New Year Fitness Resolutions

Possibly the busiest time of the year for gyms is the month of January. Every year people set new years resolutions to get in shape, and no doubt 2016 will be no different. But how many of the targets are reached? I believe the biggest hurdle for most people is a lack of immediate progress. Our biggest motivation is seeing results and when they don’t come as rapidly as you had of hoped motivation begins to drop.

As I start setting targets for clients and myself for 2016 there is two important factors I consider while doing so:

  1. Set short-term goals – month by month.
  2. Be realistic
  3. Pick only one goal

If your goal is to lose body fat set yourself a number, for men I like to aim for 8-10% and women 10-12% body fat. That being said if you are currently around 20% its unrealistic to think by February you will be 10% – set at target to lose 3% in your first 4 weeks, this applies to everyone.

If you are looking to build muscle, pick one muscle group to focus on for the first 4 weeks of training and train that muscle more frequently than the others. More frequent training means more weekly training volume, which will lead to muscle growth.