The New Year is officially here. 

Are you feeling inspired to bring your fitness dreams to life? To make this your year, the one you’ll tell stories about: How you overcame limits, achieved your goals, remained consistent, lived in vivid color, and never felt better. The year you became your strongest, most vibrant, confident, and empowered self yet. 

Whether you’re focused on maintaining a healthy weight, building muscle, improving strength and mobility, or simply feeling your most fabulous and energized, read on for five actionable, science-backed resolutions to help you reach every goal on this year’s fitness vision board.  

Grab your favorite gym outfit, fill up your water bottle, and let’s do this. 

The most common New Year’s resolution? According to Forbes Health, it’s improving fitness– but it’s also the hardest one to keep. Most resolutions are forgotten by spring, with only 1% of people sticking with them through a full year.1,2  

Why? Because the goals we set are often vague or unattainable, and frequently lack the proper support systems, accountability, and focus on behavioral change we need to truly succeed.3 

From the gym to your own backyard, here’s how to make meaningful shifts toward getting into the best shape yet in the year ahead.

A key way to ensure we stay consistent and motivated to meet our fitness targets is to set clear, measurable goals. You may be familiar with the idea of SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time Bound.  Harnessing the power of the SMART framework can help prevent overwhelm by identifying clear, actionable, achievable objectives. When our goals are well-defined, we are better able to track our progress and keep motivation high. Plus, breaking larger goals into smaller, more manageable steps can make it easier to stay focused and encouraged along your fitness journey.4 

Try this: 

• Swap ambiguous statements for SMART fitness goals. Instead of “I will do more yoga,” say, “I will complete one 30-minute yoga class daily for 30 days to help improve my flexibility and reduce stress.” Or, instead of “I will get stronger,” say, “I will increase my leg press weight from 80 to 110 pounds within 10 weeks by lifting three times per week.”
  • Specific: Increase leg press weight.
  • Measurable: From 80 pounds to 110 pounds.
  • Achievable: A reasonable increase in strength over 10 weeks.
  • Relevant: Improves your strength in weightlifting.
  • Time-bound: You’ll achieve this goal within 10 weeks.

Once you get started, while your new fitness plans can start to benefit your health and well-being from day one, remember that making progress takes time. Immediate results may not be visible, but don’t let that discourage you! Instead, track your achievements with a free app like My Fitness Pal. Tools that allow you to visualize how far you've come can help keep your fitness momentum going.

If boring workouts or feeling unmotivated have led you to ditch your fitness resolutions in the past, you’re not alone. Research shows that one of the leading elements of successful fitness outcomes is– you guessed it– having more fun! When we don’t enjoy workouts or they start to feel too repetitive and boring, studies say, we’re far less likely to stay on track. On the contrary, when we have a good time with our workouts, we’re far more likely to not only show up to that non-refundable class we signed up for, but to stick with fitness for the long term.5 

Try this: 

• Mix it up. Avoid letting your routine go stale by regularly exploring new workouts, from trying a new class each week to learning a new style of dance or taking up a sport. You can even add a bit of variety by switching up your environment. Tired of the vibe at your gym? Maybe it’s time to go for a hike or take a swim, instead.
• Make it social. Working out with friends can not only dial up the fun and make fitness more interesting, but can also make us more likely to stick with our goals. According to Harvard researchers, having a workout buddy or exercise group can increase accountability, motivation, and help us stay encouraged, all of which make us more likely to stay committed to our goals.6 

If resting your body and recovering between workouts seems like wasted time you should be using to work on your bench press, think again. Exercise breaks down our bodies, and recovery time allows us to rebuild. The result: improved strength and fitness. Our muscles, tendons, and ligaments need recovery time to repair between workouts, so our bodies can not only build muscle and strength, but avoid overperformance and injury as well.7  

Try this: 

• Don’t skip your cool-down. Cooling down with lower-intensity exercise at the end of your workout is associated with improved performance. Finish up with some stretching to help increase mobility and reduce the risk of injury.7 
• Give yourself time between strength-training sessions. Depending on your fitness level and workout intensity, muscles can take anywhere from 24 hours to three days to recover. Try giving yourself two to three days between strength sessions for each specific muscle group.8
• Sleep tight! Most of our muscle growth and repair happens while we are sleeping. Aim for at least seven hours per night.7 
• And, stay mindful of aches and pain to avoid pushing yourself beyond your limits. Fatigue, aches and pains, and decreased performance can all be signs that you need to take a rest day, pronto.7 Naturally help speed recovery, soothe pain, bruising, and discomfort, and get back in the gym faster with Arnica Montana.  

Another critical element of supporting recovery? Fueling your body with solid nutrition.

Focusing on fitness without optimal nutrition can make reaching our goals far more challenging. Opting for high-calorie foods with low nutritional value can do more than sabotage your weight loss efforts; poor diet can lead to fatigue, low endurance, and nutritional deficiencies that may hinder your fitness progress. Good nutrition helps to support athletic performance, recovery, and overall improvement in numerous ways, from helping to keep our energy levels high during workouts to promoting muscle building and repair.9, 10 

Try this: 

• Incorporate a high-quality multivitamin into your daily routine to help bridge nutritional gaps.
• Be sure to fuel up pre-workout with healthy carbohydrates like whole wheat toast or a banana, stay hydrated, and replenish your body after physical activity with electrolytes, proteins, and healthy fats.

Bonus Tip: One of our favorite ways to power up before workouts is a protein-packed Collagen smoothie. Blend up this energizing Matcha Coconut Smoothie recipe (via The Worktop), with a Collagen Peptides boost to help support muscles, bones, and joints, and promote strength and mobility. 

Serves: 2 large cups Prep Time: 2 minutes

Ingredients: 

• 1 ½ cups coconut milk drink
• 2 frozen bananas
• 2 handfuls ice
• 1 teaspoon coconut palm sugar
• 2 teaspoons Matcha powder
• 2 servings of VitaMedica Collagen Peptides Powder

Instructions: Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

The number one reason people skip workouts, which can ultimately lead to losing track of our fitness goals, isn’t low motivation; it’s a lack of time. If your calendar is filling up, prioritizing fitness by scheduling non-negotiable time for movement can be key to staying consistent. Treat this time as you would any important meeting or appointment that simply can’t be missed.11

Try this: 

• If you can’t find time to make it to the gym, the American Heart Association recommends finding activities you can fit into your normal home or work routine. This way, you can save time on commuting to another place while still getting your heart rate up and moving your body. Take phone meetings while you walk your neighborhood or work campus, climb stairs instead of taking the elevator, keep weights on hand for strength training during your lunch break, or exercise while you catch up on your favorite streaming series.
• On especially busy days, find at least 10 minutes. In a pinch, even a quick 10-minute workout like this one can help to boost your heart rate and brain power.