80% of Americans don't get enough exercise.

With a more sedentary lifestyle, we know a few things can occur:

• Increased levels of depression & anxiety. Less active lifestyles are correlated to depression and anxiety.
• Less resilience to stress. People who live sedentary are more stressed out.
• Lower testosterone levels.Testosterone is on a yearly decline as a result of sedentary lifestyles.
• Poor sleep. Less active lifestyles are correlated to poor sleep quality.

These are obviously things we want to avoid.

With the New Year right around the corner, we want you to help you be more consistently active so you can minimize these negative effects.

In this post, we will cover seven hacks you can use to motivate yourself in the New Year.

Let's dive in!

I. Motivational Playlist.

Before a workout session, this can fire you up to get ready to put in work.

YouTube is one of my favorites for motivational videos or music. Leg Day motivation videos of people pushing heavy weight and screaming will most likely amp you up to squat heavy.

Sometimes Spotify and Apple Music have playlists as well.

Find a motivational playlist you can listen to and something that gets you ready for battle.

II. Get A Trainer or Workout Partner.

Have someone that can personally hold you accountable to reach your goals.

A workout partner or a personal trainer can do this for you in-person, and this is SUPER beneficial, especially to men. According to research, men find it easier to be motivated through in-person interaction.

III. Track Your Progress.

Since I started my fitness journey, I have STACKS of workout journals to look back at and see how far I've come.

This has a HUGE impact on motivation.

In my opinion, tracking your progress is paramount towards your progress and consistency in the gym.

Here are some things you can do to track progress:

• Exercise: you can track your progress through an exercise journal or an app. You can track reps, how you felt during the exercise, and more.
• Nutrition: you can make a food journal or use an app to track your progress and build awareness to how much you can eat. You can track how many meals you eat, what foods give you discomfort, and more.
• Sleep: your iPhone has a built-in feature that tells you how much you've slept.
• Weight Loss: you can use an app like HappyScale to track your weight loss progress more in-depth.

This will allow you to look back months from now and see how much progress you've made.

It also makes you more committed to continually improve in the gym.

IV. Join A Social Media Group.

Sometimes we need a little more accountability than in-person interaction. While social media has its cons, there are so many positives that come from engaging with people with the same goals as you.

I have done this with many content creators and their followers, which has helped me build great relationships. It's always fun talking to fitness people and sending them memes that we only understand.

It's a very cool experience.

If you're unsure how to do this, start by following a person and turning on push notifications on their page. Whenever a post comes through, comment with your own thoughts, jokes, etc. Whatever you think is appropriate based on the context of the post.

Do this regularly, and you will build some relationships.

You can also document your journey on social media with hashtags that represent the workout community you are in. This will help you build relationships with people who have the same goals as you.

You can join our Facebook Group if your goal is to exercise to battle against depression. While we are still fairly new, we would love to help you reach your fitness goals.

You can join here.

V. Use A Pre-Workout.

To get yourself ready for a workout session, I would recommend getting a pre-workout. This will not only help you in your workout sessions, but they should "prime" your mind and body for a gym session.

For those that need something to amp them up, I would recommend a pre-workout with an ingredient called Beta-Alanine in them.

When you have more than 1.5g of Beta-Alanine, you may get an effect called paresthesia. This causes your face and fingers to tingle and will make you want to sweat it out.

Don't freak out about it, it's entirely normal.

With our Pre-Workout, we have 3.5g of Beta-Alanine. This will not only give you the tingling effect, but also help you with overall workout performance.

You can watch our video on Beta-Alanine and our Pre-Workout below:

VI. Exercise At A Less Stressful Time.

If you find yourself stress-free at the gym during a 4-5 AM workout session, we highly recommend working out in the morning. There are less people around in the morning, and this may help you stay focused on your workout session.

Plus, you get rid of that intimidation of being surrounded by a ton of people, which can make some of us uncomfortable.

In the past, I worked out early morning sessions for the following reasons: a long work shift where I did not want to go in the evening, or times when I did not want to be bothered by other people with my introverted self.

Today, I am a little more social and prefer to workout in the evenings. I find my evening workouts to be a lot less stressful now.

VII. Start SLOW.

Starting SLOW drives the most change.

It is not sexy, but its reality. This is how people get good or proficient at things. This is how habits are built.

You may not need a defined workout program just yet. Just start by getting more active.

Baby steps and 1% growth everyday.

1% growth for 100 days makes you 100% better than when you started.

Go get it, baby. ;)

A Time For Action.

While we can tell you these hacks can help you become more active, it only works unless you put in the work.

Most of the time, action comes before the belief. You need to start first and the

I wanted to thank you guys for reading. If you have any questions or comments, you can email us at support@reforgedperformance.com, or message us on Instagram.

Until next time, Reforged Warrior!