Finding your fitness finesse

Photo credit: Matt Bowen

As we’ve made it a month into 2015, it’s easy to become discouraged with some of our resolutions. A common one is increased gym time, but don’t fret, we have the perfect solution for your fitness routine.

A large contributing factor to not being able to maintain or keep up on fitness goals is a lack of routine and organization when it comes to the gym.

Many students just know that they would like to get in shape, lose weight, tone themselves, add muscle etc. but don’t understand how to create a plan or how important having one is.

Not only is organization crucial to success, it will be the key to 2015 being the year of kept and attained goals.

First and foremost, make a schedule for yourself. Now that we have our class schedules finalized and know our work schedules, we know when we have free time and when we don’t. Commit to the days in the week you know you are available.

Say you’re done with class and work at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Plan to head straight to the gym from your last obligation of the day and pack a gym bag the night before or morning of.

This helps you hold yourself accountable knowing that your workout clothes are waiting for you in the car. It’s easy to talk yourself out of having the time or energy to go the gym. It’s something you have to make time for and realize how important it is.

Increased exercise will release endorphins, which can lead to being happier and increase your energy levels, allowing you to be more productive in other areas of your life.

After making the gym a priority in your list of weekly activities, finding a gym partner is the next step in a well- established routine.

It’s easy for us to rationalize our low attendance or missed days at the gym when we’re just reporting to ourselves. When we have a partner to not only exercise with but also be a supporter and motivator, you have someone else to hold you accountable to your goals.

Discuss your goals and schedule with a friend that you are comfortable enough to exercise with. You can go together and choose to do the same workouts and spot each other, or just going with each other can be enough. It depends on your specific goals and what works best for you two as a partnership.

You can report to each other on the progress you’re making and come up with different workouts to do together or separately.

A way to help you and your gym partner not only create but maintain your goals is using a website that lets you create a free personalized gym plan.

One of the popular and well- respected websites to do this is bodybuilding.com. It goes through your goals; your level of fitness and where you’d like to start helping you have a set workout routine.

If you create and commit to putting the gym in your schedule, finding a partner to help you and hold you accountable and use a website to help make a customized plan, the gym will be your friend and hand to hold all year long.