2019 New Year’s Resolutions:
- My best year ever
- Sign up to a gym and get super fit
- No more junk food
- Get more sleep
Sound familiar? It does to us. New Year’s Resolutions are great to make but more often than not the way we approach changes in our life sets us up to fail. Improving your health is one of the most common resolutions made. Many of us are able to stay consistent for 2 to 3 weeks, but after that it all sort of fizzles out. Although we made our list with good intentions, our plan to workout for two hours a day every day and sticking religiously to our new fad diet will eventually take its toll. Motivation is a huge factor in sticking and staying true to your goals and New Years Resolutions. If you don’t have a clear picture as to what you want, it’s like starting a race without a finish line, and who could blame you for calling it quits! A great way to beat this is to create SMART goals – something that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and with a Timeframe for this to be achieved. Having all of these factors will help you to achieve your goals, as does creating a good accountability system – don’t keep your goals to yourself; tell your friends and family, write it down on paper and stick it somewhere you and others can see regularly. But the other key thing to think about before throwing yourself headfirst into the latest high intensity workout craze, is can your body keep up with your new-found zest for life? To make sure the answer to this question is “YES”, you need to ensure that your body is moving well and moving right – your body is the engine fuelling these goals after all. Don’t let that little “niggle” linger – it won’t go away. Our bodies are much smarter than we often give them credit for, and whilst it might adapt initially, it is likely you’ll create faulty movement patterns that will hurt you in the not too distant future. So what is a movement pattern and how do I know if mine are faulty?
If you’ve been to our clinics before, it’s highly likely that you will have seen movement patterns on the Precision Performance Pyramid – they are part of the Gold Tier and rightly so as they are an integral part of your performance! Movement patterns are a simple way to categorise exercises based on what is required of the joints and muscles of the body during the movement. For example, hinging involves a hinging motion at the hip joint (with little movement at the knees) using the thigh, hip and lower back muscles to effectively perform the movement. So, how do you ensure that you’re moving right and ready to take ownership of the new year, like never before? Our tip – come and see one of our Exercise Physiologists! Exercise Physiologists are university-trained allied health professionals who have the knowledge and understanding of the body and movement patterns to prescribe the right exercises for you. At Precision Physio, our Exercise Physiologists are highly trained and skilled at assessing where individuals are at when it comes to their fitness and movement, meaning they are your secret weapon when it comes to planning your great new you and where to start. Our team is available to everyone, no matter your age or level of activity, and we offer what we call “initial assessments”, these take a detailed look at your movements, include discussions on your goals and provide clear take away advice as to how you should best progress forward. To help support you and ensure that you get off to a great start in 2019, we’ve decided that for the month of January, we will offer 50% off all initial consultations with our Exercise Physiologists! So, if you’re looking to start exercising and make positive changes to your health in the New Year, be SMART about your goals and get yourself booked in with one of our movement specialists. To make your booking, simply call our bookings team on (02) 8607 4050 and quote “Exercise Physiology New Year’s Resolution”. Article by Precision Physio – Concord, Exercise Physiologist, Kassandra Huynh