Horsham-based female personal trainer, Becky, works at an independent gym focused on improving her clients’ strength and confidence. With January rapidly approaching, the question everyone wants the answer to is what they should aim to change when making New Year’s resolutions. Let’s dive in…
I don’t usually like applying one rule to everyone. The key, after all, is in my job title: personal trainer. I work with individuals, and embrace everyone’s differences. No cookie cutter programmes or blanket recommendations here. Everyone’s body, availability, goals, and all sorts of other factors are different, so I treat everyone as they deserve to be.
Except when it comes to resolutions.
Whenever I tell anyone that I’m a personal trainer between October and December, I tend to quickly hear them say, “Ooh, you’ll be very busy soon! Bet everyone wants to start in January!”. I soon correct them: I’ve actually been fully booked in November and December with regular clients – some are still newly-joined, but they mostly contacted me during the lesser-known fitness calendar boom of September (it just then tends to take a while for schedules to align).
I aim to cultivate a culture of consistency among my clients, and that’s the resolution I’d encourage you to make: find a type of exercise that you are willing and able to do year-round. Plan in regular breaks to allow your body to fully recover and – more importantly – so that you can properly enjoy your life away from fitness. And work on showing up throughout the year, rather than booming and possibly busting shortly afterwards.
The physical and mental benefits of exercise are well-documented, and even more important to embrace our bodies age. So one of the best things you can do for yourself is create a routine that you can comfortably maintain through the months and years. When I first got started myself, I planned to commit in a very gradual way. I began with one session per week and, when I stepped up to two and noticed how much stronger I was, I quickly decided that I didn’t want to have to do the part that I’d found difficult again.
That’s one of the drivers that keeps me going – I’d done the hard part, and only wanted to do it once. I was slightly naïve and didn’t quite factor for life having other plans – such as cancer and injuries – but by the time I faced those obstacles, I’d happily embedded my new habit and was determined to return to exercise. What helped at that point was that, by then, I recognised the benefit of exercise on my mental health, and knew that I wanted to get back into the gym in order to support my brain as well as the rest of my body.
By all means, make January your starting point – I did! – but go steadily, rather than all guns blazing. Pick one resolution and allow it to sink in. Or, if you’ve genuinely got capacity, pick three of different difficulties or magnitudes. Give yourself time. Be patient with yourself. Track your progress over six months, rather than six weeks, and see what changes for you. Look beyond the scale. Think about how you feel in yourself. How you carry yourself. Whether your sleep has changed. What improvements you’ve made in terms of quality of individual movements. Whether you’ve got more stamina, or can lift more weight. You might also find that you’re more eager to train.
Whatever you notice, if the difference is positive to you, then that’s a brilliant achievement. I hope that everyone who steps foot in the gym in January is still there in the doldrums of August – that’s a topic for a post in a few weeks, by the way – and if you need some help getting there, I’m only an email away.