Here are five resolution ideas to get you started.
Work toward a pull-up.
Pull-ups help improve upper body, back and grip strength, as well as core stability, and they require mobility through multiple joints. They’re a difficult exercise, but there are good ways to work up to a pull-up or to modify it to be easier.
Start with exercises to strengthen your biceps, triceps, lats, shoulders, hands and core, said Maillard Howell, a personal trainer and gym co-owner in Brooklyn. “There’s a whole cast of supporting characters that has to sync for you to do a pull-up,” he explained. Exercises like bicep curls, lat pull-downs, dead hangs from the bar and core strengthening movements can all help.
Work on modified versions of pull-ups, too, like ring or TRX rows, and pull-ups with a band under your feet or knees. You can also try eccentric pull-ups: Start at the top of a pull-up and slowly lower your body until your arms are fully extended. And when you advance from a ring row to a banded pull-up, or from a pull-up with a very thick band to one with a thinner band, give yourself credit — that’s real progress, Mr. Howell said.
Start running.
If setting a specific running goal — like running a mile without stopping or training for a 5K — feels motivating and achievable to you, then go for it. But simply exploring running, at any speed, for any length or interval, is a worthy goal in itself, said Marci Braithwaite, a running coach in Washington who mostly works with people with larger bodies. Running can improve your endurance and cardiovascular health, and you can still get those benefits from shorter runs, even if you move slowly and intersperse running and walking, she said.
“I want people to do something that feels good,” she said, “because they’re more likely to continue doing it.”
