Inside the Club: Pill Popping Replaces Exercise

In a recent article by Gretchen Reynolds, published by The New York Times, she discusses two new studies suggesting that we may one day be able to achieve the benefits of exercise in pill form.

The idea of being able to get physical benefits of exercise by popping a pill has probably been a mild fascination of most Americans. No longer would you actually have to get up off the couch and lower your caloric intake, but instead you could simply pop the pill with your daily Big Mac.

For the fitness industry, such pills could potentially be devastating. However, there will never be a pill that will provide such sensations as adding distance to a run, pressing more weight, socializing in a Group X class or interacting with a personal trainer.

Although, if clients aren’t sure that they are actually receiving benefits from their membership at your club, a pill will be just as good. Additionally, if the most social interaction that occurs at the club is someone scanning their card, they are just as likely to pop a pill.

For those of us that have been involved in physical fitness for the majority of our lives, it’s almost impossible to imagine life without exercise. I for one, already sit too much throughout my day. If I didn’t enjoy physical fitness, and could take pill that would provide me with good health, I could see myself moving from my couch in my home, to my chair in my office and exercising my brain on how I could get from point A to B without having to walk to my car — maybe they’d generate a pill that would allow me to levitate for short distances.

In the studies highlighted by The New York Times, scientists had injected a protein, REV-ERB, “which is known to partially control animals’ circadian rhythms and internal biological clocks.”

The mice that were overweight and received the injections started using greater amounts of oxygen and expending 5 percent more energy than the other mice. However, the treated mice weren’t moving around more than the other animals. Actually, the study highlighted that the treated mice were actually less active in many cases. “The drug, it seemed, was providing them with a workout, minus the effort.”

Although, an exercise pill might be a while off, it’s a great reminder of what we must do as an industry to ensure people fall in love with exercise in the club. It reinforces why personal training, Group X and small group classes are so vital to the industry.

People will take the easy way out whenever possible. However, people need community, whether they realize it or not, and if they consider your club part of their community, they will be more likely to choose sweat and exercise over pill popping.

Tyler Montgomery is the editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com.