Are you sporting a little extra pudding-induced padding round your midsection or thighs following the new year’s festivities?
Do your clothes not fit quite the same as they did a month ago? If so, it is a fitting time of year to talk about new ventures.
There is no shortage of slimming solutions out there, and you might have wondered which represents your best chances of success without falling by the wayside of fleeting resolutions that fail by February.
Adherence to new routines remains a notoriously tricky subject in the fitness world. Drop-out rates among those new to exercise suggest that your chances of seeing the programme through to the achievement of your goals are not much better than 50 per cent.
As fitness professionals and researchers continue to probe this quandry, gym membership numbers continue to grow each year, but poor adherence remains an issue. More people are jumping on the bandwagon, but the same percentage are falling off again. Nevertheless, despite the statistics, plenty of hands-on experience usually means fitness professionals still pack a few tricks up their sleeves.
The measuring tape does not lie and can actually provide you with a more accurate picture of progress than the weighing scales
In Malta, peak season in fitness traditionally occurs during the months leading up to summer, but a smaller spike in memberships also happens to take place towards the end of January.
To keep the sweat pouring until the pre-summer sun shines again, and keep you in the running for the successful achievement of your shape-shifting goals, here are a few top tips from the pros.
1. Tale of the tape. The measuring tape is a great place to start. Take your waist, chest and thigh measurements and you have got a definite starting point. This lets you set specific and measurable goals, and repeating the tests at planned intervals every four to six weeks is a great way to keep you motivated.
The measuring tape does not lie and, due to the sometimes misleading interplay between muscle and fat weight, can actually provide you with a more accurate picture of progress than the weighing scales.
2. Join the rooster squad. These are the early risers who get their workouts in early. People who exercise first thing in the morning are more likely to maintain their regimen than those who do so later on in the day. Early sessions are also great for leaving you feeling fresh and invigorated for the rest of the morning.
3. Pave the way with good intentions. I personally find this to be one of the most important factors affecting all productive fitness endeavours. You have got to do it for the right reasons. Really think about the reasons for wanting to achieve the goals you seek.
Is it really that important to you? Are you doing it just for yourself or for someone else? Once you have the true answers, exercise becomes a priority and making the right lifestyle choices suddenly feels a lot less like a sacrifice and a whole lot easier.
4. Finding the fun in fitness. You’re much more likely to stick to something you enjoy. If your workout is not fun from the outset, then it is highly unlikely you are going to enjoy it any more as time goes by, quite the contrary.
There are so many activities to choose from, from five-a-side football to funky dance classes, do not settle for less just because you think it might be more effective. Remember that any physical activity is better than none at all, because if it is too hard or too boring, nothing is precisely what you will be doing once you have quit it.
5. Buddy up. Many participants report that having an appointment to keep makes them less likely to skip sessions. A partner can also provide motivation and support and make things much more fun. A little competitiveness can also go a long way towards accelerating you both towards your goals, provided you pick a partner with similar aspirations to your own.
6. Bust the biggest barriers. We know that the biggest obstacles for most would-be fitness fanatics include finances, transportation and time restraints. Planning to overcome these before you even start means you will have fewer gremlins to deal with when the desire to quit finally presents itself.
Pick an option you can easily afford, arrange how you will get to wherever you need to go without too much hassle and stress and look at your weekly schedule to find the most realistic time gaps.
7. Delay departure. The desire to quit will always present itself sooner or later. This is entirely normal and the reasons may well be genuine. Fine, but this is one of the only decisions it pays to procrastinate over. If you decide to quit, do it, but give it another two weeks at least and stick with the programme until then. During this period, you may have a change of heart and, had you actually quit, it would probably have been twice as hard to get going again.
8. Compromise your comfort zone. Do something wacky and sign up for something you never saw yourself doing. This works surprisingly well for some people, and many a fitness fanatic has made the conversion this way. A fitness holiday, completing a marathon or entering some competition or other may well super-charge your motivation and provide an unforgettable lifetime experience.
You might actually get hooked and make it a regular feature of your yearly calendar, upgrading your exercise programme to a permanent lifestyle change.
matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt