New Year, New Me?
Is it really?
Every year we always here the same phrase. Now there's nothing wrong with the phrase it's self. It's catchy and ambitious, It's just a shame more people don't stick with it. New years resolutions rarely end up being permanent. It seems the majority fail within a month.
Reality check.
If you're thinking about making a fitness based new years resolution, please note, a lot of strength training programs last 6-8 weeks. If you're looking to tone up, bulk up or just get stronger you should really be hitting each muscle group 2 or 3 times per week as elevated rates of muscle protein synthesis won't last a whole week. This means training once a week or less isn't the most efficient way to go about things. Make sure you understand the work you need to put in, in order to ''lose weight this year'' or ''tone up in the gym'.
So let's make things easier.
2 workouts per week for 6-8 weeks is 12-16 workouts. According to the Guardian, it took less than a month for 66% of people to break their last failed new years resolution. Do you think you can beat the 66%? What about getting through 26 workouts? That's just over 3 months of working out twice per week. That would put you above the 80% who didn't last 3 months.
There are 52 weeks in a year and that could mean 104 workouts for anybody who wants to beat the 86% and more importantly stick to changing their life for the better.
New year, a fitter, healthier, new me?
References
Arnett, G., (2015). How long do people keep their new years resolutions? The Guardian. [Online]. 31st December. [17/12/2016]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/dec/31/how-long-do-people-keep-their-new-year-resolutions
MacDougall, J., D., Gibala, M., J., Tarnopolsky, M., A., MacDonald, J., R., Interisano, S., A. and Yarasheski, K., E., (1995). The Time Course for Elevated Muscle Protein Synthesis Following Heavy Resistance Exercise. Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology. Volume 20(4). Pp: 480-486
