By: Danielle Restuccia
Source: VOXXI
If you’ve ever been to the gym on January 1st, you know that for many people the number one New Year’s resolution is to get in shape.
Fitness goals for the New Year are all well and good, but they have to be achievable: While you might be committed to your workout resolution right now, will you still be motivated when March or April rolls around? Every year, people who tell themselves in January that “this is the year” find that they’ve fallen off the bandwagon within a few months.
If you’re serious about sticking with your New Year’s resolutions, take a look at your fitness goals. Then use a few tips and tricks to ensure you’ve crafted a workout resolution that will last you all year long.
Realistic resolutions: Start Small, Then Build
Maybe you’re already a runner, but you want to increase your strength, or maybe you used to swim in high school, but you haven’t hit the pool in years. Whether you’re an occasional athlete or a newbie to the workout world, the most important aspect to a fitness-based New Year’s resolution is to be realistic.
Though it might be tempting to dive into five workouts a week in the hope of toning muscle and shedding fat quickly, that’s rarely sustainable. If you radically alter your routine, you’re unlikely to maintain it. Instead, start with small adjustments. Commit to adding one or two weekly workouts to what you already do, or add an element of resistance training or cross training to your schedule.
YMCA director Pat McGahan notes that losing one and a half to two pounds a week is realistic, cautioning people not to expect to see too many physical changes too fast. You’ll need to make a workout resolution that extends well beyond the first few weeks of January: in eight to twelve weeks, you should see some positive results.
Plan and track your workout routine
If you don’t have a road map to direct you, it’s tough to reach your destination.
That goes for New Year’s resolutions, too. It’s critical that you know, and write down, exactly what your fitness goals are and how you hope to achieve those. Whether you use a journal, a blog, or a day calendar, create a schedule for yourself. If you’ve picked out workouts and times in advance, you’re more likely to actually go for that run.
Similarly, put your short-term and long-term fitness goals somewhere you can see. A list of goals taped to the bathroom mirror or typed into a sticky note on your computer desktop will help you stick to your new workout resolution. Make sure you have goals you can cross off quickly, as well as larger ambitions: checking off a weekly running or weightlifting target can boost your motivation to continue.
It’s also useful to track your progress on the way to better fitness. Depending on how much data you want to collect, there are a number of ways you can monitor your increasing fitness and ensure that you don’t overdo your workouts too early in the year. Strategies range from simple to more complex:
– Keep track of workout times and/or weight amounts. Write these down after each workout.
– Get a smart watch that can calculate speed– like a Garmin brand– to monitor your bike rides or runs. Slowly increase your speed.
– Use an application like MyFitnessPal, Strava, or others to digitally track and upload your workouts. These applications can give you a range of information, including speed, heart rate, calories burned, and terrain covered.
Remember, while it’s exciting to have New Year’s resolutions that gets you in shape, doing too much too quickly can result in injury. Use your progress tracking strategy to moderate your workouts.
Tell others about your fitness resolutions
Finally, to make your workout resolution stick, tell your friends and family.
You’re more likely to work toward goals if someone else is holding you accountable. It’s easy to slack off when no one knows, but if you’ve told your partner or best friend that tomorrow is the day for a bike ride, you’ll probably go.
Telling others, and getting their positive feedback and encouragement, can also increase your own confidence in fitness goals. For any New Year’s resolution, you have to believe you can succeed, so build a support system that will reinforce that belief.
Here’s to a healthier 2014!
Originally published by VOXXI as “Keeping fitness resolutions in the New Year“.
