Why You Should Start a New Fitness Program Before the New Year

If you’re looking to start or restart a fitness habit in the new year, here’s the best advice you’ll get all month long: start right now. Yes, now, in the midst of the holiday season and pre-holiday turmoil. Yes, now that no one else is looking into it. Yes, now, although you may not even have decided what exactly you want to do or how to do it. Now it’s perfect.

Starting right now, you will understand what you want

Even if you think of January as when you start a new life in fitness and life, you can think of December as your sandbox, the place where you test ideas and think about what you really want.

If you have not been to the gym for a long time, then go ahead. Check out the venue , try out the cars, check out the class schedule. Heck, sign up for a class or two without promising yourself that you think you’ll be back. If you haven’t signed up for a gym yet, go to a few different ones and take your time choosing.

Experimentation is valuable; it teaches you about yourself and what you do. You may have thought that in the new year you would start running from the couch to 5 km, but now you have fallen in love with an exercise bike. Maybe you were about to do beginner exercises on the machines at your gym, but you picked up a barbell for fun and now you think you could spend some time learning how to use a squat rack instead.

You will appreciate the mental health benefits

December is a stressful time for many of us, be it good stress, bad stress, or a combination of the two. I spend the last month of the year constantly slapping my forehead and saying, “Oh yes, I have to do this too!” where “this” is choosing a health plan, completing a project by the end of the year, or attending a children’s holiday concert. I know that I’m not the only one.

At first, it may seem that a couple of workouts a week will add stress. But in fact, the workout is the easiest to add to your calendar: there is no preparation, no homework. You just have to show up and do it. Literally schedule it if you need to and keep this meeting to yourself. Exercise helps relieve stress , and sticking to an exercise regimen will likely reduce the overall stress you experience in your life.

Starting to mind your own business when you are busy will also help you stay honest. Are you really going to go to the gym on the other side of town? If you manage to make it through December, you know what the routine holds. On the other hand, if you find yourself skipping a trip in favor of running around your neighborhood or doing homemade push-ups and kettlebell swings, then maybe you can stick with it in the future.

You will beat the rush

The gyms are full in January; it is just one of the natural rhythms of the world. Instead of trying to catch a treadmill when everyone else wants it too, why not get started while you have room for yourself? Learn your way to the gym when it’s just you and a few regulars.

Then, when it starts to be crowded after the New Year, you will already know what’s what. Instead of wondering if there is a pair of 2.5-pound pancakes anywhere, you will know that there are two pairs in the gym and that you can usually find one of them on the very last bench stand in the row.

By then, you will also have figured out your daily routine and preferences. You know which classes you want to sign up for because you’ve tried them all; You know what to wear for cold weather runs because you’ve been through a few. You know it’s not the end of the world if you catch a cold and have to miss a workout because you have a couple weeks of consistency behind you and you know you’ll be back. You will be confident in doing the job because you started this process a whole month ago. Or, in other words, now.

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