4 ways to get back on track in your training

With the arrival of February after a LONG January for a lot of people, New Years Resolutions may seem like a distant memory. If you struggled throughout January to stay on track with your resolutions, here's where you may have gone wrong and how to get back on track

1. You set too many goals at once

That motivation we get at the start of the year can have our minds racing on all the things we want to accomplish this year. And we want to do them all now!

But that motivation doesn't last. It's hard to create good habits and routines towards goals if you set too many of them at once. If you are starting over in February, pick the most important goal you want to achieve and work towards that alone. You may have the urge to try other things as well but fight it off. Having one specific goal for this month can have multiple knock-on effects for other goals. By picking up little wins in chasing that goal, it will help give you the drive and motivation to work towards the next goal. It will also help you focus more as over this month you will have had a better chance to nail down a new habit.

2. Consistency was not there, lack of time.

This one can be very easy to beat ourselves up on and that is the wrong approach. At the same time, you have to be honest with yourself. If you didn't stick to a training plan, why? Do you genuinely not have enough time. If so, you have a few options:

- Schedule in fewer workouts at more realistic times to your lifestyle. You don't have to train 4-5 times a week to get results. If you are on a 4 day programme, switch it to 3 days and do the 4th workout at the start of the following week.

- Change the duration of your training. Every session does not have to be an hour-long or even 45 minutes long. With the right training programme, you could get great workouts in as little as 20 minutes. And 20-minute workouts are much better than none at all plus it will help you build up consistency in your training for showing up 2-3 times a week.

- Sign up to a group session where there is accountability for turning up at a specific time to do your workout.

- Maybe you set unrealistic times to train. If you have to change your times, with everything opening up again to earlier in the morning or later in the evening, know that it will take a few sessions to get the most out of your sessions! Give it time. Turning up and doing some of your workout is great because it gets you into a routine while giving your body time to adapt to your new schedule. The best time to train is the time that suits you to train.

3. You compared yourself to others and got disheartened

I still struggle with this one. Whether it's on Strava or on lifts in the gym that I know I am weaker at than others, it can get disheartening to feel like you are further behind than others. But you have to look at your training relative to your fitness levels and your future goals. If you base it on someone else's training and goals, you will not enjoy the process and stick to the programme in the long term.

You're not going to get good at everything. In terms of fat loss, any fitness programme can work (when combined with nutrition). But it has to be something you get some sort of enjoyment from. Otherwise, no matter how good the programme is if you're not enjoying it, you won't stick to it!

4. You didn't step outside your comfort zone

I talked about this a few weeks ago in this newsletter. While you don't need to do every new fancy exercise and workout on Instagram, you do need to make sure you are challenging yourself in your training. If you are in the habit of doing the same exercises for the same number of reps and sets with the same weight every week, you will not see much progress. Besides, without trying other forms of training, you will not know what you like and it will be harder for you to set goals and stick to them. This is coming from someone who used to HATE running, and now I base a lot of my training around long-distance running goals.

If you keep having to start over in your training, try a new approach! Even the type of training or a new gym programme can have great effects. If you are changing your programme, be sure to give it time to work!