January is infamous for gyms being packed with “newbies” attempting to start their New Year’s resolutions.

Unfortunately, nearly 80% of people who start their New Year’s resolutions quit by the beginning of February.

We have seen many people start working out at Next Generation Training Center with great intentions in January, just to find themselves quitting in February.

There’s a lot of reasons why so many people who start their New Year’s resolution in January, quit in just a month.

And one of the most common reasons why we see this happening, is from physical burnout, or injury.

It is our natural human ego that tells us that we will get right back in the shape we used to be, when we used to work out consistently…

Which was 30 years ago in High School…

So January 1 comes, and we hit it hard out of the gate. 

We workout everyday, 5 days per week in the morning before work.

Every morning is a struggle, but it starts to get a little easier to wake up early, and exercise.

The first two weeks go great, and we start to build momentum.

And then BAM… a shoulder starts to hurt, or we pull a muscle in our back.

Before we know it, it’s the following December, and we are thinking about giving the gym another try since it didn’t work last year after getting hurt.

So, what is the best way to avoid this perpetuating cycle of starting over, and getting hurt?

SLOW DOWN!

Our bodies have this thing called Tissue Load Tolerance.

In a nutshell, it means that the soft tissue (muscles, ligaments, tendons) can only handle so much load on them each week before they are at greater risk to sustain an injury.

Someone’s tissue load tolerance can be increased, and developed over time through increasing the amount of workload.

However, doing too much too soon, can significantly increase someone’s chance of sustaining an injury.

Workload is categorized into two types, Chronic and Acute.

Chronic workload is the rolling average of workload over 4-6 weeks.

Acute workload is the rolling average of workload over 1-7 days.

As a general rule of thumb, if someone’s acute workload increases more than 10% over their chronic workload, the chance of injury is increased.

For example…

Person A has consistently been coming to Next Generation Training Center three days per week for the past two months, and now wants to increase to four training sessions each week (because of the amazing results we get our members… shameless plug 😁).

Increasing workload from three days to four days per week, is about a 10% increase for Person A.

This should be a safe workload increase considering Person A has been consistently working out, and this Acute workload increase is about 10% over their Chronic workload.

Person B on the other hand, has not worked out in the past two years, and has gained 29 pounds – the average amount of weight gain during the pandemic.

Person B thinks that working out more often will help get better results in losing the weight faster, so Person B wants to come to the gym five days per week to “kickstart” their results.

Increasing the workload from zero to five (in this example) would give Person B a significant opportunity for injury.

Our professional advise is simple: Don’t be Person B.

As much as we would love to see you everyday at Next Generation Training Center, we would prefer to see you getting results for many years to come.

January 1st is the fresh start that many people need to get their health and fitness back to a good place.

Unfortunately, it is also the beginning of the end for many people’s resolutions.

If your New Year’s resolution in 2022 is to get into better shape, do it safely so that you can actually achieve your goals next year!

Contact us here to learn about the many programs we have available, and speak to a Professional fitness coach who can help you finally get the results that you deserve!