New Year’s Fitness Resolutions & How to Keep Them!

Making a New Year’s Resolution to improve your fitness is easy, it’s sticking to the resolution that’s difficult! Take a look at our guide to making achievable New Year’s Fitness Resolutions and discover ACE Races simple strategies for how to keep them in 2021.

Ask Yourself ‘Why?’

Before embarking on your fitness journey, you should ask yourself ‘why?’ Why are you making this New Year’s Resolution?

Being aware of the reason for your fitness resolution and the driving force for why you want to achieve it can help to motivate you on days where there is a temptation to give it up. Just keep pushing yourself!

Be SMART

You can have the best intentions as the festive season comes to a close, but the truth is the majority of our New Year Resolutions are dropped by February. It’s important to be aware of this, and try to increase your chance of success by being specific about your fitness goals.

So, instead of making a fitness resolution to ‘exercise more’, ‘lose weight’ or ‘tone up’ try to challenge yourself with a more compelling goal. One way to do this is to apply the SMART test to your goal. Ask yourself, is my fitness resolution Specific, Measurable, Achievable. Relevant and Time-Framed?

By applying this thought-process, your new year’s fitness resolution can appear a lot more ‘do-able’ going from the open-ended ‘lose weight’ to ‘lose 5 pounds by March’!

Write It Down!

Writing down your New Year’s Fitness Resolution makes it feel all the more real and can help you to kickstart your challenge.

You should also take it a step further and proudly display your resolution, whether you stick it on the fridge or post it on social media. By actively setting your intentions and telling your family and friends about your fitness goals, you’ll feel both accountable and supported.

Take One Step At A Time

Change doesn’t happen overnight. Avoid setting yourself up for failure by taking one step at a time.

You are more likely to achieve your overall New Year’s Fitness Resolution by starting small and gradually building momentum. Consider breaking your goal into several smaller challenges and celebratory wins to recognise your progress.

For example, if you aspire to take part in a marathon race why not start with running an achievable 5k? Or, if the hardest part is to find the time and energy and exercise, why not challenge yourself to put on your workout clothes in the evening. Now you’re weaning your gear you might as well workout, right?

Select An Accountability Partner

New Year’s Fitness Resolutions may be personal, but sharing your goals with another person can provide some much-needed support and maintain your motivation.

By selecting an Accountability Partner, whether it’s your trainer, friend or partner, you can increase the likeliness of reaching your fitness goals by 95%! However, you have to make sure to choose a workout buddy who’s going to show up, take no excuses and push you towards your goals.

Keep It Interesting

So, you know why you want to achieve your New Year’s Fitness Resolution, you’ve created a SMART goal, broken it down into monthly challenges and got yourself a workout buddy to keep you going.

However, it is still possible to become de-motivated especially if you’re doing the same work out routines week in week out. One way to fix this issue is to keep it interesting, a routine is essential for reaching your fitness goals but why not switch things up and try a new workout every so often.

For example, instead of hitting the gym again why not give indoor rock climbing a go, or swap jogging for an assault course once a month?

Have Fun!

Although it’s great to stay focused on your goals, you should also ensure that you’re enjoying your active lifestyle and benefit from the effects of regular exercise rather than getting caught up on targets.

So, work hard toward your 2021 fitness resolution but find balance in your fitness activity and have fun!

Make Competing in Virtual Races Your New Year’s Resolution

If you’re looking for an exciting challenge you can complete any time, anywhere then look no further than our virtual races.

At ACE Races, you can complete any race how you want and when you want whether you’re 2021 New Year’s Resolution is to run, cycle, swim, or row!

We offer a wide range of challenges including our 5k virtual races, 10k virtual races, half-marathon virtual races or full marathon virtual races. Make virtual racing part of your 2021 and reach your fitness goals!

For every virtual running race you compete in, you’ll receive a custom-made, collectable medal for your efforts. So, set your New Year’s fitness resolution and enter a virtual race today!