As a seasoned fitness expert with two decades of experience, I'm here to guide you through 24 powerful resolutions to elevate your fitness journey in 2024.
Buckle up, because it's time to transform your approach to health and wellness! And the best part, being that we are already one week into 2024, if your resolutions already fell to the wayside, you have 24 options below to consider so that you can keep making progress - whether that be muscle gain, fat loss, mobility work, or just general sense of health and wellness, we have you covered!
1. Address Dietary Gaps with Essential Nutrients
Embark on your fitness journey by identifying and addressing dietary gaps. Integrate supplements, protein powder, essential amino acids, minerals, and vitamins for a nutritionally robust foundation. With the rise of processed foods comes the downside of missing out on important vitamins and minerals in our diets.
As we are currently in winter, those living in the northern hemisphere start to see less and less of the sun, leading to vitamin D deficiency. According to the USDA and CDC, over 50% of America is deficient of vitamin D, regardless of age. Other common deficiencies include iron, calcium, vitamin E, magnesium, iodine etc.
Consult with your doctor or pharmacist first, and then ask about implementing vitamin D, a quality multivitamin, and vitamin K2.
2. Prioritize Protein Intake with Protein Powder
Elevate your protein game by making 1g/lb of LEAN MUSCLE your minimum target. Lean into the efficiency of protein powder to meet this goal and fuel your fitness ambitions.
Protein has the highest TEF or thermic effect of food, meaning that it takes the most energy to break down when compared to the other macronutrients: fats and carbohydrates. This means that consuming more protein helps burn more calories. In addition, protein helps keep us feeling fuller longer and shuts off grehlin, the hunger hormone!
With flavors such as Vanilla Milkshake, Chocolate, and Caramel Crave, just to barely skim the surface of possible protein flavors, it is very versatile to add into shakes, smoothies or even add into recipes! For example, when making no bake energy bites, (my favorite on the go snack) try adding in one scoop of protein powder to the rolled oats, honey, and nut butter to give it the added protein burst.
3. Boost Performance with Creatine Supplements
Supercharge your strength and exercise performance with the addition of creatine supplements. It's time to redefine your limits and achieve gym resolutions you never thought possible. Creatine is one of the most researched supplements of all time. And its effect on the body is absolutely amazing!
The human body has 3 energy systems. The phosphogen system is responsible for quick burst energy or max effort strength. This system is primarily used in our "fight or flight" response- so think sprinting for short distances, or your 1 rep max on a given lift. Including creatine will help fuel this system and lead to more muscle mass. Creatine in the short term will help you get maybe a few more reps or add a few more pounds of weight to the bar. But if you extrapolate those added reps and weight over the course of a year, lets say, your strength really skyrockets. Creatine monohydrate is well researched, and super affordable. If you are sleeping on creatine, you are leaving muscle gains on the table!
4. Support Health with Fish Oil Supplements
Invest in your cardiovascular health and reduce inflammation by incorporating fish oil supplements into your daily routine. A small addition that yields big results for your overall well-being. And to be a bit more specific, you are really looking for omega 3s.
Processed foods and oils are chock full of unhealthy fats. Omega 6 and 9s are everywhere. And that is the problem. Vegetable oils and partially hydrogenated oils are inflammatory. So, if you have achy joints, feel very inflexible, consider supplementation with omega 3s such as avocados, olive oil, salmon, and flax seeds. Try to eliminate omega 6s and 9s from your diet while increasing the omega 3s and your flexibility will improve. Inflammation wreaks havoc on our joints and if you can decrease the inflammation, you can manage the pain.
5. Fail Often!!!
Failure. A word most people don't like hearing or even talking about. However, in the context of the gym, I think we should be looking to fail a lot more often. Do you need to push every set to failure? Of course not. Do you need to fail on every exercise? Also no. What do we even mean by failure?
Going to failure is when you simply cannot perform one more repetition. And you can train to failure on any rep scheme that you may be following. In fact, when measuring the one rep max, what we are measuring is maximum total output for that lift. We only know what our one rep max is when we reach a weight that we simply cannot complete the lift with.
What I am saying is that if you go into the gym, day in, day out, and you gravitate toward the same 15 lb. dumbbells to do side lateral raises with, you don't change the weight or the reps, how are you expecting to grow? We must provide an increased resistance to continue to add muscle. So, we could take those same 15 lb dumbbells and either side lateral raise until you cannot perform another rep, which means more repetitions. Or, you could increase the weight to 20 lbs and try to hit the same amount of reps you were doing with the 15's. And that would increase the volume. Either and both approaches work. But sprinkle them in and play with it. Make exercising fun!!! Just make sure you fail a little bit more on your lifts, and see what happens to your physique!
