This is why you don't go to the gym

I came across a really interesting article the other day and I decided to share it with you (Derek Thomson, The Athlantic)

Every January millions of us make a New Year's resolution, let's do something about this extra belly I am carrying! And they make the unfamiliar urban trek, they go to the gym! New membership rate is rising about 30-50% in the first weeks of they year. But by the April many of these new members will be only carryig membership cards in their wallets and they will not be used by far that often.

This is what economists teach us about the fitness industry
We can't keep our own fitness promises for the same reason that addicts are addicts and Congress can't pass deficit reduction"
People are just too optimistic about their promises to work out. One study called: " Paying not to go to the gym" just proved that. People were offered either to pay $10 every visit or $70 for months. More chose the monthly contract and went to the gym only 4 times! The result? People pay 70% more per visit than they would have if they paid as you they go.
Economists called this phenomenon "hyperbolic discounting". Given the choice between small/soon rewards versus larger/later benefits, we'll take the former. Hyperbolic discounting helps to explain why Congress can't pass deficit reduction, why drug addicts stay addicts, why debtors don't pay off their bills, and why you keep telling yourself that the right day for exercise is always "tomorrow."

Does my gym want me to work our more?
PROBABLY NOT.

Gyms make most of their money from two sorts of people: 1) Absentee members and 2) super-users who pay not only the monthly fee but also for the add-ons, like trainers and classes, all the way down to the whey smoothies.

"Commercial health clubs need about 10 times as many members as their facilities can handle, so designing them for athletes, or even aspiring athletes, makes no sense. The winning marketing strategy, according to Recreation Management Magazine, a health club-industry trade rag, focuses strictly on luring in the "out-of-shape public," meaning all of those people whose doctors have told them. The entire gym, from soup to nuts, has been designed around getting suckers to sign up, and then getting them mildly, vaguely exercised every once in a long while, and then getting them out the door.
In January, our cup of willpower overfloweth. But by June, the odds that you've kept your New Year's Resolutions falls to under 40 percent. On the bright side, your flabby willpower means open weight machines for other gym members. Our laziness isn't good for our fitness, but it just might be good news for the fitness industry.

What are your thoughts? Are you one of those who pay gym membership and hardly ever use it?