Want to get fit this year? 5 tips that stick
Even though it is snowing depending on which part of the world you are in, the weather should not stop you from achieving your fitness goals!
Setting realistic, attainable goals — and doing something you enjoy — are key to success. The most common mistakes new fitness enthusiasts make are creating unattainable goals and overtraining. For many people, the new year means making the commitment to get in shape or improve one’s fitness. But making that a habit and not falling off the wagon are the real challenges.
There are 5 simple steps that fresh fitness enthusiasts can do to make sure they stick to their resolution.
1. Set Attainable Goals
The most common mistake people make when they decide to get into shape is setting the bar “way too high!” A lot of people start off and they set out a goal to do, cardio five days a week for example, and that will die out and that won’t last for a month. I suggest that people find an activity that they enjoy doing to motivate them to keep coming back. The point is to set realistic goals, maybe cardio once or twice a week to start off, muscular strength once a week, and do a yoga class or miscellaneous class on the weekend. So, nothing too serious but make sure it’s something you can attain and you can achieve!
2. Go with a Friend
A good idea too is to do workouts with a friend, make sure that friend is accountable to you, you’re accountable to them, so you will come … and then you’ll make that goal stick possible!
3. Do Something You Love
There are workout classes and fitness regimes that cater to all different types of interests. I suggest that people pick something that suits them. They say it takes approximately three weeks for a habit to be created, and so you want to make sure it’s something that you love. You’re not going to do something that you hate for the next couple weeks to a month!
4. Vary Your Workouts
You don’t want to get used to one thing. Your body can get used to one exercise and then essentially the body can’t grow. You don’t want to always just do cardio, just do weights. Cross-training is essential for your body to progress and for injury prevention and illness prevention. Sometimes when I work out, I use “sliders” while holding onto an exercise trampoline to do leg lunges. I suggest that those who want to start a new fitness regime pick a class or workout activity that they enjoy to attain their goals.
Also, it is very important that you have recovery periods. Muscular endurance takes 72 hours, muscular strength takes approximately 24 hours, and cardio — your heart — takes 12 hours to recover. So, these time frames should allow you to maybe do a something light or yoga instead of a high intensity.
5. Don’t Over-Train
This is one of the most common mistakes people make. A lot of people join and they just set the bar way too high. They come in, the want to do a class every single day. They want to do two classes a day, and what happens is the body starts to regress, and you regress in your training. You can over-train in a sense, and you can start feeling like your body just doesn’t even want to get out of bed anymore. And that’s the last thing you want, especially when you have a goal set in mind.
All in all, start slow, start realistic, and make sure that it’s attainable. That’s the biggest thing!
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