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Make this your year

Make this your year

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In no specific order, here are Mark Laws’ six tips that will help your 2019 fitness journey

Around 70% of the population made a New Year’s pledge to improve their fitness in 2019, and 40% of those will have given up before the next issue of BESTFIT is in your hands. To put that in context, 18 million people will have given up before the end of January. If you are genuinely serious about making a difference, then keep reading and take advantage of advice below.

Consistency is King

Nothing that is worth having has ever been achieved easily, or quickly. Forget all the ’28-day six-pack’ guides or the celebrity-endorsed miracle potions, if you want to make progress then you need to be playing the long game. That can only happen if you are consistent. It doesn’t matter too much early on how hard you train or how much you lift, but just get into the habit of working out two or three times per week consistently.

A problem shared is a problem halved

It can be lonely embarking on a long journey by yourself, so try to find someone to share the whole thing with. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find a friend, colleague or family member that lives near you who may also have made some New Year’s resolutions to stop being so lazy. It is a hell of a lot more difficult to sack off a trip to the gym when you know your best mate has just walked there in the rain after a 12-hour shift and is expecting you to be there.

Safety first, safety second

Regardless of who you are training with they will be better than you at some things, and you will be better than them at others. If by some miracle there is absolutely nothing that you are better at, then be happy that you are training with someone who can inspire you to improve in many areas rather than trying to break your neck to keep up with them. I can assure you the gap will close more quickly than you think, leaving them nervously looking over their shoulder as you develop and progress…

Easy does it

When learning new skills, of which strength and exercising both are, it is very important to start steady and to gradually increase the difficulty as you improve. Everything that you do, whether it is in the gym, in a class, in the park or at home should follow these crucial rules. The difficult level should start off SIMPLE and gradually become more COMPLEX. The speed of any movement should start off SLOW and gradually increase to being executed FAST. The amount of resistance for any movement should start off UNLOADED and gradually increase to be LOADED.

Patience is most definitely a virtue

I know you are going to want miracle results, I am pretty sure that you want them to happen very quickly and if I was a gambling man then I would certainly bet a few quid that you won’t be overly impressed about me telling you to not try and compete with your mates. But patience is the most important skill you are going to need. If you are staying injury-free, progressing steadily and can get into the habit of training regularly each week, then I promise you that you are heading in the right direction.

Ready, Fire, Aim…

Whatever you do, stop procrastinating. You might not have a specific goal to work towards yet, you may not have chosen a training partner or a venue to start working out but that doesn’t matter. Just start. Do something. Do anything. Get ready, start… and then you can worry about the specifics further down the line.

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