As we are coming up to the end of the year, it means soon we will be approaching the time when people set their New Year’s resolutions. Many of these will be fitness related, and many of those will fail early in the new year.
Reportedly, 73% of people who set fitness goals as New Year’s resolutions give them up. There are many reasons why people quit their fitness routines, despite their best intentions.
Let’s take a look at the main reasons people quit on their fitness goals and how you can avoid these pitfalls, in order to maintain a better, healthier you right through the new year.
1. Time
A regular fitness routine requires a certain amount of time. If you want to get fit, you need to commit the necessary time to it. A lapse on their fitness goals often starts because you don’t have time to make one session, and then another. This way you lose the momentum of your routine and pretty soon you have stopped exercising altogether. Make sure you set a strict schedule for your workouts and stick to it: set appointments such as with a personal trainer or a class can help to make sure you turn up. If you are still struggling to find the time to exercise, you can try to schedule shorter workouts more often (such as a quick jog on your lunch break) or getting up a half hour earlier to squeeze in a work out at the beginning of the day.
2. Money
Financial concerns can also be a major barrier to sticking to your fitness routine. You may start the New Year with expensive membership to a fancy gym or boot camp, and then find that as money becomes tighter throughout the year you are forced to give up your membership and exercise falls by the wayside. Plan a fitness routine which fits within your budget: there are plenty of low and even no-cost ways to get fit, such as running and walking in your local park or around your neighbourhood, hiking at a nearby reserve or national park, and checking out fitness videos on Youtube.
3. Joint & Muscle Pain
If your body is not used to regular exercise, or if it has been a while, it can put it under strain. This can particularly affect your joints and muscles, which can become sore and painful as you start to ramp up your fitness routine. This in turn can impact your motivation to continue to exercise and can even cause you to give up before you’ve probably started.
A major cause of soreness in joints in muscles after exercise is inflammation, which you can address with anti-inflammatory gels for pain relief and recovery, helping you stick to your exercise routine. Check this article for more advice on inflammation.
4. Injury
Beyond pain and soreness caused by inflammation, exercise can also result in injury, particularly as you start a new 
fitness routine. Exercise like running and jogging are highly effective for getting fit and losing weight, but they also come with the risk of joint sprains, shinsplints and even stress fractures. Using a product like Ghost Fitness kinesiology tape will help to avoid injury, and speed up recovery and relieve pain if you do get injured.
As you embark on your fitness journey it’s easy to get carried away and push yourself too far, risking injury. However, taking precautions and looking after your body will help you to stick to your fitness goals long term.
5. Boredom
Sometimes the reason people give up on their fitness routine is that they simply get bored doing the same activities over and over. This is understandable: jogging the same route or doing the same set of resistance exercises certainly gets repetitive. Mix things up by introducing new activities into your fitness routine: take a barre class, start cycling or hit the local pool and do some laps. Changing locations of your workouts can also help: depending on where you live, you could run by the ocean or finding hiking trails in a spot of incredible natural beauty. Also remember that not every kind of physical activity is fun for everyone: if you don’t like running or resistance training, find an activity you do enjoy – there are plenty to choose from!
6. Unrealistic Goals
Setting unrealistic goals can mean you’ve failed before you even start. By giving yourself targets which are impossible to achieve, you will quickly become de-motivated and be less likely to keep going. By goals which are realistic and you can stick to, you will be more likely to keep pushing forward and keep on the fitness track long term.
7. Going It Alone
Experts tell us that we are much more likely to stick to our fitness routine if there is a social element. Humans are 
social creatures, and adding the element of human interaction will make your exercise more fun and enjoyable. What’s more, it will keep you accountable: you are more likely to you turn up if you have made a commitment to someone else. This could be a personal trainer, or simply a friend or group of friends you agree to exercise with. Having to call someone to tell them you won’t make your workout that day will provide an extra barrier to lapsing, and therefore make you more likely to stick to your fitness goals long term.