Tom Pachal from Iron Image talks maintaining motivation and pursuing good fitness goals
Iron Image Barbell Club is a gym in Selkirk owned by locals Tom Pachal and Matt Evans. At the beginning of any year, they see a renewed interest in people making fitness goals and people focusing on health related priorities. The Selkirk Record caught up with Pachal to talk about making those goals stick, how there is still time to make new goals, and maintaining motivation.
“A lot of people make a lot of New Year’s goals and such, but it definitely can be a challenge to continue adhering to and especially, one of the biggest challenges right off the hop when someone makes a goal is just the framework of what the goal is,” he explained.
Some issues with goals can be that they are too vague to know if you’re headed in the right direction. Goals like –I want to lose weight, I want to exercise more, I want to be healthy— are great as umbrella goals, but Pachal invites people to get a bit deeper.
“A good way of building a goal is doing SMART goals. The SMART acronym is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time. So, it’s breaking down how the goal would be. So, instead of saying, maybe I would like to lose weight. It would be, I would like to lose five pounds by February 28,” he said.
If you want to make or need to tweak your 2026 goals, there’s still time to do that as it’s only January. If you have made some great goals but are feeling like the motivation is waning, Pachal also has some tips for maintaining that momentum.
“Maybe you were still off from that last week of holidays, so it’s easy. You have all that time to really commit to these things, but then life starts to reintroduce itself, and you’re back at work or school, and you’re busy, that motivation can definitely falter,” he said.
He says that getting accountability is something that’s very impactful.
“(Accountability helps) whether it’s through another individual going through the same process, or if you can partner up with somebody on a shared activity or task, or just even having just a trusted person that you know can check in with you and somebody that’s going to ask you and follow up,” he said.
Pachal explained that by taking greater goals and breaking them down into steps, it can also make it easier to stick to the plan.
“Do things in small chunks, it’s very easy to look at everything on a gross scale and say ‘I want to change all these different aspects of life,’. But interchanging all these variables at once can be quite a challenge. It’s very daunting, and there’s a lot to consider and think about, and it can be physically and mentally draining to try and juggle all these things, so focusing on maybe one avenue at a time, and making sure that is something successful (is important),” he said.
His final big tip is to have an honest conversation with yourself, and maybe even use a one-to-ten scale, asking yourself how confident you are that you can achieve your goal and then do the same with a one-to-ten scale of how motivated you are to achieve your goal. If you’re not on the higher end of both of those scales, then it might be a good idea to modify the goal in a way that puts you on the same path but makes you feel like you are more motivated and confident of your chances of success.
Iron Image itself does have some programs that help to support people’s goals.
“That’s the beautiful thing about being active and exercising is, there are countless ways you can do it, and it’s not a one-size-fits-all. Within our walls, we try to accommodate that. We have all different kinds of aerobic machines, so doing cardio exercises and resistance exercises, or it can be working with free weights or more moving around on the turf with a sled and doing that. (We have) group classes, spin classes, yoga, boxing, and we try to cater within our walls to everything. But we step outside of that, and we also offer just coaching services and consultation on that front if maybe the gym isn’t the right place for you, that’s totally okay. You can still live an active and healthy lifestyle without ever stepping foot in a gym,” he said.
He hopes that people find the activity that they most enjoy because if they absolutely dread the idea of activity, it’s really hard to stay motivated to continue.
As for Iron Image, this is a busy and exciting time of the year in the gym.
“I find it quite motivating. You feel good because you see new people coming in here, and you want to have that welcoming atmosphere so that they feel good. And then, your long standing members and other gym goers, they see new people and then it’s just about having that community where you can welcome in the others and help introduce people to this because it can be quite intimidating to step into a weight room for the first time. But most people, once they’ve been in here, done it a couple of times, and said hello to a few people, it’s like, ‘Oh, I feel great here. I feel welcome.’ There’s always somebody that’s willing to lend me a helping hand or answer a question,” said Pachal.
He encourages residents to get started on their New Year’s goals, even if we’re a few weeks in, because now is a great time.
“There’s no better time to start than now. There’s always a reason to set something aside, and say ‘I’ll get to it later,’ but every little bit counts. Just starting with something, as small as it may seem, it makes huge differences on your life. And, living a healthy, active lifestyle is just going to pay off dividends in the long run,” said Pachal.
