15 Jan Five ways to ensure your New Year fitness plan is sustainable and safe
Making a New Year pledge to get fit is one thing – keeping to a sustainable fitness plan is another.
You also need to ensure that any changes you do make are safe and that you don’t do more harm than good!
Here are five ways to help you do this.
1. Pace yourself
A common mistake people make is signing up in the New Year to a round of exercise classes and activities that represent a massive change in relation to what they were doing before.
Quite simply, the bigger the change, the harder it will be to maintain.
The key then, is to step up gradually.
So, rather than going from doing very little to running five miles, five times a week it’s much better to start with (say) four gentle weekly walks of twenty minutes each.
Exercise will then start to become a part of your routine and not something that you ‘really must to do’.
2. Listen to your body
The aim here is to make a long-term difference and as long as you’re exercising and moving more often than you were before, you will see improvements.
Do however, listen to what you body is telling you and if you feel tired and you really don’t want to do it, then don’t – simply leave things for a day or two and then gently start again.
3. Find a fitness friend
Finding someone you can train with and compare fitness progress notes with is a great way to ensure you keep things going.
You can also share your successes.
4. Join a club or class
Local swimming, cycling, running and other sports clubs are a great way to forge links and get involved with other (likeminded and friendly) people enjoying a similar journey.
5. Reward yourself
Setting fitness goals and then tracking progression towards them is really important.
This may mean clocking up a certain number of swims of gym visits each month, cycling or running to hit a target time or simply maintaining a consistent programme over a period of time.
It’s important however, to reward yourself when you do hit a goal.
This could be treating yourself to some professional looking sports gear, investing in long-term membership of a club or booking yourself an hour with a coach or sports massage therapist.
When it comes to massage, Hands on at Work are the local experts.
We offer a range of exclusive therapies including sports massage, relaxing full body massage, Indian Head massage and Reflexology.
To book your New Year fitness reward please call 07989 367669 or email info@handsonatwork.co.uk