Don’t Make These 5 Common Mistakes Beginners Make When Starting a Fitness Program in January

Each December, people start planning their Jan comeback… January, gyms around the world fill with determined people ready to reset, rebuild, and reclaim their health. Fueled by post-holiday guilt and New Year optimism, we commit to training plans, buy new gear, join challenges, and tell ourselves: “This time, I’m all in.”

And for a few weeks, we are.

But by February, reality sets in. Work demands creep back in. Energy dips. Soreness lingers. The once-burning motivation begins to fade. The training routine that felt exciting becomes mundane. And more often than not, we drift back into old habits, not because we’re lazy or undisciplined, but because we unknowingly made it too hard to succeed.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. The problem isn’t a lack of motivation, it’s strategy. Most people fail in January not because they don’t care enough, but because they fall into common traps that sabotage progress before real results can take hold.

Here are the five most common mistakes beginners we’ve seen in the last 20 years in the industry, when starting a fitness program in January, and how to avoid them if you want your efforts to actually stick this year.

1. Trying to Overhaul Everything at Once

The Mistake:

Jumping from a sedentary lifestyle into 5–6 intense workouts per week, overhauling your diet overnight, cutting out entire food groups, and aiming for a complete lifestyle transformation in one go.

Why It Backfires:

This is the classic “New Year’s Overcorrection.” We go from zero to 100, driven by guilt or excitement, hoping that sheer willpower can carry us through. But radical changes require radical recovery, and few people account for the physical and mental strain of changing everything at once.

The result? Fatigue, injury, frustration, or burnout, often by week three.

What to Do Instead:

Start with one or two changes you can do consistently, not perfectly. 

For example:

Commit to 3 full-body training sessions per week

Walk for 20 minutes every day

Drink 2 litres of water

Improve the quality of one meal per day

Once these become habits, layer in more. Progress is built through compound consistency, not short-term intensity. Small wins, repeated daily, create the momentum that lasts.

2. Making Fat Loss the Only Goal

The Mistake:

Measuring success solely by scale weight or how fast you can "shred" body fat, often through crash diets or unsustainable caloric restriction.

Why It Backfires:

Weight loss is an emotional rollercoaster. The scale fluctuates daily due to water retention, sleep, hormones, stress, and training. If fat loss is your only metric of success, you're tying your sense of progress to something inherently unstable.

Even worse, extreme restriction can lead to muscle loss, hormonal disruption, or binge-restrict cycles, all of which undermine long-term health.

What to Do Instead:

Shift your focus to behaviours, performance, and energy. 

Track things like:

How consistent you are with training

How your sleep, focus, and mood improve

How much stronger or fitter you're getting

How well you're recovering between sessions

Fat loss becomes sustainable when it's a byproduct of improved behaviours. Instead of chasing a number, build habits that make health inevitable.

3. Following the Wrong Program (Usually Someone Else’s)

The Mistake:

Starting a random program you found online or following an influencer’s routine designed for someone with completely different goals, experience, or training age.

Why It Backfires:

Fitness isn’t one-size-fits-all. A program that works for a 25-year-old athlete won’t work the same way for a 45-year-old desk worker with mobility limitations and a high-stress job. Without context, you're just guessing, and guessing leads to plateaus, injuries, or burnout.

Beginners often get caught up in the aesthetics of a program (flashy exercises, high intensity, or promises of quick results), forgetting that the best program is the one that meets you where you are.

What to Do Instead:

Choose a plan that:

Builds movement competency first (not just sweat and soreness)

Fits into your weekly schedule realistically

Prioritises foundational strength, mobility, and conditioning

Includes progressions, not just random “workouts of the day”.

If possible, work with a coach, even temporarily, to learn proper form, assess your baseline, and build a custom plan based on your goals and limitations. A tailored, intelligent approach always beats a generic plan copied off Instagram.

4. Ignoring Recovery and Lifestyle Factors

The Mistake:

Treating fitness like an isolated task, training hard but neglecting sleep, stress, nutrition, hydration, or recovery.

Why It Backfires:

You don’t get stronger or fitter during the workout, you get stronger when your body recovers from it. Without recovery, your body doesn’t adapt, it breaks down.

For busy professionals and parents, this mistake is especially common. You wake early, train hard, rush to work, skip meals, and sleep poorly, then wonder why you're not progressing or constantly exhausted.

What to Do Instead:

Respect recovery as much as you respect your workouts. 

That means:

7–9 hours of quality sleep

Nutrient-dense meals to fuel recovery

Scheduled rest days and deload weeks

Walking, mobility work, or breathwork to manage stress

Recovery is not laziness. It’s an essential part of progress, and often the missing link for people who “train hard but see no results.”

5. Relying on Motivation Instead of Systems

The Mistake:

Assuming that your January motivation will last all year. Planning around inspiration instead of structure. Training when you “feel like it” and stopping when you don’t.

Why It Backfires:

Motivation is a mood, not a strategy. It fades, sometimes quickly. The difference between those who succeed long-term and those who don’t? Systems and routines.

If you rely on motivation, you’ll always find an excuse when life gets messy, and it will.

What to Do Instead:

Set up systems that make training easier to do than to skip:

Book your workouts in your calendar like appointments

Train at the same time of day (create rhythm)

Lay your clothes out the night before

Keep your workouts short but consistent

Remove friction between you and the gym (or the mat, or your shoes)

Success is a result of structured decisions, not emotional ones. The more automated your healthy choices are, the less you need to negotiate with yourself.

January Isn’t About Intensity, It’s About Intent!

It’s easy to start a fitness journey in January. The harder part is still being on that path in April, in July, and years down the line.

Avoiding these common traps isn’t about playing it safe, it’s about playing it smart. Sustainable fitness isn’t built on punishment, obsession, or overcorrection. It’s built on clarity, structure, and habits that grow with you.

So as you step into a new year, ask yourself:

Am I building a lifestyle I can maintain?

Am I being realistic, or reactive?

Am I planning for February… or just for the first two weeks?

Don’t just start strong. Start smart, so this year truly is different.

It’s also why we have a On Ramp onboarding system at P6, a chance for us to set up true accountabuility and meet with you after day 1, day 30 and day 90 to keep you on that path to the goals!

About the Author
Ollie is a coach, educator, and advocate for sustainable, evidence-based fitness. With a background in strength and conditioning, functional fitness but primarily, behaviour change, and transformations,he helps busy adults build stronger, more capable bodies without sacrificing their time, energy, or sanity. You can find more insights on our coaches page.

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