5 key strategies to comply with your new year's resolutions

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Too often, boys make New Year’s resolutions, stick to them for a month, see no results and resign. It is the phenomenon behind “January fever”, and the reason why most gyms return to their usual crowd in mid-March.

But it doesn’t have to be one of those average types that abandons a fitness plan once it loses its initial momentum. We speak with the New York City-based coach and strength coach Nick Ebner, C.P.T., to tell us how to stay motivated and achieve lifelong results. Here are five common questions with Ebner’s answers below.

1. What is the key to staying motivated after the January fever?

Don’t show up alone in the gym and say, “I want to get fit.” No plan is usually equal to any result. Nor should you link your goals to something related to the physical, such as “I want six pack abs” or “I want to burn my love handles.”

I suggest having a definitive performance goal, or several. Make it measurable, such as “go to the gym three times a week” or “be sure to exercise for a total of 180 minutes in a week.” Depending on where you start, you may need to change nutrition, sleep and other lifestyle habits to achieve these goals, but you will need a strategy.

2. How long does it really take to see the results of an exercise program?

This depends on the individual. The three factors that I think play the most important role in seeing the results are the student’s age, past exercise / training history and consistency. If you are a former young athlete and you are training 3-5 times a week, the results can be displayed in 2-4 weeks.

In addition, if you are younger and you are a new learner, the results are also usually fast, but if you are 45 years old, you have never worked and eaten badly for the past 20 years, the results will probably take much longer. . Fortunately, with consistency, the results will arrive more quickly.

3. What is an easy way to show me that I am making progress?

If your goals are body composition, ask someone to do a BioSignature Assessment, which is a very precise hormonal and body fat assessment of 12 points, every 4-6 weeks. If your goals are based on performance, keep an exercise diary or a program log to see if what you are doing works.

4. How can I “cheat” in my diet and still look better than last year?

Set a realistic goal about how clean you think you can get your diet versus how much you want to cheat. After 4-8 weeks, if you don’t see the changes you want, you will have to skew the proportion towards the cleanest side. Make small changes until you see the results you are looking for and set deadlines to evaluate if what you are doing works. For most people, small changes remain better than massive changes.

5. How can I make a shorter workout more effective?

Frequency, food and sleep! You can train for shorter increments per workout if you appear more frequently. You can train less and see changes in body composition if you feed your body with the fuel it needs. Your body also changes when you sleep, so if you sleep less than 7-9 hours each night, you probably won’t get optimal gains.