50+ Lifestyles

Who Commits to Working Out and Sticking with It?

By Ray Porter
Owner and Head Fitness Consultant
Workout With Ray LLC

On any given day, I am in and out of the locker room many times. As one might imagine, there is always a great deal of banter back and forth between the regulars…some would call it “trash talk.” There are many days, because they all know I am a certified fitness instructor, when the guys ask me about training – kind of like when you see a doctor and ask for “free” medical advice. Anyway, the other day, a couple of guys came up to me and asked me how they might be able to lose some inches around their bulging mid-sections. Being the professional that I am, after eyeing their rotund mid-sections, I asked them about their food and drink consumption. They said what they ate and drank didn’t affect them as much as it might affect women, because they were at the gym every day working out hard and sweating it off. In fact, they said because of what they eat, they exercise the way they do -“much harder than any women ‘cause women just don’t commit to exercising like men,” and that if women do exercise “they don’t work very hard ‘cause they don’t like to sweat.” Hmmmm….

I immediately pointed out to these corpulent guys, that a majority of my clients were women. In fact my company’s demographics show the top categories of my clients are (in this order):

1.) 55+ year old women, and
2.) 34-44 year old women.
3.) 24-34 year old women.
4.) 55+ year old men.

Demographics aside, I have found women are much more likely to start and continue either personal individual training, or join a group/class setting. Women also want to know how to do the exercises correctly, and are willing to listen to instruction on how to do a particular exercise. In other words, women are more likely to ask for help, whereas guys just assume they know what to do in a gym because…well, “they’re guys.” Not only that, but I find women are much more likely to stick with training until they reach their goal. Case in point 1: I am the exclusive and official Trainer of the Miss Iowa program. I have been working with these young women contestants since last fall, and I have never seen more drive, determination and desire to be fit than with these young women. Case in point 2: I have a woman who is in my early morning workout three times a week. She began last September and has not missed one workout in seven months. She has lowered her blood pressure considerably, lost 12 lbs. and feels better than she has felt in years. And in a workout between her and any of the middle aged locker room guys, without question, my money would be on her…and oh yeah…she is 72 years young!

Ray Porter is Owner and Chief Fitness Trainer at Workout With Ray LLC. For more information go to www.workoutwithray.com.