Your New Year's Fitness Goals

A new year presents many exciting opportunities. Many people look at it like a new chapter in the book of life. With that comes New Year’s resolutions. The most common resolution you probably hear every year is one that involves weight loss or working out more. So many of us can see the loss of good habits and want to get back on the right track. When we are getting back into the swing of things, we need to LEAVE OUR EGO at the door. You are doing this to make a better you and do not need to compare yourself to others. Today we are going to talk about some do’s and don’ts that can lead to your best possible chance of hitting those fitness goals. 

·      DON’T try and immediately return to workouts you used to do. So many people will have not worked out for months or even years and then try to resume their old workout plan. If your body is not used to the stress of those workouts this will lead to a high level of soreness. This can be detrimental to your positive outlook on your fitness journey and leave you in pain. Although soreness can be an expected result of returning to exercise, we do not want you in PAIN!

·      DO acclimate yourself back into your workouts. The best scenario for returning to training is by starting light and gradually increasing the difficulty. Your level of exercise that you start with really depends on where you currently are in your fitness. Each person may have very different starting levels when returning to exercise. Once you get a good routine going then you can keep the difficulty up by gradually increasing the sets, reps, or duration of your workouts.

·      DON’T go straight to heavy weights. So many people want to get back in the weight room and try to go through movements under a load. This can lead to early dysfunction and potential injuries. 

·      DO make sure your movements are being done correctly. We want to make sure that all of exercises are through their full range of motion. Proper form and full range of motion are the two most important steps in ensuring we do not get injured and establish a great base for strength.

If this is your new year’s resolution congratulations! You are taking an amazing step in your health and wellness. If you are unsure about where to start but you want to get back into working out or just need some structure, we have a great resource for that! Here at Focus on Health we have the amazing Movement Lab right in the clinic. Amy is a wonderful personal trainer who works with people of all fitness levels. Every new client in the movement lab goes through a functional movement assessment. This is a great tool for measuring your ability to move through exercise. It gives us a great baseline for building your specific workout progression. Here at Focus on Health we are excited to be a part of your health and wellness journey and wish you the best of luck in accomplishing your goals for 2021! 

-Tanner Green B.S. ATC, future Doctor of Chiropractic