10 Tips For Achieving Your Fitness Goals this Year
PACE YOURSELF: Achieving fitness goals should be thought of as a marathon not a sprint. Most people hit the ground running after the New Year desperate to shed extra holiday pounds and extra motivated to get back in shape (or more in shape in some cases). The problem with that is that when you go full send into a new training program you are not only increasing your risk for injury but also more likely to burn out . Your body needs time to adapt to new stresses. Suddenly exposing your tissues to an unfamiliar activity and then performing it excessively without allowing time for adaptation is a recipe for injury. To avoid getting discouraged with your progress try breaking down your fitness/health goals into smaller goals. This will allow you to focus on small achievements keeping you on track for ultimately achieving the “bigger” goal.
WRITE YOUR GOALS DOWN: If you are really serious about achieving a healthier you this year you need to write down your goals. Writing your goals down is proven to increase your chance of actually achieving your goals and it will also give you something to reflect on throughout the year. Track your progress also as you go. This will help you to maintain focus and also will help you to see how far you have come over the year. While sometimes you may feel like you are stuck in a rut in the short term if helps to see how much you have achieved in the long term and keeps you motivated to stick with it.
ITS GOING TO BE HARD: The motivation you have right now will fade. Do yourself a favor and accept right now that there is nothing easy about achieving health and fitness goals.That being said, the result will definitely be worth the effort. There will be mornings that you don’t want to get out of bed. There will be times that tracking your meals seems tedious and boring. You will spend hours pushing through tough workouts and you will get discouraged when your progress is slower than you would like. You will constantly be making sacrifices. Most of the time nobody is going to be there to cheer you on when you finally overcome an obstacle. Then one day you will look back and be proud of the goals you have achieved and only you will know the extent of the work you put in to get there. Choosing to exercise instead of sleep in or choosing to restrict certain foods and beverages instead of indulge is HARD but being sick as a result of unhealthy habits is harder. Choose your hard.
FOCUS ON YOUR WEAKNESSES: It will be tempting to stick to the things that you are good at but if you really want to crush your health goals this year spend more time doing the things you are not good at. Fitness is all about stepping outside of your comfort zone. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable if you will. As tempting as it may be to shy away from your weaknesses I challenge you to face them head on this year. EVERYBODY is a beginner at some point just remember that. This is one of my favorite things about fitness because it carries over into every other aspect of life. Put extra energy into your weaknesses and one day you will realize that they aren’t weaknesses anymore. Continue to do this and you will find you are less and less intimidated by new and unfamiliar situations. No matter what the challenge may be you begin to understand that if you just stick with it you WILL overcome.
THERE WILL BE SETBACKS: When you work so hard for something it’s hard not to fear losing what you have gained. This is a particularly challenging thing for me personally. Whether it’s injury, illness, or having to work a lot of overtime there will be things that come up that will slow down your fitness journey. The key here is to stay positive by focusing on what you CAN do and not what you CAN’T do. I recently suffered an injury that made MOST of the things I do to workout out very painful. I was very upset at first because I immediately began to fear losing all of the things I had worked so hard for. Turning my attention to the things that I could do and modifying my workouts to better be able to tolerate them helped me to maintain a positive outlook. As my injury heals I am able to do more and more and this is encouraging. It turns out we are more resilient than we realize. If you have a set back try and embrace the struggle. Knowing how to modify your workout when dealing with an injury is important. Any client that comes to us for treatment will never be expected to STOP exercising due to a musculoskeletal injury. We will advise you on how to modify your workouts so that you can remain active and focused while restoring full function to the injured area. The same goes for dealing with a busy time in your life when exercise my not be at the top of the priority list. Maybe you have to shorten your workouts for a time and make them more efficient for your schedule or maybe you have to reduce your frequency for a few weeks. This is all okay and may even be beneficial for you in the long term. Learning to be flexible with your exercise routine when necessary is an invaluable skill. Avoid the temptation to drop it all together and learn to MODIFY instead.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE A GOOD WARM-UP: A good warm up is not just important but necessary when it comes to decreasing injury risks. When warming up the goal should be not only to gradually increase your heart rate but to get your body prepped for all of the movements you are about to perform. If lifting weights is involved it is important to practice your form and technique using a light weight while gradually building up to workout weight. A common denominator with a lot of injuries that happen in the gym is not warming up properly.
BE CAREFUL TO NOT NEGLECT YOUR MENTAL & SPIRITUAL HEALTH IN PURSUIT OF PHYSICAL HEALTH: Overall health and well-being is multi-faceted. The most coveted of which is physical health, but, without equal focus placed on the other two major components you will feel incomplete. It’s easy to get obsessed with fitness once you achieve a certain amount. This can have a negative impact on your mental and spiritual health. Focusing energy into all three components of health will ensure that you stay on track with your goals and keep you happy and fulfilled in the process.
ACHIEVE FULL MOBILITY BEFORE BUILDING STRENGTH: If you want to stay fit and strong for the long term you MUST focus on achieving the full mobility required for a certain lift before adding weight. For example, if you don’t have enough shoulder mobility to get into a front rack position focus on getting the mobility before loading up the bar with weight. Doing so will eventually lead to shoulder and/or neck pain. We see this time and time again. We recommend trying to get in at least 10 minutes of mobility work a day. The best way to integrate mobility training into your routine is by adding a few active (active meaning no sustained holds) mobility exercises into your warm up and a few sustained stretches into your cool down. Also try dedicating a little bit longer to mobility once a week on your recovery day.
MUSCLE GROWTH REQUIRES REST: Not getting enough sleep and not giving your muscles adequate recovery time is a recipe for self-sabotage. After you exercise, your body repairs the damaged muscle fibers by a process called muscle protein synthesis. The repaired muscle fibers are thicker and more in number than previously. Muscle growth occurs when the rate of muscle protein synthesis is greater than the rate of muscle protein breakdown. Here’s the kicker though, MUSCLE PROTEIN SYNTHESIS OCCURS WHEN YOU REST. If you aren’t giving your muscles enough time to rest and recover from your training you are essentially limiting your muscle growth. This does not mean you need a day off from the gym every time you workout. Rather, be sure to train smart and work different muscle groups on consecutive days. Another common mistake beginners make is by trying to perform max effort lifts on a regular basis. This may be where a trainer may be helpful in helping you to create a program that allows for adequate muscle recovery.
HAVE FUN!: If you really want to ensure that you stick with your New Years health goals be sure to find something active that you actually enjoy. There are many different options when it comes to achieving fitness. Maybe it is running, hiking, swimming, lifting heavy things, yoga, pilates, gymnastics or a little bit of everything. Just don’t be afraid to get outside of your comfort zone and mix it up every once in a while. You might surprise yourself with what you are capable of.