It’s already a quarter of the way through the year. Your motivation to start 2026 strong and fit might be wearing down. What can you do to make it more sustainable? Here are a few tips to help you stay strong ALL YEAR ROUND.
1) Make it fun – Find a friend or a group of people to work out with. If fitness classes aren’t for you, there are other options! Look for a friend or a few friends who are also on a fitness journey. It will be a lot more fun to work out with a buddy, share some new training ideas and most likely some laughter. A huge benefit of having friends to workout with is accountability: you can’t secretly skip a workout anymore!
2) Change it up – You don’t need to go to the gym and repeat the exact same routine and exercises every day. Break it up into lower body day, upper body day, core day, cardio day… Not only it is a more efficient way to build strength, it will also diversify your workouts.
Be creative! Look online for a new exercise targeting the muscle group you want to work on, use free weights or barbells instead of machines, or even better: go outside and try rollerblading, cross country skiing, or something new that you’ve never done before! It is never too late to try something new, especially when you can share the fun with a friend.
3) Keep track – Some people like numbers and checking things off a list. At the beginning of each week, look at each day and make sure to dedicate a specific time to workout every single day. Write it down in your calendar. You can even try to be more specific and include “outside workout”, “lower body day”, “cardio”… It will feel nice to check it as “done” on your calendar each day, and you will get to see your streaks grow higher and higher! How high can you go?
4) Rest and refuel – As you implement more workouts into your routine, make sure to get plenty of rest and refuel your body with healthy food – don’t forget to add extra protein and extra fiber, as well as plenty of water! With good rest, healthy food, and good hydration, you will feel more energized and in a better place to tackle your next workout.
Remember that if your muscles are sore, they will feel better once you start moving and your body warms up. Also, keep in mind that if you walk into a workout with a good mindset, you will do much better than if you walk in feeling beat and defeated. So put a smile on your face and play your favorite song while walking into the gym!
5) Don’t overdo it – A big mistake that people make is going too hard, too fast. Exercising should make you feel good, not worse. If you feel too sore, too exhausted, you will not want to get back at it the next day. Increase the difficulty little by little, make sure that you work hard enough for it to count, but not too much that you can’t move the next day.
Remember that a little soreness tells you that you did a great job, but if you can barely move the next day then you’ve overdone yourself. We all learn with trial and errors – you know yourself best, so listen to your body!
Final word of wisdom: if you only had one car for your whole life, wouldn’t you want to be as diligent as possible with its maintenance to keep it running for as long as you can? Well, guess what? You only get one body for your whole life, so take good care of it!!
