How to Actually Stick With Fitness in 2026 Written By: Head Trainer Shawn
January is here, everybody.
A new year. New goals. And a more experienced, more seasoned version of you.
Every January starts the same way: a spike in motivation, a little disappointment or regret about how the last year ended, and a strong desire to course-correct. You’re probably feeling excited about getting back into the gym, dialing in your nutrition, and pushing hard for the CrossFit Open.
But by February, the reality of starting the year “hot” starts to set in.
Life gets in the way. Work, kids, social obligations, stress. And before you know it, you’re disappointed all over again because you didn’t stick to the resolutions you made just a few weeks earlier.
The emotion I see most often when people fall off is real, heavy—and completely avoidable if we set our sights correctly.
Trust me, I’m guilty of this too. This time of year always makes me look back on the last 365 days and wonder what this version of me would look like if I had followed through perfectly on everything I set out to do. But that brings up an important question: were those goals realistic in the first place? And were they even the right goals for me?
Let’s talk about it.
Motivation is always highest at the start of the year. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, training volume and intensity usually drop. Calories go up. There’s more downtime, more reflection, and plenty of space to dream about everything you’re going to accomplish this year.
The problem with motivation is simple: it’s temporary and unreliable.
Does it stick around in the middle of a brutal training week?
Where is it when your partner wants to grab cocktails?
Does it show up after a poor night of sleep, low water intake, and an argument with your mom?
Probably not.
Motivation ebbs and flows with real life. That’s reality. And when you rely on motivation alone, you’ll almost always find it missing when you need it most.
But this doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom.
Motivation has a much more powerful counterpart: consistency.
Consistency is built in the moments when motivation is low. When every part of you wants to skip, but you choose to show up anyway. When you do the thrusters, the pull-ups, the running intervals—even though the couch, a bag of chips, and a cold soda sound way more appealing.
Once consistency is built, it becomes part of who you are. It shows up even when motivation is at an all-time low.
Motivated people can push great intensity and see great short-term adaptations—no doubt about it. But they’re rarely the ones still training consistently in February, March, and April.
Consistent, disciplined people may not hit the perfect stimulus every single session. But they gain infinitely more than the person who stays home whenever they don’t feel like it.
Structure is the key to maintaining routines when everything feels like it’s falling apart.
When you establish a realistic structure and build consistency within it, you remove stress and guilt from the equation. You don’t have to constantly rearrange your schedule. You don’t have to overthink the workout. You don’t have to decide between this or that.
You just show up. You do the work. And you collect the results.
As a coach, one of the biggest things I help people with is building habits that actually fit their current lifestyle. Not forcing them to swim upstream—but helping them find health, longevity, and vitality inside the reality of their day-to-day life.
Success comes in many forms, and it’s up to you and your coach to define what success actually means.
The win is not the things you can’t control: leaderboard placement, the number on the barbell, or the number staring back at you on the scale.
The win is controlling what you can influence.
Did you prepare as well as you could for the competition?
Did you follow your strength progressions and percentages?
Did you eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar?
Did you eat in amounts that supported training and minimized excess body fat?
Did you follow the principles of “Fitness in 100 Words”?
Some days you won’t crush a workout or a 1RM test. Other days you’ll be stuck with fast food and poor sleep. What matters is how you show up and make the most of imperfect situations.
That’s where progress happens—and where the most powerful learning opportunities live.
What’s “enough” will look different for everyone, but there are some universal truths.
People often think they need 2–3 hours of training, perfect macros, 8–9 hours of uninterrupted sleep, intermittent fasting, and a mountain of supplements. Most of that is noise—and often just makes people feel like they’re failing.
Perfection isn’t required.
What matters most is what you can commit to consistently.
Executing the basics 80% of the time over the long term will take you much farther than 100% compliance for a short, unsustainable stretch.
Three to four hours per week of constantly varied, functional movement performed at relatively high intensity is enough.
Training at your personal threshold.
Eating whole foods at appropriate intake levels.
Staying hydrated and prioritizing sleep.
Spending 5–10 minutes per day moving outside the gym—walking or doing targeted mobility.
Do these things consistently, and over time you won’t recognize yourself. You’ll look better. You’ll feel better. And you’ll show up better—for yourself and for the people you care about.
Life gets busy because life is complicated.
We’re all juggling family, work, social commitments, hobbies—and the things we do for ourselves are often the first to get pushed aside. That’s where most missed workouts happen.
During busy weeks, take an extra 10 minutes to time-block your calendar. Schedule workouts and food prep the same way you would work meetings or family commitments. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Instead of quitting, put yourself first—so you can bring more energy to everything else.
A realistic minimum standard I recommend is three classes per week. Protect that consistency by scheduling it just like any other obligation. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s showing up consistently and giving your best, whatever that looks like on that day.
This January, commit to building habits that actually fit your life.
Don’t chase perfection. Don’t chase “more.”
Do the best you can in the moments you have, knowing that steady consistency will always outperform burnout.
If you stay consistent, this time next year you’ll be healthier, stronger, and more balanced than you ever thought possible.
Written By: Head Trainer Shawn
