With the promise of a new year, 40% of American adults are inspired to create one or more New Years’ resolutions. Can you guess what one of the most popular resolutions is? It’s usually centered on improving one’s health and wellness. However, many people often fall off the wagon within the first few months. If this sounds familiar, and you wish to learn motivation and exercise tips for a more fruitful life, continue reading.

Experiment With Different Exercise Styles

One of the most popular exercise tips you’ll hear is to find an activity that is both enjoyable and therapeutic. This can take the form of yoga, weightlifting, or jogging around your neighborhood. If you like what you’re doing exercise-wise, it won’t feel like a chore.

Signing up for several different exercise classes around town can give you a good idea of what’s out there in the fitness world. If you find normal running boring, take a dance class to get your heart rate up and burn calories. If you’d rather work out alone, swimming is a great option that will work out your entire body.

Choose Your Gym Wisely

Paying for a gym membership often serves as sufficient motivation to get you consistently going to exercise. If you have never been to a gym, consider these next few factors when narrowing your selection down.

• Consider the location. If it’s too far from your home, you may find yourself making excuses as to why you can’t go. Especially if you live in a big city with heavy traffic. Ensure that the gym you choose is at most only fifteen minutes away from you.
• Consider the atmosphere. If your gym is filled with athletes who love heavy weightlifting, will this motivate you or make you feel self-conscious?
• Consider the price. Gyms can get quite expensive, so make sure you get the rate in writing. You can be subject to other hidden fees, such as a yearly fee, a family-add on fee, or an additional cost to use other facilities such as their childcare center.
• Consider the size. There are pros and cons to both small and large gyms. Smaller gyms can feel more tightknit — like a community. A larger gym, however, can feel non-claustrophobic.
• Consider whether or not the staff is knowledgable. Can they give you exercise tips when you’re feeling confused and lost?

Workout With a Friend

Enlisting in the help of a workout buddy is another way you can stay consistent and accountable. Find a friend who is also trying to get into shape and hit the gym together. The two of you can also go hiking or running outdoors. Your dog can also count as your workout buddy. However, make sure that they are in excellent health if you’re taking him on a run. Take them to the vet for a pet wellness checkup to make sure their joints and muscles are healthy.

More on Your Pet’s Healthcare

Aside from taking them to the vet, you want to make sure you’re doing your part in keeping your four-legged workout partner healthy. Some examples of dog health care you can do include:

• Administering their medicine on time
• Giving them fresh water throughout the day so they stay healthy
• Taking them on light walks or to the dog park to socialize with other pups
• Giving them a joint supplement if their breed is prone to arthritis and hip dysplasia

Always Have a Plan

Like with anything in life, you should devise a plan and come to the gym prepared. These other exercise tips can only take you so far. But if you just stumble in with no clear course of action, it’s easy to get intimidated and distracted.

Therefore, sit yourself down and write out a monthly workout plan. This is often called a workout split. There are various free programs online. There are even some more advanced programs created by fitness professionals and personal trainers that you can purchase, although that’s not necessary when first starting.

Divide your week up into its singular days and assign a body part or activity for each day of the week.

For example, do cardio on Mondays, a swimming session on Wednesdays, and a full-body weightlifting workout on Fridays.

This split can vary depending on your working hours, your access to a gym throughout the week, and how often you can see yourself working out every week. Once you’ve outlined your split using this basic principle, break it down even further. Write down which exercises work each body part best. If you want stronger legs, plan to perform squats, lunges, and leg extensions.

Try an At-Home Workout

You don’t need a barbell set to workout at home. If you can’t make it to the gym, try an at-home workout instead. There are various video tutorials online filled with exercise tips that can get your blood pumping. If you wish to make your at-home workout, implement some of these body weighted exercises and movements.

• Burpees
• Jumping jacks
• Push-ups
• Sit-ups
• Leg-lifts
• Jump Squats

Give Weightlifting a Try

Weight lifting isn’t just for strongmen and athletes. No matter what your goals are, you should be implementing some form of weightlifting. There are many benefits to the exercise such as:

• Weightlifting increases your metabolism, so you burn more calories throughout the day.
• Weightigting allows you to eat more food throughout the day to promote muscle growth.
• Weightlifting may also improve your body composition by building a more desirable physique.

Drink Plenty of Water While Exercising

When working out, ensure you have a water bottle with you at all times as to not dehydrate your body while exerting yourself.

Dehydration can lead to dizziness, headaches, nausea, and body aches, so drink 8 ounces every 15 minutes.

Also, ensure your air conditioning unit is working at all times to avoid overheating when you get home.

