While January is the busiest time of the year at the gym, it is also the easiest time to give up on your newly set fitness goal completely. While attendance is up at the beginning of the month, there is a quick fall off by the end of January – middle of February. By February, most New Year’s resolution gym-goers have completely broken their fitness goals. If you intend on keeping your goal this year, trying these tips will help you break the New Year’s fitness resolution slump!
Small Goals
While getting in shape can be hard, it is important to keep your resolutions and goals small and specific. It is easy to set overly ambitious goals that tend to be unrealistic early on in your new fitness journey. Starting small will also allow you to become more confident and put the proper amount of work into the changes you want to make.
Priorities
Making fitness a priority will help control your weight and also improve your mental health and mood. Scheduling a workout into your day just like you would schedule lunch with friends or a doctors appointment. We get busy and are sometimes overscheduled, but having the time to fit in a workout will help you stay happy and healthy. Putting fitness ahead of less active activities can help increase your life expectancy and help reduce the risk of certain diseases.
Change it Up
A study done by the American Council on Exercise showed that changing up your workout can improve your changes to sticking with your fitness resolutions. It is also important to switch up your workouts, so you are not always targeting the same muscle groups. Just running on the treadmill will not always cut it when working out. Throwing in a day of weights will help keep you from hitting a weight-loss plateau if that is one of your goals. Varying your workouts will also help keep your body from adapting to your exercise routine.
Track Progress
Keeping track of your fitness progress can help keep you on track for your fitness resolutions. Whether it is just jotting down improvements in a fitness diary or tracking workouts and progress in fitness apps like MyFitnessPal, tracking your progress can help keep you accountable for your workouts.
Reward Yourself
Celebrate your fitness wins! Once you reach your goals, you should celebrate it and treat yourself! It’s important to choose rewards that will not undo all the hard work you’ve completed in the gym, so choose things like new gym clothes or movie nights! Rewarding yourself each time you achieve a fitness milestone will help you reach your goals faster, but also help keep you on track to reach those goals.
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