Navigating The Gym During New Years Craze

​It's the New Year, and everyone and their cousin has the same New Year's Resolution; to get back into the gym and be fit this year.
​
The typical problem with this is that everyone floods the gyms for the first 2 weeks, overcrowding the space and leaving little room to get your own routine done. Even if you are regularly taking time to exercise prior to this, the influx of people can throw you off your routine and force you to miss out and potentially stop you from wanting to go back.

Luckily, we can help put some guidelines in place so this doesn't happen to you.

Image Source

With overcrowded gyms, you will have limited space for using your favorite machines, or you will have to wait a long time to get on something, making your 45-minute workout a 90-minute ordeal. This is where you need to ride out the 2-week storm when everyone's motivation dies out and, they give up on their resolution.

The best way to maintain your workouts is to do bodyweight exercises with slow tempo paces. This eliminates the need for equipment that is being hogged, and you can condense your workouts into big movements that will yield a high result.

Some examples would include a squat, push-up, split squat, inverted row/TRX row, and dips.

You would perform these movements at a slow pace of 2-3s down and 2-3s up for continuous reps (meaning no lock-outs or pauses). You will be cooking after 6-8 reps of moves like these. Ideally, pick 2-3 exercises and perform 3 sets of 8-12 reps with 1 min1-minute in-between per workout, 2x/week.

As you perform these simple movements, you may be able to squeeze in and grab some dumbbells to do a couple of sets of curls, triceps, etc. These workouts will maintain your strength and assist with continuing your exercise habit during the New Year.

The next thing you can do is perform a continuous movement of marches, skips, walking lunges, carries, or any other cardio equipment you can get on for 20-30 min 2x/week. These circuits will allow you to maintain cardiovascular health in a small space, especially to avoid running in the cold or fighting for a treadmill that some New Year's Resolutionist decided to walk on at 1 mph.

If you are looking to get started on an exercise habit this year, the above-mentioned activities would be a great way to build a habit without sacrificing too much of your time. Remember, you must consistently show up if you want to build a habit. Start slow and make it realistic.

Discipline over motivation. Motivation is doing things when you feel like it. Discipline is doing things, despite how you feel at that time. The ones that show up consistently yield the best results.

Need help creating your gym routines this year? 

We can help you be at the top of your game, training pain-free. 

Email us at staff@dynmaicprri.com today and write "New Program" in the subject line.