Your members are more likely to stick with their exercise routines and remain in membership if they have tangible, immediate reasons for being physically active.

This is the conclusion of a year-long study into the exercise habits of 226 healthy women aged 40–60, which found that activity levels were notably different depending on why they claimed to be exercising. Led by Michelle Segar (michellesegar.com), the study was published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Even though all research subjects equally valued their own personal goals, some exercised far more than others. The most exciting finding was that those whose goals related to enhanced quality of daily life – lower stress, better sleep, increased vitality and so on – exercised 34 per cent more than those with weight/appearance goals. They also exercised 25 per cent more than those with ‘current health’ goals such as lowering cholesterol, and 15 per cent more than those with healthy ageing goals.

“Immediate payoffs motivate behaviour better than distant goals,” concludes the report. Although some members might be willing to delay gratification in pursuit of a longer-term goal, for many people behaviour change will be brought about most effectively by more instant reward.

While the goals studied in the report were specific to that group of mid-life women, the principles are transferable: there are many reasons to exercise, and those most often quoted won’t necessarily be the ones that translate into sustained activity. The key question is: do you spend enough time investigating what really drives behaviour change among your members, and are you using these insights to inform your decision-making and marketing?

Weight loss remains a key message for many gyms, for example, while the fitness sector as a whole is increasingly promoting a health agenda. But although both these goals featured strongly in the study, Segar believes this is because the women had been ‘socialised’ into it by the media: they perceived them to be the key benefits of exercise simply because they had been repeatedly told they were. The problem was that these goals didn’t translate into sustained participation.

Segar suggests that, if members can be ‘socialised’ into valuing more immediate goals, it could lead to a significant uplift in activity. She therefore proposes that exercise be ‘rebranded’ to focus on the goals that inspire more regular participation.

For this to happen, we need more information about what motivates a wider range of people – something Segar and her colleagues are looking into. The next step will be changing the way we market exercise, so we ‘socialise’ existing and potential members with different perceptions of what it delivers and encourage them to adopt goals that have been proven to drive more regular, sustained participation. We’ll also need to measure and analyse the impact of these changes.

This is a huge project, but if – as Segar’s initial research suggests – the difference in activity levels can be as much as 34 per cent, it’s a venture worth undertaking.