By Bree Weeden
We’re already one month into 2017, so it’s time to assess how well you’ve been doing on your New Year’s resolutions. Did you promise you’d actually work out more this year? If you’ve been struggling to keep that resolution check out these helpful tips!
1. Pencil It In
Pull up your school, work, and personal schedules and find any overlapping free time. Then, pencil your gym time into your schedule for every week. Treat working out just like you treat going to class or work – you wouldn’t just not show up for your shift, so you shouldn’t just skip the gym!
2. Find a Friend
Working out with a friend or two has multiple health benefits. Most importantly, you can hold each other accountable. You’ll be less likely to skip a workout if you have other people counting on you. In addition, partner exercises are fun ways to challenge each other to try new things. An exciting new workout class or weight machine will seem less scary with a friend!
3. Track Your Exercise
Free apps such as MyFitnessPal and PumpUp let you track your daily exercise and even provide you with fun personalized workouts. If you’re willing to spend a little extra cash, fitness tracking devices like Fitbits log your exercise for you by monitoring your movement and heartrate. Fitbit also tracks your sleep and lets you have fun competitions with your friends!
4. Go Shopping
If you’re anything like me, you usually work out in all of your free tanks and tees from various UCD clubs and events. While these shirts seem like great workout attire, most are made of cotton or cotton blends and absorb sweat rather than release it. I recommend you invest in some real exercise apparel that wicks sweat away to enhance performance from brands such as Lululemon, Victoria’s Secret, Nike, or Adidas. In addition, if you purchase workout clothes that you actually like and feel confident in, you’ll want to wear them more often and thus will want to go to the gym more (#science).
5. Fix Your Music
An effective workout playlist should consist of songs which match your elevated heart rate. Pick songs with a speed from 120 to 190 bpm (beats per minute). Spotify makes great playlists designed for cardio, weightlifting, and other types of workouts!
Hopefully these tips help motivate you to get fit in 2017! We’ll see you at the ARC, Healthy Aggies!
Healthy Aggies at UC Davis 