If exercising or improving your fitness this year is one of your goals, you are not alone. New Year’s resolution lists are consistently topped by getting more exercise, eating a healthier diet and / or losing weight. We all know consistent exercise has several benefits, including better sleep, boosted mood, less pain, better weight management, and sense of accomplishment. Yet, the fact that these goals annually reappear indicates they are difficult to sustain. Here are ten factors to consider that may help you meet and sustain your fitness goals this year.

Perhaps first and foremost, to use an exercise analogy, understand this is a marathon not a sprint. You are changing a habit, or creating new habits, and that takes consistent effort over time.

Exercise choice

Pick exercise or activities that are good for YOUR body and you ENJOY.

Different bodies do better with different activities. For example, if your knees are painful with high impact activities such as running, try a lower impact activity such as cycling, walking, or swimming. If your low back does not like a sustained forward bent position, you may choose not to cycle on the road, or if you do, you may want to adjust the fit of your bike to lessen the impact of this. As with all exercise, good form is important to prevent injury and to train good postural habits. If your indoor workout space has a mirror, use it. It is important to check your form and alignment. Seek professional help for this is you have concerns – it is money well spent in the long run.

Dreading workouts does not bode well for long term adherence. Inertia getting to an early workout or lacing up shoes to get outside on a cold wet day is normal. But the benefits need to consistently outperform inertia. Even if it is difficult to get to a workout, it is rare to regret working out after the fact. It is also helpful to have a consistent weekly schedule, so workout decisions are planned ahead and not left up to the last minute to decide. At that point, the couch can look particularly enticing!

Realistic schedule

Pick a schedule that you can maintain on an ongoing basis. In your initial enthusiasm, you may set a schedule that is not realistic to sustain over an extended period. If you do, it is inevitable at some point you will fail to maintain the rigor of the schedule, and that disappointment can be demotivating. Know that every now and again there will be interruptions that may or may not have anything to do with you.  Make them short and get back on track.

Too much too soon

Start slowly. Build a base from which you can work. Your body needs time to adjust and change in response to the exercise stress you are placing on it. Pushing too hard too soon can result in injury and setbacks. To use another analogy, learn to swim before you jump in the deep end!

Ramp up slowly

Make incremental changes as you work towards a bigger goal. Remember, climbing a mountain occurs one step at a time. Give your body enough time to adapt and change.

Exercise and pain

Know the difference between soreness and pain. It is normal to have some muscle soreness after a more rigorous workout. This is usually more widespread in the muscles used and recedes in 1-3 days. Pain from an injury usually remains in a spot and keeps up in intensity. This pain requires your attention. Your workout may need to be modified in some way to allow for recovery or prevent further injury.

Rest days

Recovery days are important for building strength. Muscles need to repair to get stronger. Without having time to adequately repair, muscles and other tissues may be prone to suboptimal performance and injury. The number of recovery days to workout days per week may vary depending on your intensity of exercise and training. At least two recovery days a week is a recommended starting point. Recovery days are good days to work on mobility, such as stretching or massage. Stretching and massage of some kind are helpful to reduce tension in muscles that have been working hard.

Healthy eating habits

When you are working out, you are expending more energy, which means you need to shift your nutritional intake accordingly. Eat something light like a banana before morning workouts. For longer cardiovascular workouts, plan for sustained nutrition such as sports drinks or another fuel source. A post workout meal / snack (preferably within 30 minutes) that is protein heavy is helpful for muscle recovery.

Variety and balance in your workouts

Training only one activity or way, means your body gets good at doing that one thing. Look for a combination of endurance, strength, and flexibility. Doing different kinds of workouts or exercise changes the stress to your body, shifting it to a different area, or the same area but in a different way. This keeps better balance and allows one area to relatively recover as another area works.

One way to think about this is to use the analogy of a “bank account”. Say for example, you are in your sixties and you love to play tennis twice a week, but your knees bother you with high impact activities. You have $20 to spend on your knees a day. Playing tennis draws $35 from your knee bank account. That means your knee bank account is overdrawn on two days of the week. On other days, choose activities and recovery days that allow your bank account to get back in the black again. This may include specific exercises to keep your core and muscles around your knees strong. This could be essential to allow you to continue to do what you love to do – play tennis on a consistent basis. Another example: there is a reason why distance runners also do interval training (running multiple sets of timed shorter distances at a faster pace). This gives them more strength, power, and “kick” when they need to up the pace on hills or at the end of a long race.

Be kind to yourself

This is an important one. Working out consistently is in some ways like a practice, and perspective here is important. There will be days when your body is performing very well, and there are days when it is just not. You may need to modify your workout. If you are not risking injury, getting through an “off” day is about being consistent and sticking to the schedule. It may also be helpful to focus on a smaller subset of your workout. Remember, athletes cannot be at peak performance every day of the year. They train to peak for specific events or seasons. Think of your body and fitness in the context of plants and seasons of the year. There will be times for relative quiet, and times for increased intensity and growth. This is both normal and important for your body to perform well and remain injury-free.

We also exist in the context of a larger environment, which in recent years has come to include a pandemic. This has required adjustments including how we exercise. And there may be times it seems the world is on fire. Remember, maintaining structure and consistency in how you look after yourself and exercise is in your control, even if other things around you are unpredictable.

Motivation and accountability

This may vary widely from one person to another. Know yourself. Do you prefer to work out early or later in the day? You may prefer working out in solitude, or with a group. Working out with a friend can be both a social activity, as well as hold you accountable to be at a certain place at a certain time. Money is also motivating - a non-refundable payment for a workout class can do wonders for getting you out of bed at 5:15 am! If you are busy and your day is scheduled around a workout, missing that workout could mean there is no way to catch it up for the rest of the week. A visual reminder of your workout schedule is also helpful – enter it into your weekly calendar.

In summary, back again to those fitness goals. Write them down in a place you frequently look. You are 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. Writing your goals down not only forces you to get clear about what you want to accomplish, but doing so plays a part in motivating you to complete the steps necessary for success. And, just maybe at the end of this year, your next New Year’s resolution will be to MAINTAIN the fitness goals and successes you have realized this year.

Author: Kathryn Thornburg, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT