Absolutely London has teamed up with BodyWorksWest to bring you our tips on how to stay motivated with your fitness throughout January and beyond
Post-Christmas, you’ll no doubt have embarked on some sort of fitness journey to shift any added festive pounds. While January is the perfect time to embrace a new exercise routine, it can be difficult to keep the momentum going through the tail-end of the month. Especially when it’s cold, wet and the line-up on Netflix is stronger than ever. We’re here to say that if you put your mind to it, it’s easy to make keeping fit part of a healthy lifestyle, and not just a phase at the beginning of the year. Read our tips on how to stay motivated with your fitness journey for the rest of January and beyond.
MIX IT UP
Doing the same workout over and over again will lead to boredom which will inevitably lead to demotivation. Keep things interesting by scheduling a variety of workouts or classes throughout your week. Choose a handful of activities you find enjoyable and make time for them all. BodyWorksWest has everything from pilates and yoga to Zumba, aquafit and strength training to keep your body guessing and your mind engaged.
SCHEDULE FITNESS IN YOUR DIARY LIKE A MEETING
One of the most common excuses you’ll hear from people about their lack of fitness regime is that they don’t have time. But if you really think about all those days you pressed snooze on your alarm three-too-many times, binge-watched a TV series or wasted minutes mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, you’d be surprised by how much spare time you actually have in a day. Treat fitness like an important business meeting; schedule it into your diary and make a promise to yourself not to cancel. No matter how busy life gets, if it goes in the diary, it gets done. You might even find that exercising first thing makes you more productive throughout the rest of the day.
SET GOALS AND CHALLENGES
Nothing is more motivating than seeing the arc of your progress, especially when you begin to focus on what your body can do, rather than what it looks like. Set goals and challenges that are completely personal to you; a marathon might not be realistic but a 5K could be. However far you got with your fitness in January, there are no limitations to how much further you can go. Set yourself goals throughout the year to keep you on track and try adding in a new challenge every few weeks. This could be anything from building up to 60 minutes of yoga a day to learning how to pistol squat.
EXERCISE EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE IT
No one ever regretted a workout. How many times have you completed a run or a workout and not felt fantastic at the end? You will never wish you hadn’t done it, so try to remember that next time you’re making excuses not to go.
HIIT THE GYM
If time really is an issue, HIIT training will work for you. High-Intensity Interval Training has made waves in the world of wellness during the last few years for its ability to torch maximum calories in minimal time. The idea is to complete short, intense periods of working out at your maximum, followed by short periods of active rest. This requires your body to work harder than it does during something like steady-state cardio. As well as producing quick results, it gets you in and out of the gym in no time. Sounds like a win-win.
BUY SOME NEW TRAINING KIT
Whether a pair of leggings a yoga mat or a set of headphones, a new piece of kit can sometimes be just the thing you need to keep you going back to the gym. Allow yourself a treat once you’ve passed a milestone on your fitness journey or completed one of your set goals. The incentive alone will be enough to keep you going back but there’s also nothing more inspiring than feeling good stylish kit.
For more information about BodyWorksWest, visit bodyworkswest.co.uk
