Alan Best

Alaska Club operations manager Alan Best, who has worked for the gym the last 20 years, has seen his share of New Year's resolution exercisers in Fairbanks.Best said he can usually determine whether someone will be successful achieving their workout goals by the first six weeks of the year.

"The ones that make all their workouts in the first six weeks, they'll usually stay," he said, explaining that those are the people who have turned exercise into a habit.

Best said that one common mistake new exercisers make is to push themselves too hard during their first few workouts, increasing the risk of injury and making themselves so sore that they're discouraged from coming back.

"They need to break into it a little slower," Best said.

Besides joining gyms or finding other ways to exercise, Fairbanksans also buy more vitamins and supplements in the new year, said Anyas Spencer, co-owner of the General Nutrition Center in Shopper's Forum mall.

The trend is expected to be even more pronounced this year because bad press about prescription drugs could encourage people to seek alternatives for health conditions, she said.