With the first days of warm weather, we begin shedding layers of clothing and searching through closets and drawers for warmer-weather clothes, one of the most dreaded annual rituals because it also means exposing flesh that has been safely out of sight in sweats and jeans for the past six months.

It’s the time of year when neighborhood health clubs and gyms see another batch of fresh recruits, eager to step, stomp, pedal and push their way into a smaller size. But starting and staying are two different things, say local health club and gym owners and trainers, who see the return to the gym as regularly as the seasons, only to lose many at the first sore muscle or lazy morning.

Sign up for our newsletter!

* indicates required

“People looking for a place to work out should look for an atmosphere that is conducive to coming in on a regular basis – and a place that says they will have fun,” says Robert Creel, owner of White Rock Athletic Club.

Neighborhood resident Diane Kitzman, first violinist with the Dallas Symphony, started working out 10 years ago, and today does weight training and cardiovascular at Lakewood Gym at Mockingbird and Abrams.

“As a musician, I never got out of the practice room, and I wanted to try something physical,” she says. After five years of aerobics, Kitzman wanted a new challenge and began lifting weights under the guidance of a personal trainer.

“I didn’t know anything about weights and wanted to be very careful that I didn’t injure myself,” she says.

Since beginning with weights, she has noticed a lessening of the ten