Captive market

GYM enthusiasts are a captive market if the gym is located at a mall. They will always shop and eat at the mall before and after their workout. And they’ll be shopping for workout attire and exercise equipment. If, say, the gym has 1,000 clients, that’s ka-ching ka-ching!

I remember when I was still enrolled at a taekwondo gym along Corrales Avenue. A chicken resto happened to be right next door so that’s where we’d have dinner right after. Those were high-carb days and that resto’s tapioca was then my favorite dessert. So, whatever calories I lost doing taekwondo aerobics were regained in that dinner.

That gym was not even inside a mall. The biggest stores nearby then were Gaisano and Ororama which were not exactly walking distance from the gym unless walking to both stores was part of the daily exercise. But taekwondo aerobics had our tongues hanging out the window in between the kicks and the punches, who had the energy to walk anywhere right after? All I could do was walk to the chicken resto.

A taekwondo gym in uptown Cagayan de Oro now offers lessons for the moms of their students, but I’m thinking, hmmm, I’m more like the grandma already. Hehe.

Exercise is a test of one’s stamina, persistence, and determination. It should be something one enjoys doing otherwise each second, each minute, each hour will be a struggle.

Exercise is not for weight loss, though. It’s for toning and gaining muscles. And to help the body release endorphins, the happy hormones that will hopefully help the exerciser face the day’s challenges.

Life can be difficult, depending on how one looks at it. Thus, the need for happy hormones to have a semblance of normalcy amidst the chaos.

Some friends have been touring CDO and nearby towns and provinces through biking daily. Others have been training for and joining marathons and triathlons and traveling as far as New York for such events.

It always starts with that single step. Some walking here, some jogging there, some running everywhere.

And even some planking while in bed after waking up in the morning, and Zumba in the afternoon with YouTube as the coach. Eventually, YouTube won’t be enough, and the wannabe exerciser will start to look for a gym, hoping to find one that will make him feel at home. He then looks for a friend who happens to be a member of the gym he’s interested in if it allows members to invite guests.

If he discovers he likes the gym and the workout he has experienced as a guest, then the next step is to enroll. But before he decides on that, he has to make sure he can commit for a year because there’s some kind of contract. Besides, without the one-year commitment, how can he see his progress?

Here’s another probable discovery: the gym’s smart scale may be more advanced than the one at home. If, say, my age per the home’s smart scale is 38 years old, at the gym, it’s three years younger than my actual age. I’d like to believe that my smart scale is the accurate one. But reality tells me it’s wishful thinking. Haha.