It’s a cliche that gyms get packed with hopeless newbies every January, doomed to cancel their memberships. Smoothing out demand might give them a fighting chance.
Fun take! But I don't think postponing sign-ups is the only hurdle from the gym's perspective - the modal business model seems to be that people who actually go to the gym are loss leaders for the people who sign up and never use the equipment, so making it easier for people to stick with the habit is in some sense a bad thing (or at least will raise costs for everyone) https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/12/17/371463435/episode-590-the-planet-money-workout
Fun take! But I don't think postponing sign-ups is the only hurdle from the gym's perspective - the modal business model seems to be that people who actually go to the gym are loss leaders for the people who sign up and never use the equipment, so making it easier for people to stick with the habit is in some sense a bad thing (or at least will raise costs for everyone) https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/12/17/371463435/episode-590-the-planet-money-workout
It's so hard to book workouts in January, this would help the regulars!