You don’t belong here.

Why “Lack of Motivation” Is the Wrong Diagnosis for Exercise Dropout

If you work in fitness long enough, you hear the same explanation over and over again.

“They just weren’t motivated.”
“They lost motivation.”
“They didn’t want it badly enough.”

It sounds neat. Logical. Comfortable, but it’s wrong.

When people stop exercising or disappear from a health club, motivation is usually blamed because it’s the easiest answer. It places responsibility firmly on the individual and lets the business off the hook.

But as Resistance to Exercise: A Social Analysis of Inactivity by Mary McElroy makes clear, inactivity isn’t a personal failure. It’s often a social response.

People don’t drop out because they suddenly become lazy. They drop out because exercise stops fitting safely, comfortably, or meaningfully into their lives.

Once you understand that, everything about retention starts to look different.

Motivation Isn’t the Starting Point We Think It Is

The fitness industry loves motivation. We build campaigns around it. Posters shout about it. January is practically sponsored by it.

But motivation is emotional. And emotions fluctuate.

Someone can feel motivated on Sunday night and completely overwhelmed by Wednesday afternoon. Work stress, poor sleep, family responsibilities, low confidence, illness, simply a change in the weather can wipe motivation out instantly.

Expecting motivation to carry someone through a long-term behaviour like exercise is like expecting adrenaline to power a car engine.

It works briefly. Then it burns out.

Health clubs often assume that if people really wanted to exercise, they’d find a way. McElroy challenges this assumption by showing that many people actively resist exercise not because they hate movement, but because of what exercise has come to represent.

Inactivity Is Often Resistance, Not Apathy

One of the most powerful ideas in McElroy’s work is that inactivity isn’t passive. It’s not “doing nothing.” It’s doing something very specific. For many people, avoiding exercise is a form of self-protection.

Think about the new member who walks into a gym and immediately feels out of place. They don’t understand the equipment. Everyone looks confident. Music is loud. Mirrors are everywhere. No one makes eye contact.

That person isn’t unmotivated. They’re uncomfortable. So they leave early, or they come back less often. Others just stop entirely. From the outside, it looks like lack of motivation. From the inside, it feels like relief.

When Exercise Becomes a Moral Test, People Push Back

Modern fitness culture doesn’t just promote movement. It promotes values.

Discipline. Commitment. Toughness. No excuses.

Exercise becomes tied to character. If you train regularly, you’re “good.” If you don’t, you’ve failed in some way. McElroy points out that when behaviours are moralised like this, people often resist them not because they don’t care about health, but because they don’t want to be judged.

In a health club context, this shows up all the time.

Members apologise for missing sessions.
They say “I’ve been bad.”
They avoid staff after a break.

That’s not a motivation problem. That’s a shame problem.

And shame is a terrible retention strategy.

Why Gyms Can Feel Like Identity Minefields

Exercise spaces quietly communicate who belongs and who doesn’t.

Look around most gyms and ask a simple question:
“Who does this place feel like it’s designed for?”

Young?
Already fit?
Confident?
Experienced?

If someone doesn’t see themselves reflected in staff, marketing, class names, or social norms they often decide early that the space isn’t for them. McElroy highlight’s identity threat as a major driver of resistance. When exercise threatens how someone sees themselves, avoidance becomes a logical choice.

Think of it like this, a beginner joins with good intentions. They try a class where everyone seems to know the choreography already. They feel clumsy and exposed. No one checks in afterward. They don’t come back. Not because they lack motivation but because the experience told them, “You don’t belong here.”

Surveillance Kills Confidence Faster Than It Builds Discipline

Gyms are full of subtle surveillance.

Mirrors.
Progress charts.
Public weigh-ins.
Performance leaderboards.
Staff “watching” the floor.

For confident exercisers, this feels normal. For new or returning members, it can feel like being constantly assessed. This visibility often increases anxiety, especially for people who already feel unsure about their bodies or abilities. This is why some members prefer empty gyms, quiet corners, or machines tucked away from the main floor. They’re not avoiding effort. They’re avoiding exposure.

Health club example

A member only visits at off-peak times. Staff keep encouraging them to “come when it’s busy better atmosphere.” From the member’s perspective, busy equals uncomfortable. Retention improves when clubs respect that reality instead of trying to override it.

Prescriptive Messaging Undermines Autonomy

“You should train three times a week.”
“You must hit 10,000 steps.”
“You need to push harder.”

Evidence suggests that controlling language often triggers resistance, even when the advice is technically sound. People want choice. Ownership. Flexibility. When exercise feels imposed rather than chosen, motivation doesn’t increase, it collapses.

Instead of saying: “You need to attend more often to get results.” Try say “Let’s find a routine that fits your week and feels realistic.” This creates a completely different psychological impact.

Early Experiences Matter More Than Big Goals

Most dropouts happen early. Very early. Not because people suddenly lose ambition, but because early experiences create friction.

Too much information.
Too many options.
Too much intensity.
Too much pressure.

Research supports the idea that people resist when change feels overwhelming or misaligned with their lives. A new member receives, a full programme, a nutrition plan, app notifications, class schedules and goal-setting forms.

It’s meant to help. Instead, it overwhelms. A better approach? One simple visit rhythm. One familiar activity. One positive interaction. Consistency grows from ease, not ambition.

Reframing Retention: From Motivation to Meaning

If lack of motivation isn’t the real issue, what is? Meaning. People stick with exercise when it, feels safe, fits their identity, respects their autonomy, reduces social risk and becomes predictable. Just remember that inactivity makes sense when exercise environments don’t.

What Health Clubs Can Do Differently

This isn’t about lowering standards or dumbing things down. It’s about removing unnecessary barriers. Health clubs that retain members well tend to, normalise low-confidence beginnings and create activities that build confidence and competence. They focus on celebrating attendance, not intensity. Provide new exercises with guidance without pressure, use language that invites, not demands and designs and builds spaces that reduce exposure.

Simple changes that work

There are a number of simple things that can have a big impact. Staff greet without interrogating, not we haven’t seen you in a while, just good to see you, how are you?  Then rather than asking how are you getting on focus on building confidence and comfort, not just progress. Build on that with programmes prioritise routine before results and forget those call asking why haven’t you been in.

Stop Asking “Why Aren’t They Motivated?”

Start asking, what made this feel hard? Where did friction show up in your attempts to visit
and when did exercise stop fitting their life? When you do that, dropout stops looking like a personal failure and starts looking like valuable feedback.

And that’s where real retention work begins.

Final Thought

People don’t resist exercise because they don’t care. They resist because exercise, as it’s often presented, asks too much too soon, from people who already feel exposed, judged, or unsure.

Inactivity isn’t a lack of motivation; it’s a response to life. And if health clubs learn to listen to that response instead of blaming it, retention stops being a mystery and starts becoming a design choice.