The roads are icy. The kids are back in school. The gyms are packed.
The new year has officially started!
In all of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s easy to get caught up in all of the fun and forget to make our New Year’s resolution.
If you did forget, don’t worry; you’re not alone.
Thankfully, we have some ideas!
If you’re still trying to pick out the perfect New Year fitness goal, consider one of these 5 suggestions:
Commit to…regular workouts
I bet you didn’t see this one coming!
Of course, setting a New Year fitness goal that involves more regular workouts is one of the most common, if not the most common resolutions. Unfortunately, life often gets in the way, leading it to being a goal that is constantly “recycled” from year to year. However, if you’re not a regular gym-goer or you haven’t been able to develop a consistent training routine, penciling in a consistent workout schedule will go a long way to helping you improve your fitness.
How to:
There are a few ways you can set yourself up for success and ensure you’ll make your workouts a priority. The first of these involves intentional planning. Carefully review your weekly schedule and find periods of 3 or 4 days each week when you will have a few hours of unaccounted-for time. Physically pencil in “workout!” periods into your planner so that this time is reserved for training.
To make things even easier, consider purchasing home gym equipment for your workouts. By having gear at home, you not only save time otherwise spent traveling to and from the gym, but you also aren’t constrained by any opening and closing schedules. With an all-in-home training machine line the M1 or the Buffalo, you can train any muscle group at any time!
Commit to…food tracking
Another common New Year fitness goal is more closely related to what we put into our mouths than it is related to how fast we can run a mile or how much weight we can bench press. Getting ahold of nutritional habits is another common resolution that can have both monumental and lasting impacts on our bodies and overall wellness.
One of the best habits we can adopt is tracking our food and beverage intake. By knowing exactly how much of each macronutrient we’re consuming each day, we have a better handle on where our nutritional habits are on point and what areas might be a bit lacking.
How to:
Memorizing the differences between proteins, carbs, and fats while remembering what your daily caloric intake should be can get really tricky. Thankfully, there are a number of apps that make tracking food and macronutrient intake much easier. Consider downloading one of these apps and picking up a small, hand food scale, to take a lot of the guess work out of food tracking.
Commit to…hydration
Muscle weakness and fatigue during workouts, constant headaches, dry and flaky skin…if you’ve been experiencing one or more of these symptoms, you could be suffering from chronic dehydration without even realizing it. Thankfully, addressing this condition can be as simple as taking a few extra sips of water.
Consuming adequate levels of water every day may not seem like the sexiest New Year fitness goal, but it might have the biggest payoff of any of the suggestions on this list.
How to:
Staying adequately hydrated can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve never consistently drunk water throughout the day. However, with a little bit of deliberate planning, hitting your daily hydration goal can actually be quite easy.
Rather than looking at the total amount of water to drink each day, instead, cut this amount into thirds or fourths and try to consume each interval amount during certain intervals each day. For example, you may opt to down a couple of cups of water along with your coffee as you’re waking up in the morning or you may find it easy to gulp down an entire liter during your cardio session. By splitting your daily intake into manageable amounts, you’re much more likely to stay hydrated throughout the day.
Commit to…increased intensity
What if you’re already a consistent gym goer, but you haven’t quite made the progress you’ve always dreamed of? There is a good possibility that you’re putting in the requisite time, but not the requisite intensity. Your New Year fitness goal could be as simple as committing to loading a bit more weight on and spiking your heart rate during every workout.
How to:
It’s hard to have the most intense workouts if you’re limited by your gear; you can only push 10-pound dumbbells so far! In order to keep intensity levels high, equip yourself with what you need for success. This might include upgrading to a barbell that you can load with heavier plates or picking up a leg press machine that allows you to push harder than you do when you’re back squatting.
No matter what kinds of workouts you have in mind, we can assure you that you won’t regret “investing in intensity”.
Commit to getting others involved
What are the chances that you’re already a really active person and you have your health and fitness on lock? If you’re reading this, we’d say that there is a better-than-average likelihood that this is the case! If this is you, but you still want to make some type of New Year fitness goal, consider “spreading the wealth” and using your knowledge to get others involved.
You could sit a friend down and help to explain the different macronutrients to them or could even motivate them by serving as their new workout partner. The best part is, your own motivation will get a big boost as you’re trading out sets with your new gym BFF.
How to:
Creativity always helps, but there are just some pieces of equipment that lend themselves to partner workouts more than others. For example, something like the Buffalo that has Smith Machine, free weight, cable pulley, and bodyweight exercise capabilities allows for multiple trainees to work essentially simultaneously.
Imagine being able to do a set of Smith Machine squats while your training partner knocks out some cable crossovers. How much nicer is it to be able to do these exercises in quick succession, than to have to search around for different machines, constantly changing weights, and waiting for other trainees to finish? We can assure you that it is much nicer!
Take your pick…
We know that you were probably slightly worried about not having a New Year fitness goal to get excited about and we hope that you’ll implement some of our suggested resolutions. Even if you commit to implementing only one of them, rest assured that any one of these goals can result in big benefits.
Now that you have those creative juices flowing, it’s time to get to work. You’re already a little late to the party; don’t wait until next January to get things started!
