Winning ways to make New Year fitness plans stick

● Early to bed and having plenty of gym gear is the key to a fitness regime

it can be easy to find any little excuse to talk yourself out of going.

“We all know January can be the hardest time of year to get yourself motivated thanks to the Christmas hangover, the short, dark days and the cold weather. One of the best ways to do this is to find a workout that works for you.”

Virgin Active worked with mathematician Dr Andrea Baronchelli from City University of London to create a formula to get people motivated and prevent them from backing out of their gym plans at the last minute.

The equation factors in the number of gym buddies you have, how far in advance you prepare your fitness gear, the delay between finishing work

0 Planning your fitness work so it’s not so easy to ‘drop out’ is key to a successful exercise regime and exercising and even the temperature.

The study found the 55 per cent of gym goers who reckon they are good at sticking with their plans swear by going to bed early to make sure they are not too tired.

They also tell at least one person of their plans so it is harder to back out, and have three different sets of fitness clothes to make sure they always have something to wear.

Other tips include leaving two days between sessions and heading to the gym straight from the office, without a chance to sit down. Thirty-eight per cent also find it easier to exercise with a friend.

But eight in ten admit to coming up with an excuse to get out of exercising, with being too tired the most popular. Others avoid going to the gym because it’s too hot or cold, they have a hangover or have been left to go alone by a friend they usually go with.

“It’s the weekend”, “my gym kit is still dirty” and “my bat- tery has died so I can’t listen to music” are other excuses people use to explain their absence at the gym.