Welcome to 2018! We hope that this one is an absolute cracker. We've been chatting to some of our clients about their health and fitness goals for the year. According to Dr Joseph J. Luciani a leader in Clinical Psychology, on average only 20% of people will stick to their New Years Resolutions come February 1. We wanted to give you some simple strategies to help you to not become one of that statistic!

• 1% - Have you ever drawn a line in the sand and told yourself 'from today I will cut out sugar!' or 'I will run every day from tomorrow!' How often does that work!? Can we please keep our expectations of ourselves realistic this summer! How about thinking in terms of being 1% better every day instead of 100% better for one day, then caving and putting it off until next week!!

• The 20 second rules! A expert in productivity and happiness by the name of Shawn Archor, speaks about this idea! When you are trying to cut out a habit from your life make it 20 seconds harder for yourself to act on the thing your trying to stop. For example - trying to cut down on Netflix? Remove the bookmark from your favourite's bar on your computer or sign yourself out!
  
  If you're trying to bring in a habit make it 20 seconds easier for yourself! Decide on the type of exercise and put your gym clothes next to your bed the night before. The next morning when you're considering pressing snooze it might just be difference between getting out of bed to exercise and rolling over!

Summer has well and truly arrived and most of us have been reminded by the sudden spike in temperature that its time to get into shape. 
 
By all means its a great goal and you should definitely get stuck in! Just remember that for most of us we aren't as young as we used to be! Getting out of shape takes some time and thinking we can train like we did 10 years ago off the back of nothing is a sure way to end up on the massage table! 

So if you are looking to add in a new fitness regime into 2018 here are a couple things to keep in mind so you don’t injure yourself! 

Like we said earlier thinking you can train at the same intensity and frequency as you used to is a sure way to end up stiff, sore or worst case scenario injured. 

It's time to acknowledge what you used to be able to achieve but also accept where you are right now. Reset your baseline and work from there rather than constantly comparing yourself to what you use to be able to do. Not only will it stop you from beating yourself up about your fitness levels of times gone by but it'll stop you from getting injured and ending up on the massage or physio table!