BY EBENEZER SAMUEL, CSC
You spent the final days of 2025 building the perfect New Year’s resolution. Now comes the hard part: Sticking to it. And the key to your 2026 fitness goal is crushing January, and forming the habits that’ll keep you dialed in as the year wears on.
That’s why I rely on three key hacks with all my clients. Whether you’re aiming to drop a few pounds, push for your first 5K, or supercharge your bench press, the key to sustaining your intensity is having a plan, and owning three concepts.
CHART CONSISTENCY
Yes, you want to see progress, whether that means you’re doing more reps of pullups every week or you’re cutting your average mile time. But at the beginning, you want consistency more than any big number.
It’s productive habits that drive any resolution’s success. That requires frequency. Sure, a personal-record is nice in January. But the bigger thing is finding ways to deliver consistent repeatable efforts. Aim to find a behavior you can attack at least three times a week (if not more).
That may mean scheduling three short runs instead of one weekend 20-miler, or logging three 20-minute workouts a week instead of a single three-hour session. Your main goal: Stack the amount of times you’re working on your resolution.
UNCOMPLICATE IT
The more effort you have to put into getting a process started, the less likely you are to do it. In his book the Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor suggests a “20-second rule”. If a behavior’s important, make it easy enough to dive into it in less than 20 seconds.
This is often the problem with fitness goals: They force you to get dressed and drive to the gym, or drag yourself outside. That’s why even a tiny home gym setup (say, SMRFT dumbbells and a yoga mat) can help. I also always keep a simple bodyweight workout handy (my favorite when I’m traveling: 10 squats, 10 pushups, and 10 burpees for as many rounds as possible in 10 minutes).
This bulletproofs you for those days you don’t want to trek to the gym.
CREATE ACCOUNTABILITY
Don’t go it alone. The more you broadcast a goal, the more likely you’ll be to stick to it. So tell friends and family about it, or shout it out on Instagram, or, if you’re working with a trainer, involve them in the process.
You’re solidifying your commitment to your New Year’s resolution – and that’s the key to making it happen.