What we can learn from rats and heroin.

I love heroin. Whaaaaaat??!! No, I’m kidding of course. But I recently read an interesting study about heroin and rats. And the reality of drug use. Can’t imagine what this could possibly have to do with your gym or wellness center? With your members? With your retention rates? Then clearly you haven’t been reading this blog for very long. In fact I think I may have an answer to the billion (with a B) dollar question. Why is obesity still a problem when there are more clubs at more price points?

And that brings us to rats and heroin. And 1980. And a relatively unknown researcher by the name of Bruce Alexander. Bruce was a funny fellow. I don’t actually know that but if you like to spend your time playing with rats and heroin you either have serious intimacy issues or spectacular sense of humor. But I digress. Bruce had a theory. That it was a lot harder to get addicted to drugs than previously thought.

In 1980, we were just starting the “Just Say No” and “This is your brain on drugs …” campaigns. Bruce was not a popular guy at parties with other scientists. Mainly because he played with rats and heroin but also because his theory was making the anti-drug folks a little nervous.

But Bruce was a funny sort and not easily dissuaded. He insisted that getting hooked on drugs was a lot harder than we were led to believe…and getting off drugs was a lot easier. I’ll give the abridged version.

Bruce believed that “laboratory rats kept isolated in cramped metal cages, tethered to a self-injection apparatus, show only that “severely distressed animals, like severely distressed people, will relieve their distress pharmacologically if they can.” So far so good.

So Bruce created Rat Park. Basically this is the equivalent of rat heaven. It was beautiful. There was an abundance of food, friends, and balls and wheels to play on. And this is where things got crazy. The rats that lived in Rat Park didn’t get addicted to drugs. In fact even after they were force fed heroin for 57 days, they wouldn’t become addicted.

In other words…in the right environment, something as addictive as heroin wouldn’t work. This study is super interesting and I did a terrible job of explaining it so if you want to read more about the study, Google “Rat Park.”

So what does all this have to do with your gym? Just this. I’ve been inside thousands of gyms over the last 10 years or so. And aside from maybe a handful they all are basically the same. Sure you’ve got different colors and different layouts but very few of them standout. And you have to wonder, is this lack of design, lack of inspiration the reason people would rather go back home, sit on their couch and eat potato chips? Seems reasonable to me.

Which makes me think about the few people who have done something different and crazy. The first guy who comes to mind is David Barton. If you can’t remember if you met David, then I assure you, you have never met him. He is not forgettable and neither are his clubs.

The other guy that comes to mind is Chris Clawson from Life Fitness. I’ve had a few opportunities to talk with Chris. Most recently we interviewed him for our podcast series Gym Class: Heroes of Fitness. You should check it out. But Chris (along with a whole slew of engineers ) were the guys behind the SYNRGY360 which I think is the Rat Park equivalent of  balls and wheels. It makes people want to come to your gym. It’s adult recess. They realized the enemy was the potato chip maker and they needed to come up with a WOW factor that would encourage people to get off their couch and come into your club.

It not only changed the way people work out. It changed the way your gym looks. (For full disclosure I was not paid or asked to promote anything from Life Fitness however I am open to bribes so if other manufacturers want to pay me I am completely open to it)

The point of this is our industry is still young. It’s still changing. The Potato Mafia has had years to perfect their craft. To make the perfect Pringles container. But we will catch them. Folks like Chris, or David, or Pat, or Paul (All people you’ll hear on Gym Class: Heroes of Fitness) are going to make a difference.  So head over to iClubs, and catch what some of these visionaries are saying.

Either that or they are going to take their considerable talents to make a better Pringles container. 

By Hossein Noshirvani