you're more likely to see that in action than in the gym in January, when an estimated 12% of all new sign-ups happen.

Great news for gym owners, right?

Well, yes and no. The problem is that enthusiasm for a stronger, fitter, faster, bigger, smaller, or healthier body can wane pretty quickly. One study found that 63% of new gym members stop attending within 3 months of signing up. While new sign-ups boost income for the first few months, the real trick is to keep them returning and renewing their membership long after their initial sessions.

🤷♀️Why do new members quit?

New members can quit for several reasons, including

❌A lack of time

❌ A lack of motivation

❌ A lack of results

❌ A lack of enjoyment

❌ Feeling isolated by or from existing members

❌ Intimidation from other members or general anxiety

Members will always come and go; even happy and satisfied ones may leave the area or choose other fitness options. The trick is to catch the at-risk ones before they disappear, especially those who can be saved and nurtured into loyal members.

🏋️♀️How to keep your gym members coming back

There are some obvious ways to ensure your members don't cancel their membership. 

💪An Xplor survey found that cleanliness was the third most common reason for members (both new and old) to quit.

💪Gyms should always strive to keep disruption to a minimum with faulty equipment repaired quickly or replaced. You will likely find goodwill quickly exhausted when people are queuing for machines or when maintenance isn't performed efficiently and effectively.

💪Opening times should reflect demand. Membership fees and contract length should reflect the facilities and services offered, the target demographic, and the location.

We could write extensively on this topic, but for this article, we're focused on retaining new members, specifically those who may have joined you in January 2025.

👋1. Create a welcoming first-day and onboarding experience

If you're experienced in the gym, it can be difficult to understand why some people find exercising in public intimidating. New members might have an injury or condition they're worried about aggravating. They may have had a bad experience with exercise or at a previous gym. Some people hated school PE or, perhaps, haven't exercised properly in decades. Stepping into a gym for the first time can be intimidating, even for those who have been exercising for years.

Front desk staff should be friendly and attentive to new members. A tour of the gym or induction with a staff member is a great way for members to ask questions and get a feel for the place. It's a good opportunity to help them achieve something tangible on that first day. It could be showing them how to use the treadmill or showing them how to book a class on the app. Of course, not all members will want or appreciate such close attention. Staff should get a feel for the level of support a new member may require or want and understand when to step back. This may be something to include in training.

Onboarding is a great opportunity to help members set realistic goals. One of the main reasons new members quit is a perceived lack of progress. They could have unrealistic expectations or goals misaligned with their current performance.

Motivation can also be a factor. While it may be enough to get someone through the door for the first few weeks, motivation is finite. New members will have to rely on something else to build their fitness habits—discipline, stubbornness, end goals, etc.

Performance tracking and goal setting can help. A lack of perceived progress can seriously undermine a willingness to exercise. This can lead to people quitting relatively early on. If your gym can help a member pick a goal and then give them a roadmap to achieving it, breaking it down into smaller elements and then showing them how to measure and record that progress, members may be more likely to stick at it. Sometimes, people just need to see that they’re moving the needle and heading in the right direction, even when results aren’t physically visible.

CrossFit News posted an interesting article about this. The author noticed that new people had joined the gym and started working out but left when they couldn't see any results. To the man watching, these people were improving. They were becoming physically stronger and completing exercises more quickly, but they gave up because they couldn’t physically see that positive difference. This led the article's author to build a performance tracker for cross-fitters, which ultimately helped members understand their progress more clearly while helping the gym retain more members.

Fitness trackers are a great example of how data can help people maintain an exercise routine. Xplorgym research suggests that 64% of gym goers under 35 think gyms should offer tech that helps members track performance, closely followed by 53% of those over 55.

It can be as easy as suggesting that members use the fitness trackers on their personal devices or highlighting ways to record their progress on apps or pen and paper. Gyms can also host beginner-friendly sessions or classes, especially in January and February, to help build confidence in new members. These could be marketed to existing members as taster sessions, giving people the confidence to try an indoor cycling class or weight training session. If you have some experienced members who enjoy meeting new people, you could also set up a buddy system in which older members take newer ones under their wing.

We'll talk more about social connection shortly, but it's worth trying to stay in touch with new members. Creating an email flow can be helpful. It can introduce them to your social media platforms, give them hints on exercise programs to follow, suggest classes they might like, or share nutrition plans. You can link to videos hosted on your website, app or YouTube and give them access to engaging or helpful content. You can build a relationship this way by supporting their fitness journey, and it also opens a channel of communication through which you can later advertise classes and challenges further down the line.

🤝 2. Build relationships through regular communication

Supporting new members and inducting them into the community can help build loyalty. It could be as easy as sending a follow-up message the day after their onboarding or thanking them for joining and signposting them to relevant links or services.

You could also build a welcome email flow, where scheduled messages introduce and inform new members of important information or educational articles.

Of course, some gyms may find it hard to offer a completely personalised service. It may depend on budget or staffing levels. Ultimately, it’s about making sure new members feel valued and included. You may find using gym management software or a customer management system (CRM) beneficial.

You can also encourage members to join social media channels.  Posts can be scheduled or outsourced to others so they don’t interfere with daily operations.

👨3. Create a strong sense of community

There are over 7,000 gyms and health clubs in the UK, so there's plenty of competition. However, standing out doesn't have to involve adopting a specialist niche, becoming sustainable or installing electricity-generating indoor bikes to attract and retain customers (although it can). You can stand out by building a community.

Culture is important. Whether it's the environment we live and work in or where we work out, people want to feel happy in the spaces they move through. Gyms are fortunate because they already have a like-minded audience and a foundation. The next step is to build this into a community. Your gym should become part of that individual's personality. For example, if you sold branded merchandise, would your members buy and wear it? Are they happy or proud to be associated with your gym?

Group activities have been shown to increase member loyalty. One Les Mills study found that gym members who participated in group activities were more loyal to the gym than those who exercised alone.

Social relationships help individuals form closer connections with the gym, similar to how work or school environments can form part of an employee or student identity. Classes, group activities, fitness challenges, and social events can all help members form social connections, which can become a support network for accountability and camaraderie. Community can also be about recognising and celebrating member achievements and milestones.

The community also starts at the top. The personalities, behaviours, and actions of the management, trainers, instructors, receptionists, and maintenance staff also play a role. Members should feel that the gym wants what is best for them, whether achieving their goals in group activities or individually. Getting member feedback can help build community. Listening to members enables you to garner important information and signals to them that you care about their opinions.

🔂4. Encourage consistency

We know it takes time to see results, but your new members may have different expectations. People often say it takes 66 days to build a habit, but this isn’t true. Habits can take much longer. Gym owners may be limited by budget or time, but rewarding consistency can be helpful. If a member achieves a certain number of classes, can they get a discounted or free treat in the cafe? Even just recognising consistency can help.

Some gyms use technology to provide incentives by gamifying the experience. Appealing to someone’s competitive nature (in a friendly way) can help them focus on something other than just physical effort.

Member retention is a vital component of a successful gym. Regular and consistent fees provide a stable income from which operators and managers can make improvements or long-term investments more tenable and attractive to stakeholders. January is a great opportunity to attract new members, but gyms must engage with these new sign-ups, nurturing them where necessary and then integrating them into the member community.

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A recent YouGov survey reveals that 50% of current and potential gym members consider sustainability when choosing where to work out. That's why more fitness centres are exploring electricity-generating equipment, allowing you to capture and convert the clean energy your members generate and use it to help power your gym or studio.

Find out how much your gym or studio could generate with our calculator or visit RE:GEN for gyms on the Energym website. 

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