How to Conquer Your New Year Fitness Goals

Celebrating the New Year often includes making resolutions for better fitness. Discover habit-forming strategies to help you conquer your fitness goals in the new year and beyond. 

A new year represents fresh beginnings, making it the perfect time to revamp your fitness strategies or renew your focus on fitness. Fitness goals that become enduring habits can help pave the way to a healthier and more fulfilling life through a unique, cyclical relationship.  

Conquer your fitness goals in the new year and beyond by following these habit-forming strategies: 

Set SMART fitness goals.

You can make goal achievement easier by establishing a clear, realistic framework that includes SMART goals. The acronym SMART stands for: 

Specific: Instead of setting general goals like “Swim more” or “Get more fit,” your goals should be concise and have a clear definition, such as “Swim X number of laps” or “Bring my resting heart rate down by X number of beats.” 

Measurable: Setting goals you can measure allows you to track your progress. When you realize that you’ve achieved your goals, you may become motivated to set and achieve new ones.   

Achievable: Set goals that you can realistically achieve like running one mile three times per week, instead of 10 miles per week. Starting small can help boost your confidence and motivation for setting more challenging goals down the road. 

Relevant: Choose goals that correspond to your lifestyle and personal interests. To you, better fitness may mean improved cardiovascular health. To someone else, it may mean a leaner, more sculpted body.  

Time-bound: You may stay more motivated when you have a timeline for achieving your goal. To increase your motivation even further, celebrate goal achievement with a personal reward like a spa day, some new running gear, or a membership to the new yoga studio in town. 

Develop a personalized action plan.

The journey to better fitness involves understanding your current fitness levels and knowing where you want to get to in the future. Breaking down your goals into action steps (or chunks) can help make attaining them less daunting, and mapping your personalized plan on paper can help you organize, visualize, and realize your specific goals. 

Track your progress.

Tracking your progress toward goal achievement can help you stay motivated and allow you to monitor the effectiveness of your action plan. Methods to track your progress can include: 

• Logging workout types, duration, ideas for improvement, etc. in a fitness journal 
• Monitoring workout types, number of steps, mileage, etc. with a personal fitness tracker 
• Using fitness apps to monitor workouts and track improvements in workout duration, distances, body weight, etc.  

Stay accountable.

Holding yourself accountable means moving through the goal-achievement process with honesty and using your time meaningfully. If you drop the ball or make a mistake along the way, forgo any feelings of guilt, blame, or self-pity. Instead, reflect on how and why it happened and think about how you can improve your process for the future.

Keep your fitness program enjoyable.

To transform an activity into a lifelong habit, it has to be one you enjoy. For instance, while one person might appreciate the repetition involved in weightlifting, another might find it dull and monotonous. Keep your fitness program enjoyable by adopting the following game plan: 

Mix up your fitness routine. Whoever said, “Variety is the spice of life,” may have been onto something. Following the same fitness routine every day could send your motivation levels plummeting. Make sure to add variety to your routine to keep it interesting with activities like: 

• Basketball 
• Biking 
• Hiking 
• Jumping rope 
• Kickball 
• Pickleball 
• Resistance training 
• Soccer 
• Stair climbing 
• Swimming 
• Tennis 
• Walking 
• Yard work  
• Yoga 

Buddy up. Some people experience more enjoyment and have more success getting fit if they workout with others. A workout buddy can help keep you motivated and hold you to account, so consider enlisting a close friend, family member, coworker, or neighbor to join you for workouts or take brisk walks with your canine companion. 

Become part of a community. For socially minded people, a community atmosphere can add enjoyment to exercising by providing emotional support and a feeling of belonging. Get fit and make new friends and acquaintances by taking a water aerobics or interval training class, joining a local walking or running club, or playing recreational sports like softball or badminton. 

Please note: The information contained herein is for informational purposes only and does not contain or constitute medical advice or a medical opinion. Always consult with your qualified and licensed medical professional prior to beginning or modifying any diet or exercise program.