How to stick to your New Year’s fitness resolution..

Every year millions of us make New Year’s Resolutions, aiming to be or do somehow ‘better’ than in the previous year. A YouGov study undertaken in December 2025 revealed, to nobody’s surprise, that the top resolutions people were intending to make were all about health and fitness, with 23 per cent of respondents saying they intend to get fit or to exercise more, while 17 per cent saying they want to lose weight and 11 per cent saying they want to eat more healthily. A further 10 per cent gave more vague answers about wanting to ‘be more healthy’. 

Previous YouGov research over the course of 2017 tracked how good at keeping our resolutions we were over the course of the year, finding that just six days into the year one in five had already failed some of their resolutions. 

Is this a shocking number? I don’t think so. I think making resolutions is easy – it’s setting sensible goals and understanding how you, yourself, will be able to make that change. That’s the hard part. I have been on many management training courses during my career and oh so many of those have talked about setting goals, and being smart about it. And by smart, I mean SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. If we look at our New Year’s Resolutions as being goals, rather than vague ambitions, then being SMART about them seems a sensible step to take. It certainly worked for me – I am now a padel fan, in a big way, keeping fit in a way I find fun, with minimal effort – because if it’s fun, it’s no effort.

So how do we turn “getting fit” (inspiring but vague) into a SMART goal? Does it mean running 5 km without stopping? Improving strength? Having more energy, or simply moving more often? A SMART version might be: “I will download the NHS Couch to 5K app and follow that”, or “I will complete two 30-minute strength workouts per week for the next eight weeks.”. These goals give you something concrete to aim for and make progress visible, which is essential for staying motivated. Set your specific goal, set a date and make it not too much of a stretch. 

A good friend of mine set her resolution as ‘getting fit’, joined a gym, went twice and decided that the actual pain of exercising was too much, so stopped. A year later, she started again, this time in a baby-steps way, laughing at the whole notion of “no pain” no gain and now goes twice a week, every week, and while she still doesn’t love it, she certainly doesn’t hate it enough to stop – and does love the sense of achievement she gets afterwards.

This leads me to my next suggestion: resolver – know thyself.

SMART goals alone are not enough if they ignore who you know yourself to be. This is where many resolutions fail. If you are someone who dislikes gyms, has struggled with rigid schedules, or finds high-intensity workouts miserable, setting a goal that involves daily 6am gym sessions is likely to backfire. Being honest about what you have disliked about exercise in the past is not a weakness; it is valuable data. Perhaps you hate feeling self-conscious, get bored easily, or resent workouts that feel like punishment. These insights should shape your approach.

For example, if boredom has been a problem, variety and novelty may be key – mixing walking, cycling, classes, or home workouts. If you dislike the gym environment, solo at-home exercise might suit you better. If time has always been the barrier, shorter sessions done consistently may be more realistic than long workouts attempted sporadically. If you can be honest about the barriers you are putting in your own way, you are much more likely to be able to find ways around them.

Keeping a New Year’s resolution about getting fit is not about willpower alone. It is about sensibly setting a clear goal, knowing what you are most likely to be able to actually achieve and aligning your desire with your reality. This way, you are much more likely to be still going strong months into the year – by which time fitness training (whatever that looks like for you) has become a habit, not a hassle.

Eddie – Friday 9th January 2026. (Images used from Stretford Parkrun and Longford running track).