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January is when gym memberships and dieting spike. But by the second Friday of the new year—known as “quitter’s day”—many people’s fitness resolutions go out the window. Abandoning your workout goals doesn’t have to be a guarantee, though.
Here, fitness experts offer readers their top tips for setting up sustainable workout habits that will last through the new year and beyond.
1. Make realistic goals
One of the biggest reasons fitness professionals see people abandon their goals is that they’re not realistic for where they’re at. To start, recognize where your fitness level is—not where you think it should be.
To help with that, try to avoid falling into the comparison trap of social media, said Amanda Katz, certified run coach, fitness trainer, and instructor at Equinox in New York City.
Run coach and physical therapist Victoria Sekely advises anyone looking to exercise more to begin with a frequency and intensity that is easier than you think it should be. “Start out very slow and literally just work on getting consistent with it,” Sekely said.
“If you haven’t been exercising and then you go for 30 minutes and the next day you are completely sore, you are likely not going back,” added Stella Volpe, president of the American College of Sports Medicine and head of the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise at Virginia Tech. “People think that exercise needs to be huge to ‘count.’ It doesn’t. You just have to get your body moving.”
2. Be specific with your intentions
Lack of specificity is another pitfall that leads to abandoned goals, experts say.
When crafting them, sports psychiatrist Dr. Brook Choulet advises following the acronym SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, instead of saying you want to work out more, you may aim to take a HIIT class three days a week for 30 minutes, Choulet shared.
When deciding on goals, Katz also said it’s important to identify what workout environment suits you best. Identifying what you prefer will not only make exercising more enjoyable, but easier to plan, too.
3. Work on mindset, and motivation will follow
Mindset is another important piece of the puzzle—including an acknowledgment that pursuing workout goals isn’t easy. “It doesn’t have to feel like you’re fully motivated to get started,” Sekely said. “It does get easier.”
Choulet has a tried-and-true technique for boosting motivation, called motivational interviewing. To do it, you look at the positives and negatives of your new fitness routine and your reasons for doing it by asking yourself a series of questions: What are the benefits of working out? What do I like or dislike about working out? This helps to get you intrinsically motivated to exercise, and provides you with a line of thinking to return to on your toughest days, she said.
4. Don’t forget your ‘why’
One of the most important parts of creating a workout goal is understanding why you made the goal in the first place. Whether to change your body or to reach health goals, the answers can be helpful reminders when your motivation dwindles.
“Don’t forget to start to enjoy the journey and start to enjoy the process and create those positive associations around it,” Sekely shared.
And while aesthetic goals can get you into the gym, there are many other reasons to stay, Katz added.
“I look at exercise as an opportunity to actually create more independence in your life as you age,” she explained. “I find that most people stay in their fitness journey because of the opportunity to improve their bone density, to create stronger tendons and ligaments…to improve our cognition, to improve our balance. It’s winter, right? So we’ve got to make sure we’re not slipping on any ice.”
(Source: Fortune via Reuters Connect)
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