Achieve that resolution and get in shape

It is that time of year again. Making that New Year's resolution to yourself to get back into shape. Well, I hope most of you who have read my articles have a structured plan ready to go for 2018.

As you may remember from past columns, the majority of individuals who start a fitness routine don't finish because their plan lacks structure and/or has no set goals. I wanted to focus on a few other issues that could be the reason why your New Year's resolution may go unfulfilled.

Here are three things that could help you out for 2018.

First, the problems

Stress  Your body looks at stress the same no matter whether it is physical, mental or emotional stress. A breakup with a boyfriend or girlfriend or a fight with your spouse can have the same effect on your body as if you swam 2,000 meters in the pool.
Stress on the body will need time for recovery in order to get back to a healthy state.

Sleep  Your body will need to recover from all the punishment it is put through in order to get stronger. If you are not allowing for enough sleep each night, you will end up getting weaker rather than stronger.

Fatigue training  Doing too many high-intensity, threshold workouts or Vo2 Max workouts in a week – without enough recovery – can wear you down to complete exhaustion and put you out of training for weeks.

Also, doing the same routine over and over and over may cause you to feel like you can't improve.

Finding solutions

Stress solutions  Be willing to change your schedule around if need be. If you are completely trashed from a long day at the office and you are scheduled for a crossfit workout after work, change it. Your body is tired, and it is trying to tell you it needs rest.

Instead of doing that high-intensity workout, do an easy recovery run instead. Don't stress about having to make a specific workout. Listen to your body and be flexible. We want physical activity to be a stress reliever, not something that adds to your stress level.

Sleep solutions  This is hard for a lot of people because there are only so many hours in a day. Some people can get by with four to six hours of sleep a night. I would suggest seven hours of sleep a night – 50 hours of sleep a week – as a target goal.

If you find that you are not getting enough sleep, you can try taking a 20-minute power nap during the day to recharge. You can also try setting a bedtime for yourself

Fatigue solutions  A good rule of thumb to follow is having half of your workouts be high-intensity anaerobic workouts while the other half should be low-intensity aerobic workouts.

This will vary depending on the type of training, but it will help prevent you from doing too much in one week. You should also vary your workouts so you are not repeating the same type of exercise. Your body needs an overload to adapt. If you are always doing the same thing, your body is not going to change much.

Putting together a good program or training plan for each individual is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Each piece of the puzzle has to fit, and what works for your friends or your training partner many not be the best idea for you.

Having a well-designed program could be the difference for many of us in getting over the New Year's resolution fitness hump – and back into shape.