Exercise goals for the year?

[semielliptical]

Does anyone have exercise goals for the year? Or for the month/season/whatever?

What keeps you moving these days? What challenges do you need to figure out how to overcome?

Comments

[semielliptical]

I have some running goals: I have a few races planned for the year, starting with a 5 mile trail race in March). If anyone else is a runner come on over to runners for running discussion and a monthly mileage goal challenge!

My current daily goal is to practice yoga every day. At least for the next month, maybe two months? I don't know why I feel uncertain about setting a specific goal. I know I feel better - physically and mentally - when I practice regularly, and if I don't do it daily I know I'm likely to end up not doing it very often.

[sixbeforelunch]

My goal for this year is to take up jogging once the weather gets better. Specifically, I'd like to go out onto the canal trail that's about forty minutes from my house--a nice, flat, easy run through lovely scenery--about once a week. I'm working up to that with regular cardio, so that my first time out isn't completely miserable.

My other goal is to just stick with my daily exercise, even if all I can manage is five minutes of Pilates and stretching before bed. I'm fighting the extreme cold which extends to my room and makes getting down on the floor practically impossible, some low grade health ick, and some overall depression/anxiety/brain ick that's making it all seem pointless. *sigh*

[semielliptical]

This cold weather is making so many things difficult - I find that I don't even want to get changed into exercise clothes. Sometimes I just start yoga in my pajamas or whatever I'm wearing, and then I might get changed once I warm up.

The canal trail sounds lovely! Being out in nature can be very motivating. I hope you feel better and are able to get outside once it warms up.

[lyorn]

Mostly I want to get back on the wagon with strength training/lifting. I never got back into it after summer break 2013, and I'm starting to feel the lack.

Challenge is time/energy. A one hour commute by bicyle does not make me want to lift weights at the end of the day, and I have only three days in the week where I *could* go lifting, and two are consecutive.

I also want to get back into sprint training with HIIT. Again, bottle neck is the energy...

[semielliptical]

That's a lot of time devoted to your bike commute!

Would strength training once a week be a decent first step? I've never lifted weights so I don't know if it's best to do it more often or if any amount can be beneficial.

[lyorn]

That's a lot of time devoted to your bike commute!

Yes. :-S

Once a week would not be good for getting stronger, but it would help keep my back and joints from complaining. Only, with so few possible days a week, it does not take much to it down to 0. Illness, too tired to be safe around weights, an old friend in town, work taking longer... I have to schedule two days to realiably manage one.

[orthoflame]

My current goal is to get knee deep in my stretching routine again. My current goals are getting the left splits, saddle split, and standing split. Eventually, I'm hoping to work on improving my back bends.

I'll be tweaking my current workout schedule too. I want to add a session of full stretching and kicks and another section for jumping/agility training. I feel like I've gotten too lax on my kicks in general. My jump kicks don't go as high as they should be, and my low sweep isn't fast enough. In addition, I'm going to be revising my approach on strength training days by either swapping out exercises or intensifying the ones I'm currently doing (i.e. add 5 lbs for bicep curls). My main focus there is strengthen legs and core. I'm wanting to add a minute or two to my stationary horse stance.

Main challenges are time and just learning to take it easy sometimes. The latter is related to how many times I pulled my hamstrings (both right and left) in the past year. More than self-improvement, this year looks like it'll be about mastering the balancing act.