The beginning of the year is the best time to change your habits and commit to a new sporting goal. Set yourself a new challenge, shake up your routine and try out other disciplines: There’s nothing like it for having fun and improving your performance. With home coaching, you can break a tired old routine and discover new and revitalising activities.

Set high goals to shake up your habits

Even if you are comfortable with your existing exercise routine, it is important to review your goals from time to time:

• If you always ask your body to work in the same way, it  gets used to the effort: Little by little, you burn fewer calories per session and the muscles that have developed are no longer stimulated by training.
• Due to a perceived lack of progress and a feeling of boredom, motivation can slow down: Perhaps you play sports to keep fit and healthy, but the pleasure has dulled.
• It is also possible that you have lost sight of your original goal; the very reason you took up a sport in the first place. Maybe it no longer suits your needs or didn’t really motivate you.

The start of a new year is an opportunity to take stock and acquire other  challenges!

Why you should aim high and change your sports habits

Setting ambitious goals  and changing what you have taken for granted in your sport is a good way of improving your performance and gaining confidence:

• Having a stimulating goal helps increase self-confidence: With every step you take, you put in a significant effort and this makes you feel proud of your progress.
• Setting your sights high is essential to creating a long-lasting training plan: If the finish line is too close, you will plan only a few steps and not consider your strategy. Reviewing and strengthening your goals forces you to apply the rigour that will make you surpass yourself.
• When your goal isn’t immediately achievable, you start to think outside the box to get around it. You get creative and learn from your victories as well as your failures or mistakes.

Of course, having a new and higher sports goal does not mean having unrealistic expectations. To make your training plan motivating and productive, determine an end goal that is within your reach and break it down into small steps.

The benefits of trying a new sport

What if you used your desire for a challenge to try out a new and unfamiliar discipline? Starting a new sport means:

• Rediscovering the pleasure of a fresh challenge.
• Working other muscle groups.
• Changing the context: Indoors, outdoors, at home, solo or in a team? Anything is possible!
• Developing new abilities.
• Avoiding boredom.

Both physically and mentally, changing your habits can only bring you positive results. Maybe devoting some of your sessions to a new sport while also keeping up with a discipline you know will suit you better than a radical change?

Establish good habits to achieve your sports goal

In the context of a global pandemic, 2020 has been a difficult year for everyone, with enduring impacts on daily life and morale. For the coming new year, having fun should be the rule more than ever, so that you feel motivated to attend every session.

By establishing a good exercise routine, you will enjoy both immediate and long-term benefits such as:

• Relieving stress and avoiding depression: Physical activity stimulates endorphin production and inhibits cortisol secretion.
• Feeling good in your body: Practicing a sport regularly allows you to adopt good posture, gain strength, relax and reduce your body fat, and thus limit the risk of musculoskeletal disorders while also increasing lung and heart capacities.
• Feel full of energy: Exercise helps you to sleep better and increases resistance to exertion. Gradually, you will become less sensitive to fatigue, and improve your physical condition and mood.
• Gain optimal concentration: Endurance sports and muscle building have beneficial effects on cognitive functions. Moving around stimulates the hippocampus, a region of the brain linked to memory. Playing sports also helps you to have the resilience to face the worries of everyday life.

Home coaching: A 2.0 workout for all your goals

In the coming new year, do you want to play sports to get away from it all? Why not try iFit® virtual coaching? Free from constraints of time or space, in the comfort of your own living room, you can run, swim or row wherever you want on the planet, following the advice of a sports coach who will support you through ambitious challenges in breathtaking settings. The extensive training library at your disposal gives you the opportunity to try out new disciplines. Pilates, yoga, boot camp, cross-training, yoga, step, hiking, etc. Why choose one when you can do the activity you want every day? The home fitness option provides an inexhaustible resource of ideas for setting new challenges!

Check out our Health & Fitness page for more advice.