Now that January has finished, a lot of our new year’s resolutions have perhaps started to slip away. Often these include a new exercise regime, new classes or even new goals associated with previous exercise types. We all know that sticking to new year’s resolutions can be hard and often a time cause more stress than they’re worth. However sometimes they can lead good practices and open doors you didn’t expect. In this blog I’ll give you some tips for keeping up those practices and helping you to achieve those goals set by your earlier self.
Choosing the right exercise
A lot of patients come into the clinic with goals of getting fit, loosing some weight or improving their overall health. To achieve this really… the world is your oyster! However, I suggest trying to think about the form of exercise you will most enjoy. People most often think about running or swimming as places to start for exercise, but think broader! If you love dance, join a salsa class! If you love being in nature, what about rock climbing? There are lots of fun ways to exercise, all it takes is just a little bit of creativity.
Goal Setting
Having a realistic and achievable goals is key to working your way up to those big new year’s resolution dreams. If we take an example of running 10km, there are a lot of smaller steps to gradually work up to this distance. The easiest thing is to class that initial thought as a long-term goal and set up smaller more manageable milestones in the meantime. For example, these could be:
- In 1 month, be able to run 2km without stopping
- In 6 weeks, complete 5km with half running and half walking
Achieving these smaller goals will help with your compliance and more importantly help to prevent injury.
Consistency is Key
Forming a new habit can be hard sometimes. According to some studies, it take around about 66 days to form a new habit…. Which is quite a long time when you think about it! My advise when it comes to improvements, consistency with exercise tends to show the most improvement. Have a plan with your exercise and work it into your week where you can. If you’ve had a really long work day and its turning into a struggle to go do your hour session at the gym, still go! Even if its only for 20min keep that habit formation going!
I hope this blog gave you some useful tips to help you achieve some of those new year goals! If you need help managing your new exercise program (Or any injuries that may have come up a result) be sure to contact one of our friendly Physiotherapists here at Bend + Mend in Sydney’s CBD!
