Your New Year's resolution

It’s February already – that time of year when your New Year’s resolutions start to become challenging (if they weren’t already)!

If you’re trying to achieve something new this year, whether it’s exercise related or not, here are a few tips that will help you sustain the change.

Share it!

Finding someone who’ll go on that journey of change with you makes all the difference in actually getting there. With fitness especially, a reliable exercise partner helps with motivation, enjoyment and accountability. If someone else is aiming to get to the same point, you might even help a friend to meet their goals this year! Joining a club or group helps when it comes to committing to a goal.

Here at LifeCare Riseley, we know how helpful exercise partners are. That’s why we’re running a special offer for you and your friends: Bring a friend to one of our reformer classes or mat classes during February, and you’ll both have your first session for free! Ask our friendly receptionists for more details.

Make is measurable

Vague goals like ‘I want to exercise more’ fail so easily partly because there’s no way of knowing when you’ve succeeded. If a goal is clearly measurable, such as, ‘I will run three times a week for half an hour’ then you get that nice buzz of self-congratulation as you stretch at the end of your final run for the week. It’s this feeling that keeps you coming back for more the following week.

Forgive yourself

If you don’t achieve your goal, don’t waste time regretting it. And don’t be too concerned with trying to make up for it by overdoing it the following week.

If you get any insight into what stopped you reaching your goal, harness that to hit your next target and keep pressing on. Above all, don’t give up! Remember: once the new exercise habits become a routine, it does get easier!

Talk to a professional

Physio’s are trained to help people to change. We spend a lot of our time encouraging people to think about changing habits or improving exercise. As you can imagine, it’s much easier work for us when people are already trying to change and we just need to help them along! So if you’ve got a New Year’s resolution that you’re motivated by, we’d love to speak to you. If you’re not sure what form of exercise will be best, what’s realistic to expect or when to try and step up the intensity, if there’s some nagging pain that’s standing in between you and your resolution, we’ll help you with all that and more!

Make 2016 a memorable one by getting where you want to go. And remember that when it comes to achieving your New Year’s resolution, where you’re at this December has everything to do with what you do this February!