88% Fail Their New Year Fitness Goals – Expert Reveals How to Break the Cycle
We’ve only just made it into December, but it appears we are already getting set for 2025, with a jaw-dropping 5,000% surge in searches surrounding ‘New Year’s Resolution ideas’ proving that the nation is gearing up for a transformative year. Interestingly, 74% of us planned to prioritise physical health in 2024, and the trend isn’t slowing down. In fact, sales of sports equipment skyrocketed by 30% last January. But the reality is, 88% of new year resolutions crumble within just two weeks – leading to millions of brand-new treadmills, dumbbells, and exercise bikes gathering dust in our homes.
So, how do you break the cycle and crush your goals in 2025? Turns out, making some simple and easy changes in your home can make all the difference…with experts revealing the key isn’t just in the gym – it’s in your home setup.
With searches for ‘home gym rooms’ soaring by a staggering 550% in the last month, it’s clear Brits are onto something. Here, St. Modwen Homes reveal simple yet game-changing tweaks to adapt our living spaces into fitness-boosting sanctuaries to keep us motivated and moving in the New Year.
These insider tips could mean the difference between success and another year of unfulfilled goals. Are you ready to transform your home – and your life – for 2025…
- Functional furniture keeps you fit
Making health and wellness fit seamlessly into your daily routine can help you reach your fitness goals faster. Invest in furniture pieces that encourage movement, such as a standing desk that allows you to keep moving whilst working.
- If you’re looking to reach a daily step count, investing in a walking pad to move while you work can help you hit your daily step count easier and quicker.
- Want to improve your posture and flexibility? An ergonomic chair will encourage you to sit properly and not slouch your back and core.
- If you want to strengthen your core in 2025, a balance ball to sit on will allow you to engage it more frequently while also improving posture.
Investing in some of these products will allow you to make small tweaks to your day that will have a big impact on your fitness levels.
- Out of sight, out of mind
Putting your fitness equipment away will increase the amount of effort needed to just start working out and give you an easy excuse to opt-out. So, it’s important to dedicate a corner of your home primarily for exercise.
Not everyone has a full room or home gym space, but having a small nook with your yoga mat already laid out, or dumbbells ready to go can decrease the mental load of a workout. The trend of homeowners opting to convert a bedroom into home-gym setups shows no sign of slowing down!
- Add greenery to promote clean air
Studies show that five medium-sized indoor plants can improve air quality by 75%, and mental health by a whopping 60%. Not only do plants improve the air quality in your home, but they have therapeutic benefits, too – so it’s no surprise that four in ten Brits say plants make them feel calmer.
Making sure your plants are dotted around your home will help ensure each room has high-quality air to breathe in, all aiding your overall health.
- Make your sleep proactive
Just because you get seven or so hours of sleep a night, doesn’t always mean your sleep is efficient. Sleep, quite literally, is the cornerstone of health – without high-quality sleep, fitness efforts are wasted.
To ensure we’re as healthy as possible, we need to make sure our recovery time is efficient – this is why you need to make sure your sleep is as restful as it can be.
It goes without saying that investing in a good pillow, mattress, and duvet is imperative to improving sleep. In addition, making sure your bedroom is dark and quiet will encourage deeper REM sleep. However, your nightly routine in the lead-up to bed is just as important. You can follow a nighttime routine as follows:
- Reduce screentime an hour before bed – the exposure to blue light can stimulate your brain into thinking it’s earlier than it is.
- Create a sanctuary for sleep – purchasing a diffuser to make your bedroom smell of lavender or chamomile can help you drift off to sleep peacefully.
- Distract your brain – many people can struggle to get to sleep, and listening to white noise or reading a book can help you drift off to sleep quicker.
- Utilise natural light as much as possible
Natural light has a powerful effect on our mood and energy levels. So, when creating your workout area or nook, it’s important to take this into consideration.
Exposure to sunlight improves our circadian rhythm and vitamin D levels, which in turn will promote health and wellness. So, look to optimise space available near windows for your daily stint.
During the colder months, complete your exercise during the day when the sun is out. With the sun setting around four pm, it’s easy to go an entire workday without having any sunlight exposure which can have a knock-on effect.
So, there you have it five ways to start 2025 as you mean to go on, allowing you to stick to your goals and stay consistent. For more information on how to utilise your home space check out St. Modwen Homes’ five upgrades worth investing in.