It’s coming upon that time of year again where people start thinking about their goals for the year. Gyms will probably have some kind of promotion getting a whole ton of people in, knowing fully that most of them will give up on them.

These stats were taken from https://discoverhappyhabits.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/

“In 2019, one survey found that more than half of Americans wanted to be healthier – 59% wanted to exercise more, 54% said they would eat healthier, and 48% resolved to lose weight.”

“The most popular resolutions for 2021 are exercising more and improving fitness (50% of participants), losing weight (48%)”

Notice a pattern?

7% of survey participants stuck to all their resolutions in 2019, while 19% kept some but not all of their resolutions.

Those stats aren’t actually bad, but one thing to consider is that these statistics aren’t going to be completely accurate. Many times in the statistics gathering process it is done by a poll.

There is an issue with this. When you are asked, “Did you achieve your resolution this year?” A seemingly harmless question can be interpreted as “Are you a winner or a loser?” Especially if we didn’t meet our expectations.

Nobody ever wants to admit they came up short. And knowing this, I expect those stats are more than likely just a wee bit off.

But they don’t have to be. Not if you follow the process I use to create personal training success stories at my personal training studio in Boonton.

The first thing you have to do is know what you want to achieve. The destination informs the journey to get there after all. I ask my clients a lot of in-depth questions so I can get a clear idea of what they want.

Then when you know what you want, you have to figure out what it will take to get there so we can create a step-by-step plan to get from point A (where you are) to point B (where you would like to be).

Let’s just say for the sake of argument you want to gain 5lbs of muscle and burn 10lbs of body fat. Great! You know what you want to achieve!

Now the question becomes, what exercises are an option? Which ones are appropriate and how can we get there?

In this case, you’ll need to have a program that includes resistance training and a supportive nutrition plan. Cardio helps for sure, but not as much as getting your nutrition en pointe and not as much as weight training believe it or not.

In order to have a well-rounded balanced training program, you should try to include at least one exercise for each movement category.

• Upper body push (like a bench press or overhead press)

• Upper body pull (chin ups, trx rows etc.)

• Hip hinge (deadlift, kettlebell swing, hip thrust etc.)

• Knee dominant movement (squats and squat variations, lunges etc.)

Start within your capabilities and expand outward step by step. When people come to me to maximize their results, the first thing I do is determine what they can and can’t do safely during a movement evaluation. Then depending on what they can and can’t do, I select exercises appropriate to their goals and establish current maximums.

When I know their current maxes I start the process to be well within their capabilities and gain momentum so that when we arrive we’ll be well prepared to blow previous maxes out of the water. I’ll give a couple of examples.

With Daniel, his goals were to gain muscle and not get hurt. Following a corrective exercise program to give us more options to work with. When we were able to put a more complete program in place I started him well within his capabilities so that we can develop momentum to expand well past them. And it worked as you can clearly see in the picture. Around 25lbs of muscle gained, reduced his body fat from 15% to 8% via a body fat tester, improved his bench 1 rep max by 64% went from zero chin-ups to 3 chin-ups (now at 10), and added 105lbs to his hex bar deadlift all within a very short period of time and without getting hurt, which is awesome.

The same thing with Tom, we started well within his capabilities to the point that he kept telling me the weights were too light. I’m like, just trust the process, you’ll see. As you can clearly see it worked.

Now, what if your goals are a bit different? What if it’s more specific to your hobby or profession? The same process applies. With Lauren, she wanted to be able to hold a handstand for a full minute as well as do 2 pull-ups (harder than chin-ups). We figured out what she could do, took a bunch of steps backward to be within her capabilities, and climbed our way back up. When we achieved her handstand goal, I took a picture to send to her. And yes, we also achieved the 2 pull-ups.

So anyway, I know this post is getting a little long-winded so I’ll try and wrap this up. In order to actually achieve your New Year’s resolution this year, unlike last year, set your mind and get clear on what you want to achieve. Determine your current capabilities, work the process back to be well within capabilities, and create a step-by-step plan to progress outward until you crush your goals. Put it into action.

Boom! Done! Success!

If you want my help, you’re in luck. I offer a free trial membership at my personal training studio located on Main Street in Boonton. Just send me a text at 973 476 5328, introduce yourself and let me know what you want to achieve. Let’s make 2022 your year unlike last year…and especially not like the disaster 2020 was.

Eric Moss is a personal trainer in Boonton and moonlights as a world-record-holding modern-day professional performing strongman, author, and motivational speaker. In the tradition of the strongmen more common during the turn of the century, he performs feats of strength such as bending steel and breaking chains as part of a show and speaks on goal achievement for corporations, associations, nonprofits, government entities as well as for schools and universities. His exclusive personal training studio is located on Main Street in Boonton New Jersey, is close to Mountain Lakes, Denville, Montville and Parsippany New Jersey.