New Year, New You?

Every New Year, millions of people make promises to themselves in the form of “resolutions”. 

 At the top of the list is some type of change in health and fitness.

“I want to lose 20lbs” or “ I need to get in shape” or some variation on that theme.

Yet, a staggering 92% fail to keep their promises.

As with a lot of things in life, starting is easy, finishing is tough.

What gives?

From many of our clients, we’ve learned something vital to make that failure rate drop.

But to do that, I have to switch gears.

There’s something that a lot of people deal with every day. It’s annoying but doesn’t force major changes in your life. But, if you ignore it long enough, it grows into a life limiting issue.

We refer to this phenomenon as “tolerable joint pain”.

Could be your back, hip, knee or almost any joint in your body. I’ll use the knee as an example. 

Often, this problem starts without a discernible event. Just one day you notice a bit of stiffness, maybe a flash of pain. Comes and goes but you often notice that if you try something a little bit hard, like some kind of workout, or maybe it’s some yard work you’ve been meaning to get to, that flash of pain transforms into a persistent ache like a toothache in your knee, for example.

But life gets in the way. 

You don’t have time to go to a doctor and, for that matter, you don’t think it’s all that bad so going would be a waste of time and money.

So you do what everyone does now.

Consult Dr. Google.

There’s a gazillion exercises, lots of options. Too many to sort out and besides, that nagging knee just isn’t all that bad.

Now, as the New Year approaches, you get excited about really making a change in yourself. You’re ready to hit the gym, or join Peloton or maybe even CrossFit. 

Your knee isn’t so excited. 

If it could talk to you, it would likely say, “Hey buddy, I’m sort of struggling here with day-to-day life stuff and I’ve tried telling you about it but you’re not hearing me so if you think working out at the gym is a good idea, well, it’s not. And you’re not gonna’ like what I’ll have to say about it!”

But, like your knee said, you’re not listening because you’re focused on the new, bright and shiny thing of a New Year, new you.

You probably can see where this is going. 

You join a gym and start off great. But after about three weeks, your knee is super stiff and sore. You have to stop. 

It just hurts too much.

And your knee says, “See, I TOLD YOU!”

So, you walk away from the resolution, your knee gradually starts feeling a little better retreating to a tolerable level.

And life moves on and you find yourself back in the same situation with a nag of a knee.

Until the next New Year when you try again.

The truth is, to use a building metaphor, your infrastructure is fragile and not capable of withstanding the gale force winds of a workout. Even if that workout, from your perception, is not all that hard. For your knee, it’s closer to a tornado.

But, your problem actually has two parts. 

One, a fragile knee and two, a mindset that fails to accept said fragile knee and do something about it.

At this point, most people think that if they just find and do the “right” exercises, all will be well.

True, knowing what to do and how to do it is key. But like I said earlier, starting is easy.

Sticking to it is tough.Turns out that the people who adhere to the original New Year resolution do so because they have created a “sticky” factor.

How do you do that? How do you create a routine, a practice, that raises the “sticky” factor?

Here’s an idea from someone who has been enormously successful – Jerry Seinfeld.

One of the things you have to do as a stand-up comic is write. A lot. You have to write crappy jokes to get to good ones. You have to do it over and over. 

You have to write everyday.

In the early stage of his comedy career, he created a brilliant system to help him do just that. Write every day.

Jerry took a common monthly calendar and he would mark a large, red “X” on each day he wrote. His objective was to never have an empty day, a missing “X”.

He kept the calendar where he could see it easily. When he got up in the morning, he saw an empty box on the calendar. So, he sat down and wrote. He readily admits that a lot of the things he wrote turned out to be terrible. 

But that’s not the point. It’s showing up and writing that matters.

Back to you.

Jerry Seinfeld had a system and you need one to. For getting past tolerable joint pain and into the realm of strength and fitness, you have to show up, do the work. Over time, you’ll transform a fragile knee into a sturdier one. One that can eventually withstand the forces of a workout.

So, knowing what to do and how to do it is part of that system.

But there’s another part that’s equally as important.

Accountability and community go hand in hand.

From a general health and fitness standpoint, that’s relatively easy to figure out.

Some type of fitness class often works which is one reason why programs like Peloton and CrossFit work for people.

The people you meet become a kind of governing body for accountability. You want to live up to the unspoken expectation of showing up.

But, how do you do that if you have a nagging knee?

Peloton, and even more so, CrossFit, are apt to be way too hard on your knee.

So, now you’re on your own, alone, trying to figure stuff out.

Sounds pretty great, huh?

This is why, for many people, home-based programs fail even if what they’re supposed to do is optimal.

You’re alone.

Now, not everyone finds being on their own to be a problem but it’s fair to say that most people prefer not to be.

My friend and colleague, Laurie Kertz Kelly and I have been thinking about this issue for a while and we think we may have solved it.

You have to know what to do, how to do it, and have some degree of community and accountability. If you blend all that together, you have a much better chance of quieting your nagging knee.

So, in my next piece, I’ll explain more about our idea and how it just might be the thing for a person with “tolerable” knee pain.

Thanks for reading.

If you like this article, why not share it with a friend? If you’re interested in coaching services, please contact my colleague Laurie Kertz Kelly for a free, 20-minute Strategy Session by, clicking here. To get my Secret Weapon to fight knee, hip & back pain and stiffness, subscribe for free today.

Doug Kelsey has been a physical therapist and human movement expert since 1981. He is formerly Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Clinical Affairs at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and the author of several books. He has conducted over 250 educational seminars for therapists, trainers, physicians, and the public and has presented lectures at national and international scientific and professional conferences. His professional CV is here.