Whenever you start a new exercise routine, there’s a lot of pressure to excel. You want to start seeing results right away. And you want to show your family and friends that you’re making strides with your new fitness resolution. But there are several downsides to pushing yourself too hard when you’re setting out on a new health endeavor. For example, if you set goals that are too high, your disappointment about not meeting them can ruin the experience and cause you to lose motivation. You can also work way too hard and put your well-being in jeopardy.
The important thing to remember is that just getting started is impressive – it’s further than a lot of people get who wish they could be in better shape but then don’t do anything about it. After that, simply sticking with the program is your primary focus.
Rather than set big goals in terms of minutes, reps or pounds, you can agree to one extremely appropriate mission: try your best. This isn’t an excuse to do the minimal amount of work, but it can help you stay on task over time.
Here’s how it works, with the example of push-ups (let’s say you’ve never done a push-up in your life, but it’s something you want to succeed at in 2012).
- Figure out the proper posture and positioning so that you know how to do it right and get the most from each of the muscles you’re using. A Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym personal trainer can help you achieve this.
- Start by doing one push-up. That’s right, just one. Easy enough?
- Got a grip on the correct way to do one solid push-up? Great, that means it’s time to try five in a row. It won’t be easy at first, but eventually it will seem like a piece of cake. There’s no time limit on how long it might take you to master – set your own pace. The only agenda is to complete five.
- Only when you find it easy to go through five push-ups in a row should you move to ten. Suddenly you’re doing twice as much. This may take awhile to get used to, but there’s no hurry. Keep trying to do ten push-ups in a row over a matter of days until you feel like it’s easy to do ten.
- Move on to 15 or 20 push-ups.
See the pattern here? All that’s asked of you is that you meet and challenge your own limits while striving to continuously improve. As long as you stay honest and dedicated, you’re already on the path to achieving your fitness goals. This is the same for other workout methods as well. You can start by running five minutes on the treadmill and then gradually work your way up to 30. Start small, stay focused and never pressure yourself to do more than you, personally, are capable of doing.