This decade has gotten off to a rocky start so far, for reasons that we need not go into right now, because you already understand. Such a large societal shift like this can cause us all to lose our direction for a little while, allowing bad habits to build, and sometimes, leaving us with a sense of dismay.

That said, tomorrow always brings new hope, and new potential to be actualized. For this reason, making 2022 the year of resolutions kept and goals achieved could be a great way to revivify your spirit, and look forward to the future with confidence.

A great way to get there is to focus on an art, discipline or skill that helps us feel better and allows our daily life to be structured in a worthwhile way. We believe that fitness is a great prerequisite for all that and more. In this post, then, we’ll discuss how to make 2022 the year of your personal fitness, how to avoid falling into traps, and how to undo some of the indulgences of the festive period after the fact.

Without further ado, let’s get started:

What Goals Do You Have?

Of course, if you’re going to build momentum, it’s important to know which direction you hope to go in. Setting some goals for the new year automatically gives you structure when it comes to fitness. Otherwise, you may find yourself attending the gym, moving from machine to machine and never really making any progress or keeping your workouts consistent.

The good thing about having goals is that you can design them based on your capabilities right now. For some people, simply being able to walk for an hour is of major benefit. Someone reading this may have suffered and injury and by consequence mobility issues in the last year, and so being able to walk unaided for a certain amount of time might be top of their list, before any ideas of bodybuilding or training cardio comes into the picture.

For some, just getting to exercise again is a goal. For that reason, programs like ‘Couch 2 5k’ can be helpful, as they provide you an incremental means of getting fitter and healthier via planning your cardio sessions ahead of time. Make your goals smart, realistic, manageable, and write them down. Also, give yourself a deadline. Perhaps this month, you hope to attend the gym three times a week for an hour each to get the ball rolling. 

Consider A Practice You’d Like To Follow

When you set your goals, you can then move on to think about the best method of achieving those. When you hope to get in shape, there are many methods, technique and practices to follow. 

For instance, it might be that you wish to improve your cardiovascular conditioning but have joint issues or would rather not inflame your knees. Swimming, then, might be the best option for you, as even aggressive swimming through the water won’t harm or cause thudding responses to the use of said joints in a natural movement. There’s almost no exercise more ergonomic than suspending yourself in water, after all.

For some, hiking is important as Covid restrictions temporarily hit the gym. For others, old-school work such as having kettlebells in their outdoor training area as well as hitting tires with a sledgehammer is key. Depending on your goals, it’s best to consider all the practices available, but make sure not to overtrain.

Preparing Yourself Accordingly

Investing in the equipment and accessories you may need to get the best out of your fitness is key. This can also provide more of a financial incentive to get your money’s worth, and to actually attend your fitness sessions.

Purchasing a good water flask/bottle can keep you hydrated, wearing Nike fitness gear can allow you to be athletic without restricted movement, and the correct footwear can help you run properly. For some people, specialist footwear may be needed to counteract the effects of low arches, for example.

Depending on your discipline, certain investments may need to be had. Specialist weightlifting shoes provide more of a solid platform to lift from, for instance, while chalk, an armband to hold a smartphone, or a swimming cap may be key for other disciplines.

Plan Your Routine

It’s important to know the difference between exercise and training. Exercise is generally known as a workout you repeat in order to get your activity for the day. Training is a focused approach that improves you incrementally, allowing you to improve at whatever is put in front of you.

Planning your routine is the first step for getting that right. Let’s say you’re weightlifting or cycling using the high-quality stationary bikes at the local gym. When you walk into that space, it’s important to know exactly what you’ll be doing that session. This can help you avoid waiting around or simply making things up as you go and will aid you in seeing how you’ve progressed. Of course, this is only true if you:

Track Your Progress

It’s very important to make sure you keep notes about your performance during every workout. After all, it’s better to lift light weights now and make sure that your form is correct. Then you can work on increasing very slowly and incrementally over the weeks, then simply lifting too much to satiate a sense of ego.

When you track your progress, you can more readily see how you’ve been improving, or slow things down a little if you find you’re pushing too hard. Over time, you will be able to see just which exercises you’ve been excelling at, and which are very difficult to keep up with. Such an approach can help you feel much more confident in yourself. Plus, it will give you a perfect record of your achievements thus far. That’s certainly worth celebrating and can motivate your future progress.

With this advice, we believe you’ll be able to make 2022 your year of personal fitness. So, here is to a year of feeling healthier and more confident as a result.

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