Slow and Steady

It’s hard not to want everything now. So much of our existence seemingly revolves around instant gratification. If I want to watch a particular movie I can have it playing on any of my devices in a matter of minutes. If I want a particular kind of food for dinner I can have it delivered to my house in thirty minutes or less. The more technology we create as a society, the less we collectively have to wait to get what we want.

This instant gratification has without a doubt prevailed in the fitness industry as well. It’s so easy to get into a mood one Saturday (or New Years Day), and announce authoritatively, “That’s it! I’m getting fit!” then create a scheduled calendar invite that recurs for six months and sign up for a one-year gym membership. How does that usually turn out?

For me, never well. My gym usage in this type of quick-fix, need-it-now fitness mindset resembles y = 1 / sqrt(x).

I would go every day for a few days, then every other day for several days, then once a week for several weeks, and then end up giving up. Rinse and repeat about once every year or two, and you get a picture of what fitness looked like for me in my late 20s through early 30s. When I looked at the real reason why my plans never worked out, I realized pretty clearly that you CANNOT “get fitness now” you have to take a slow and steady approach to be successful.

Throw away the “Get Thin Quick” books, and “30 Minute Abs” videos. Beachbody-by-whomever or fast and easy beach diets are also not productive and can actually be detrimental to your health. Don’t get sucked in by the flashy headlines, as any professional trainer will attest: the only way to make truly lasting progress (while avoiding injury) is to go slow and steady, and be deliberate with your actions one day at a time.

Our technology and overall concept was specifically designed to force this slow and steady fitness mindset in our customers. Newtown Fitness Club’s user interface has been designed in such a way that it is impossible to schedule out more than one week from now. It is not practical to hold an appointment for 6 months out to workout for an hour, schedules change, people are busy, fitness is not your life. This user interface also has the fortunate side-effect of forcing you to keep checking in and thinking about your deliberate goals of improving your fitness and overall wellness.

We are not a gym in a traditional sense. Traditional gyms depend on people getting into a mood one Saturday and say “That’s it! I’m getting fit!” and then not actually showing up consistently. The big-box gym industry relies pointedly on fruitless memberships of people who have good intentions but do not have a framework or motivation to allow them to keep a slow and steady rhythm with fitness. We flip the script completely with our billing model, we literally only make money if you’re in our spaces improving yourself. Our deliberate user interface and peaceful yet focused spaces cause our users to keep thinking about their fitness goals week after week and to keep trying new time slots to find their rhythm. Slow and Steady, deliberate progress.

Have you tried out one of our facilities? Take that first step. If you need further guidance, we have trainers listed on our site that would love to meet you and work out a lasting fitness plan with you to reach your goals. The trainers listed are vetted and independently-solicited business owners that will help you navigate to your end goals in a deliberate manner.