Did you bring in the new year with renewed vows of more exercise, better self-care, and a healthier 2024? As you reflect on the past year, and set goals for the next, you might be encouraged to learn that in a recent study on New Year’s Resolutions, most participants (55%) considered themselves successful in sustaining their goals.1
Factors that were associated with successful resolutions include2 3:
- approach-oriented (rather than avoidance-oriented) goals
- receiving some support
- specific and challenging goals
- creating action plans
After setting your exercise goals for 2024, if you think you could use a little more motivation, read on!
- In overweight adults, weight loss was directly related to decreased risk of osteoarthritis (OA) and decreased pain for those with knee OA 4 5
- Balance and strength training improved standing balance6 and other exercise interventions decreased fall risk7
- Exercise can prevent low back pain8
- Strengthening exercises decreased all-cause mortality by 23%, and cancer mortality by 31%!9
- 3 weeks of daily exercise decreased shoulder pain and improved function and muscle activity10
- Strength training improved performance, grip-strength, and upper-limb endurance in climbers11
- Exercise training increases muscle strength in older adults12
If you would like to improve strength, balance, and mobility, or decrease pain or risk of injury, you may benefit from individualized Boulder physical therapy with Dr. Sarah Burkhardt.
or email sarah@seatosummitpt.com with any questions!
1 Oscarsson M, Carlbring P, Andersson G, Rozental A. A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals. PLoS One. 2020;15(12):e0234097. Published 2020 Dec 9. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0234097
2 Paxton RJ, Taylor WC, Hudnall GE, Christie J. Goal Setting to Promote a Health Lifestyle. Int Proc Chem Biol Environ Eng. 2012;39:101-105.
3 Keene DJ, Soutakbar H, Hopewell S, Heine P, Jaggi A, Littlewood C, Hansen Z, Barker K, Hamilton W, Carr AJ, Lamb SE. Development and implementation of the physiotherapy-led exercise interventions for the treatment of rotator cuff disorders for the ‘Getting it Right: Addressing Shoulder Pain’ (GRASP) trial. Physiotherapy. 2020 Jun;107:252-266.
4 Messier SP, Resnik AE, Beavers DP, et al. Intentional Weight Loss in Overweight and Obese Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: Is More Better?. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2018;70(11):1569-1575. doi:10.1002/acr.23608
5 Bliddal H, Leeds AR, Christensen R. Osteoarthritis, obesity and weight loss: evidence, hypotheses and horizons – a scoping review. Obes Rev. 2014;15(7):578-586. doi:10.1111/obr.12173
6 Zouita S, Zouhal H, Ferchichi H, et al. Effects of Combined Balance and Strength Training on Measures of Balance and Muscle Strength in Older Women With a History of Falls. Front Physiol. 2020;11:619016. Published 2020 Dec 23. doi:10.3389/fphys.2020.619016
7 Montero-Odasso M, van der Velde N, Martin FC, et al. World guidelines for falls prevention and management for older adults: a global initiative [published correction appears in Age Ageing. 2023 Sep 1;52(9):] [published correction appears in Age Ageing. 2023 Oct 2;52(10):]. Age Ageing. 2022;51(9):afac205. doi:10.1093/ageing/afac205
8 Shiri R, Coggon D, Falah-Hassani K. Exercise for the Prevention of Low Back Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Trials. Am J Epidemiol. 2018;187(5):1093-1101. doi:10.1093/aje/kwx337
9 Stamatakis E, Lee IM, Bennie J, et al. Does Strength-Promoting Exercise Confer Unique Health Benefits? A Pooled Analysis of Data on 11 Population Cohorts With All-Cause, Cancer, and Cardiovascular Mortality Endpoints. Am J Epidemiol. 2018;187(5):1102-1112. doi:10.1093/aje/kwx345
10 Seitz AL, Podlecki LA, Melton ER, Uhl TL. NEUROMUSCULAR ADAPTIONS FOLLOWING A DAILY STRENGTHENING EXERCISE IN INDIVIDUALS WITH ROTATOR CUFF RELATED SHOULDER PAIN: A PILOT CASE-CONTROL STUDY. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2019;14(1):74-87.
11 Langer K, Simon C, Wiemeyer J. Strength Training in Climbing: A Systematic Review. J Strength Cond Res. 2023;37(3):751-767. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000004286
12 Lee H, Kim IG, Sung C, et al. Exercise training increases skeletal muscle strength independent of hypertrophy in older adults aged 75 years and older. Geriatr Gerontol Int. 2019;19(3):265-270. doi:10.1111/ggi.13597