By Master Coach K
Approximate Reading Time: 2-4 min
It's hard to deny that there is a certain energy at the start of a new year. A collective yearning to cleanse, process, and appreciate the year that has been — then to grow, change and move on. The team at Restore Human have been through a lot of New Years health rushes, we've seen them done both well and poorly. Here are some tips for using that wonderful New Years energy to maximize your results towards better health.
Feel like you've made progress recently?
Carry on with your routine! Often people who are succeeding at their goals don't give themselves or what they're doing enough credit. Chasing shortcuts to results or the latest fad is a quick way to derail your continued success. Getting healthier, toned, stronger or more conditioned needs consistency, months and years of it.
Time for something new?
What should you do if your old routine hasn’t gotten you any results? Firstly go for something that you can stay consistent with!
Prioritize building a personal connection. That might be with a specific Coach, a friend to train with, or a friend-making mindset! Flying solo is doable, but if your training helps build a friendship you're more likely to succeed.
Choose something that will consistently fit into your schedule. That might mean you need to change it! Prioritizing your health is something you deserve, make it non-negotiable.
What else to look for?
Enjoyment - life is precious, training should make you smile and laugh (not all the time but it's worrying if it never does)!
Biomechanical diversity - look for something where you get a wide variety of movements in. Diversity will help keep your joints healthy and strong.
Appropriate load - training is a stressor for your muscles and joints. That stress is what tells your body to make you fitter. The key is to do it at a level that is appropriate for you and your history. When in doubt, start easy and slowly progress in intensity and duration.
Feeling lazy, not motivated or apprehensive?
We are all unique and there are a lot of factors why you might not even want to try. Something often overlooked is 'fitness training' isn't natural. It's okay to not be into it. Our modern age has given us a lot of positives and wonderful conveniences, but it has also stolen away a lot of our physicality. We can reclaim that. What we suggest most is to increase general activity levels, start by walking more (check out our previous article on walking). From there it becomes a little more complex — we’ll be covering accessible options for healthy movement in future articles. The big take away for now is to walk more (if you have pain walking, deal with the pain, come see us).
Fitness training and Movement Training (what we focus on) have their place. Reclaiming your physicality after a period of inactivity or an injury sometimes isn’t easy or straight forward. Getting help is smart. Staying consistent or pushing yourself hard enough to get the results you want in a short amount of time also lends itself to receiving coaching. Ultimately though, the Coaching Team at Restore Human do what we do so our clients increase their confidence, and general activity levels so that they can eventually leave us. It’s about being fit and healthy for decades to come.
So for 2019 and on, go for consistency, whether that’s through a smart fitness practice or by adding in more movement to your daily life or both. Keep learning, move well, and walk more :)
K