Alumni and Supporters

Wednesday, 03 February 2021

If 2020 taught us anything about health and fitness it’s that it should be high priority for everyone. Corey Green, Master of Sports Science/Bachelor of Science alumnus and Managing Director Athletic Institute Pty Ltd, provides seven tips for a healthy 2021.

1. Find the right place

   Find a facility that will go above and beyond for you. With a privately owned facility you might pay slightly more, but you will make friends, become part of a family and as a result be held accountable for your actions every time. This will set you up for success and as such, the price is worth the investment.

2. Identify your “why”!

   Finding your “why” is incredibly important and different for everyone. It is the reason you get out of bed and go for that run/ride, hit the gym, do yoga or Pilates class.

   To find your “why” ask yourself why you started to train in the first place? Is it because your doctor said you’re slightly overweight or you have high blood pressure? Is it because you want to increase muscle mass? Is it because a close family member suffered from mental health issues and you heard exercise can help prevent this?

3. Be prepared for the journey

   Just as important as your “why” is understanding that you can’t win at being healthy. You’re not crowned the winner if you achieve 100 health points over 10-years (made up numbers and time frame of course). There is no end point to health and the sooner you appreciate the journey for what it is, the more likely you are to succeed.

4. Choose easy goals - YOU don’t get paid for being fit! (athletes excluded)

   Set goals that are too easy to achieve. Don’t make a New Year’s Resolution to exercise 5-days a week every week for the year or to do 20 sit-ups every morning. Why? As soon as you miss a beat it’s hard to not feel like a failure, which spirals out of control and is why most resolutions fail by February.

   Instead, set easy goals. This might be to do one sit-up a morning Monday to Friday. I mean we all have time for that! What you’ll start to notice is you may do 2, 5, or even 10 one morning. You’ll feel great and motivated for the next day because you started small and succeeded.

5. Find an accountability buddy

   Pick a person you know well enough who will train with you and keep you accountable. Now this needs to be a person who is fitter and stronger than you.

   Make a verbal commitment to someone more “motivated” than you. Someone who will hold you accountable, which benefits both you and them.

   If you don’t have a person like that in your life, join a group or fitness facility. Join a swim squad or run club and make some new friends who enjoy exercise. These are great people to be around, which takes me to my second final point.

6. Choose your environment

   Motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

   Study your current environment (people you work, live, or catch up with) and see if you can find a trend. Are you surrounded by go-getters, entrepreneurs, ambition and thinkers? Or are you surrounded by party animals, drinkers and bad eaters?

   Now I know you can’t pick your family, but you can pick everything else, and as meatloaf said 2/3 isn’t bad!

7. Get it out of the way!

Being someone who trains 6-7 days a week to achieve a goal of competing as an Ironman at the World Championships in Hawaii, I can attest to the stress of not getting a workout done early in the day.

Like you I’m very busy, and as of the last 3-years I’ve made a massive personal shift from being a late riser (6:30/7am) to an early rising (4:30/5am) to get my training done. What I noticed was; as life got busier, exercise would take a back seat because work came first, and missing my training stressed me out the most.

The fact that I would miss exercise and that it would cause me stress is a cycle that needs to be broken. So, if you’re someone who wakes up at 7am, stop wasting your morning, get to bed an hour earlier and get some movement done first thing.  Once you can develop this habit over a few weeks, your life will change for the better and you won’t look back.

If you have kids, you may already be up, so get them involved in some way. Leading by example is the best thing for your kids, and ties nicely into my previous point.

In summary: Make a plan, change your environment, pick an easy goal, find an accountability buddy, get exercise out of the way early in the day and execute.

You’ll be amazed who you become and who you inspire.

Corey Green is a ECU Master of Exercise and Bachelor of Science graduate, Strength and Conditioning Coach and Managing Director Athletic Institute Pty Ltd. For more great fitness tips, visit the Athletic Institute blog.