We all know that Christmas is approaching and the dark mornings and dark cold evenings are here to stay, which means that you are likely to fall out of love with the gym and motivation levels will surely drop. With Christmas approaching fast this means slow morning starts and comfy warm nights in front of the box, not to forget the food. So to stay focused on working towards that summer body here are a few tips.

Friendly competition

It doesn’t matter if you’re going for gold or just simply want to beat the person next to your on the treadmill/cross trainer/spin bike, a little competition is an amazing way to keep you on track and in that fitness goal mind set.

Finding an individual in the gym or a group that a slightly higher level of fitness than you for example goes faster/longer than you or simply lifts more weight, this is a good way to stay motivated because you will be inspired to do beat them and when you do this will be a major victory on your part.

Gym buddy

Some people would prefer to work in the gym on their own but for those people who need that little extra push in the gym; a gym buddy is a good idea. Having a gym buddy to work towards the same or similar goal in the gym is a great way of staying enthused about your fitness goal. A gym buddy is also there for you when you’re having one of those can’t be bothered days to get you out of your chair and push you to work harder. No one likes a quitter.

Goal setting / micro goals

Setting goals in the gym is a very good way of staying motivated but they need to be realistic goals because if you set your goals to far in the future and see no immediate effect you may give up and fall out of love with the whole idea of it. Short term or micro goals are the best way of setting your self goals while in the gym because they are slightly easier to achieve and will help you to celebrate smaller victories in terms of your own fitness and will push you to set another short term goal to go and smash.

Social media

Social media such as Facebook or Instagram can be a big motivational method for people who are motivated by famous athletes and other people’s success in terms of reaching a certain fitness goal.  Another good use for using social media is for ideas in the gym, for example if you are tired of doing the same work outs day in day out you may get sick of it, this is where looking and fitness pages on Instagram or Facebook will come in handy because they will give you some more ideas or may even completely change the way you see the gym by totally changing your workout style.

You can follow our Instagram account here @oulderhillleisure

Easy to follow programs

The more complex and hard-core the workout is means the better results right?

No in actual fact the more complex you make a work out the harder it is to follow when you are on your own therefore you are less likely to follow it to its entirety meaning you will be more likely to either not do it properly or completely skip it all together and the same goes for nutrition. So keep it simple and you can’t go wrong, simplicity is the key to brilliance.

At OHLC, we offer free 1:1 training sessions with our fitness instructors as part of all gym based memberships.  Now that’s value for money!