FITNESS: Build your new year plan – and stick with it

I NEVER make short term New Year’s resolutions because I forget about them as soon as I make them. They go in one ear and out the other.

Drink less alcohol, lose weight, eat clean … I do all these things anyway.

Be a nicer person, use less bad language, don’t be so selfish … sure I do all these too!

Instead I take the month of January to look at my work and family commitments and then I plan my exercise routine around them. It might be two or three activities that you repeat two or three times a week. Walk on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday, gym on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and cycle on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Or it could be fitness classes on Monday evening, swim on Wednesday and Friday mornings and GAA training on Wednesday evenings. We’re all different!

Work out which is more important to you. Family is usually on the top of the list of commitments, for some people it’s always exercise on the top of the list, other people don’t exercise at all. Then it’s about finding the right time for your activities. Delegate your jobs where you can, and above all when you make a plan then stick to it.

Don’t skip a day because then you’ll miss tomorrow and the whole plan will crumble. There’s no point in making the plan if you don’t stick to it. So call it what you like. New Years’ resolutions or New Year’s plan, build it with precision and away you go.

Paudie O’Donovan is a Neuromuscular Physical Therapist specialising in pain relief and improvement of mobility/flexibility. He runs a Sports Injury Clinic in Skibbereen  Follow him on Facebook, Instagram or contact him on 086-2339618