Set More Realistic Goals for Yourself

The main reason why people tend to abandon their wellness goals so soon is that they set unrealistic expectations for themselves. When they realize they can’t attain those goals in the amount of time they had originally planned, they abandon ship, thinking either something is wrong with them, or that reaching their goal is next to impossible.

However, you can reach that huge goal you have for yourself, but monitor your expectations and set mini-goals along the way.

Let’s say you want to lose 100 pounds. Trying to lose that much weight in just a few months is unhealthy, as you must resort to extreme dieting measures to do so. Instead, tell yourself that you want to lose a couple of pounds per week.

It can be even simpler than that. Set a goal for yourself to make it to the gym five times a week.

When implementing these exercise tips, make sure you’re also setting SMART goals — they should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.

Don’t Fail to Track Your Progress

When embarking on a fitness journey, it’s often the little victories that can keep you going. However, if you’re not keeping track of your progress, you may miss these small differences along the journey. Do a diligent job and take progress photos or keep a journal to document your progress.

Reprogram Your Mind For Better Results

Motivation can’t be the only thing pushing you to reach your goals. Why? If you only do things when you’re motivated — which can be rare — you’ll never accomplish anything. Don’t wait for inspiration. Form good habits instead. Understand that the human mind is a machine, and if you feed it the right code, you won’t have to force yourself to exercise and eat healthily. You can condition yourself to believe that there is no other option.

Think of Yourself as Already ‘Being Fit’

The Law of Attraction states that if you manifest anything hard enough, the universe will deliver. But what does this have to do with fitness? Well, this principle can play a large role if you’re trying to reprogram your brain to value exercise.

If you keep telling yourself you’re overweight or out of shape, your subconscious will make it more difficult to achieve your goals. Your brain will tell you that ‘unfit people don’t exercise.’ Instead, tell yourself that you’re already fit, and fit people never miss a workout!

Change Your Diet for the Better

Exercise tips and diet go hand in hand. You can’t achieve remarkable results without considering both of these factors. Therefore, change your diet if you feel like you’re not making enough progress. Does this mean that you have to cut out Italian cuisine?

Not at all! A healthy diet is a balanced diet. Emphasize fresh fruit, veggies, and grains in your diet, but allow yourself to enjoy life’s pleasures. Healthy meals are found in every culture. For example, try making a lasagna made from fresh tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant.

Be Patient

Don’t abandon your goals because you aren’t seeing dramatic results within the first few months. Forget what you’ve seen on social media. Often, those transformation photos you see online can be edited or doctored to promote a product. Wait around six months before seeing a dramatic shift, whether you’re aiming for weight loss or muscle growth.

Avoid the Fitness Trends

Let’s discuss harmful fitness trends. If you see an ad for exercise tips and products that seems too good to be true (Lose Weight in a Week! Or Zap Belly Fat in a Month), then it probably is.

There are no shortcuts, which can often be hard for some people to realize, and there is simply no substitute for consistent gym habits and healthy eating. Therefore, avoid these scams.

Save your money for a kitchen remodel so that you can have to storage space to store healthy and hearty foods. Or purchase gym equipment for your home.

Priorterize Your Mental Health Too

Don’t neglect another aspect of your health when following these exercise tips. Mental health is just as important as physical health. If you struggle with anxiety or depression, doing mundane tasks such as cleaning your home can feel pointless.

Hire a home cleaning service if things have gotten out of hand, and implement these tips to pull you out of a funk.

• Visit a psychologist
• Spend time with friends by going to your favorite spots, like seafood restaurants or movie theatres
• Get active
• Take up meditation
• Write a list of all the things you’re grateful for

Get Plenty of Sleep

The best advice for better health lies beyond basic exercise tips. Consider your sleep patterns, too when trying to craft a healthier life.

Your muscles don’t repair themselves when you’re awake and active. The body repairs itself while you’re sleeping during this remarkable process known as REM sleep. Getting enough sleep is crucial if you want to meet your goals. Unfortunately, many people suffer from sleep disorders such as insomnia. If you’re one of these people, consider taking a sleep aid supplements to give you the shut-eye you rightfully deserve.

Conclusion

Fitness is indeed a journey and not a pitstop. It’s going to have bumps, stops, and declines. However, if you implement these exercise tips and stay realistic, you can and will achieve those health-related goals while still enjoying the things you love — like maintaining a social life and going to your favorite sushi restaurants.

Being healthy is all about balance, and though it may take some time to achieve this, you’ll get there eventually. Enjoy the process, and the results will come.