6. Hydrate for Gym Success
Maximize your gym performance by upping your water intake to a gallon a day. Hydration is the key to a responsive metabolism and sustained health. And when possible, add things to your water! I know there are folks out there who just don't like the taste of water. But the body needs it! You can absolutely mix in your favorite BCAA's supplement to add flavor to your water. You could also add in cut up fruit or berries, mint leaf, cucumber, some finely diced ginger, etc. There are even specific hydration packs which add in vitamins and minerals (see bullet point #1 above) and are flavored, making it not only easier to drink more water- but also to add in those missing vitamins and minerals! Just be careful to check for added sugars, other than that, drink up!
7. Boost Results with Time Under Tension
Take your workouts to the next level with time under tension techniques. Elevate muscle engagement and fast-track your fitness results with this strategic approach.
One of the three mechanisms responsible for hypertrophy or muscle growth is time under tension. You want to be able to feel the muscles sqeezing the weight throughout the movement, not attempting to get from point A to point B the fastest. Bench pressing like every workout is the NFL combine is hardly going to pack on the size you are looking for. "You control the weight, don't let it control you" is exactly what I explain to my clients. There is a time and place for explosive movements and plyometrics (which we will cover below) but performing each movement like this is sure to slow you down. Slow down your lateral raises. Slow down your pullups, your pushups. We should be more interested in feeling the muscles perform the movement than we are in chasing a repetition number!
8. Diversify Workouts with Bodyweight Exercises
Revolutionize your workout routine by introducing resistance training. Start with bodyweight exercises—they're accessible, effective, and perfect for your fitness journey.
One of the biggest objections I hear out of people is that they don't have time to go to the gym. And that's where bodyweight exercises really shine. You can utilize your own bodyweight as resistance to get stronger. Squats, lunges, pushups, pullups, chinups, Dips, planks, and the list goes on and on. Bodyweight exercises have the advantage in price (free), equipment needed (minimal to none), and versatility(can be done virtually everywhere)! So, whether you are just going away on vacation and are afraid to miss a workout, or need somewhere to start, bodyweight exercises are king!
9. Achieve Progress with Strength Tracking
Forge ahead on your fitness journey by tracking and challenging your strength regularly. Progress is the name of the game, and it starts with knowing your numbers.
Most us us know how to count calories or know people that do. But when it cones to going to the gym, in my experience, a lot of people just come in and do what they know. They know how to walk, so they use the treadmill. They know they can curl 10 lb. dumbbells, so they do. But if you start to record your weights and reps, you can see visual proof of progress, which reinforces your good habits. It also makes it easier to see when it is time to increase weights!
10. Optimal Leg Training Frequency
Commit to strength and balance by training your legs at least twice a week. A crucial resolution for a well-rounded and powerful physique.
Your legs make up half of your body yet some of you out there barely train them once a week! Our lower body is composed of bigger major muscles, so you don't have to train them all on one day. You can split it up between the quads and tibialis anterior on one day and the glutes, hamstrings, and calves on your posterior leg day. We use our legs daily to walk and get us around. Make sure to show them some love now so they can continue to do their job well into and past retirement age. As a bonus, training that large muscle group twice a week will help release more testosterone into the bloodstream, allowing you to really start to add on some mass!
11. Daily Mobility Work for Flexibility
Flexibility is the key to longevity in fitness. Incorporate daily mobility work to enhance flexibility, prevent injuries, and boost overall workout performance.
Remember the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz?! When Dorothy met him, he was all rusted up and it was hard to move. Does that sound like you?! The key is not to sit and rest. We have to move! Movement helps provide synovial fluid to the joints (lubrication) as well as blood to the muscles to help propel movement!
Spending time on our problem areas can do a lot to prevent injuries and setbacks, even help with pain management. If we sit for long periods of time, the hip flexors get adaptively shortened, the back is in pain from a tight psoas, and it becomes a mess to untangle. Doing these exercises daily can help to offset adaptive shortening, leading to better posture and feeling better!
12. Balance with Bilateral and Unilateral Exercises
Optimize your muscle development and stability by alternating between bilateral and unilateral exercise variations. Achieve a balanced and functional physique.
By working each arm or leg individually, we can bring to light our imbalances and weaknesses. By knowing which arm is stronger, we can start the exercise on the weak side first. Then perform the same movement on the opposite side. This will help to bring balance to your body and stability to your compound movements, resulting in greater efficiency, and the ability to add more weight! Plus, it's a very easy way to switch up your same routine. Instead of bench press, try a single arm press! Instead of always doing single arm rows, try a bent over row.
See Part 2 for the rest of 12!
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