Fitness goals should fit the person, says Sask. gym owner

Every time the new year rolls around, many people make a resolution to get in shape.

For people with that goal, a local gym owner is encouraging them to find the healthy lifestyle that works for them.

Pat Mallough, the owner of Iron Works Gym, said the new year can be a busier time for gyms, thanks to the annual desire to restart fitness — especially with COVID in recent years.

“You need to do something. Especially when people had to work from home all the time, it’s very difficult,” he explained.

Working out alongside other people is good for the mind, for people’s health and for coping with stress, Mallough said.

“It’s just healthy,” he summarized.

His Saskatoon gym has been in operation for the past 38 years. Mallough said trends can shift year to year with how many new faces enter his gym.

“I’ve noticed it’s not as big as it used to be but you still have people coming in,” he said.

With lots of choices in franchise gyms, Mallough takes pride in his offerings of more custom options to customers. Those include personalized training approaches for no extra cost to those who attend his gym and an emphasis on membership without a contract.

At Iron Works, Mallough said customers can choose how long they’d like to attend, as short as one month. He doesn’t require a year-long commitment up front or at any point. For him, it’s not about the payments, it’s encouraging people to grow into a new lifestyle.

He said the misconceptions and pressures of approaching fitness any particular way can be problematic — it’s about more than burning calories.

“Your body is your fitness,” Mallough said.

His advice for those with New Year’s resolutions: “Find something that fits you.”

That means looking at fitness as a way to custom fit the unique body of each person and creating goals and targets based on each individual.

“This whole New Year’s resolutions thing is cool because it’s the start of a new year. Everybody’s going to quit smoking, stop drinking, lose weight,” Mallough said.

He recommended starting with the change in fitness.

“Then we’ll take on one of those other tasks later on,” he said. “When you’re more fit and able, then it’s easier to take something away.”

His own hopes for 2022 are simple. After almost two years of adapting to closures, restrictions and other COVID-related barriers, Mallough is looking forward to what he hopes is a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Hopefully we rein in COVID and get back to some normality,” he said.