Spring in Evanston marks the end of a long winter and ushers in months of sunshine and warmth. Students and Evanston residents usually welcome the new season by spending as much time outdoors as possible-meaning indoor exercise becomes less appealing.
Every year Evanston gyms see decreased membership rates when spring arrives, managers say.
LA Fitness, 1618 Sherman Ave., is no exception.
“People get so excited about the sun that they want to be outside,” said Harpreet Saini, the gym’s general manager. “For the first couple of weeks, (membership) goes downward.”
At Northwestern, staff at the Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center, Blomquist Recreation Center and Patten Gymnasium notice a similar decrease in spring attendance, said Natasha Brown Moss, director doe fitness and recreation.
“We definitely see a difference in the amount of people, because it’s nice to get out when the weather’s nice,” Moss said. “The drop we see definitely corresponds with the temperature and having nice, sunny days outside.”
Moss said the best attendance months are January and February. Spring participation never equals that of the peak months, she said.
“People make New Year’s resolutions to exercise, so that is a really busy time,” Moss said. “But spring is never the same as January and February.”
At Edgewater Athletic & Swim Club, 1040 W. Granville Ave., even some of the gym’s most dedicated patrons attend less frequently during the spring, manager Gregory Cooper said.
“We get less of our normal members in because they spend all winter in here working out, so they really want to get outside,” Cooper said. “(We’re) losing our base members.”
Medill freshman Aja Edwards, who has worked for three years at Life Time Fitness in her home state of Minnesota, said her gym experiences the same problems. Edwards, who will work at the gym again this summer, said decreased membership in the sunny months has been a problem since she started working there.
“When it gets nicer outside, it’s a lot harder to pull in members, and traffic slows down,” Edwards said. “People get cooped up inside all winter long, and once the weather gets nice, they want to get out and enjoy it.”
Edwards said the gym has come up with new programs for the spring and summer to create an incentive for patrons. For example, the fitness center has created a running club that allows members to run outside in groups along previously mapped-out routes. A children’s program also encourages youth to be active outside.
“During Spring Break, we had field trips for kids,” Edwards said. “And even in the summertime, we have a summer kids camp where we bring them on field trips to the zoo and the water park. We definitely try to incorporate things outside.”
Still, Saini said LA Fitness doesn’t need to brainstorm new ideas, because in the past, members have always returned to the gyms after the first several weeks.
“People realize that the spring is going to be here for a while, and not just a week or two,” Saini said. “It lasts about three months, so they start coming back in again.”
