Brighton, N.Y. — New Year’s resolutions come and go, but those concerning your health and fitness should stay with you throughout the year. 13WHAM talked with Bob Bovee, a local master trainer and co-owner of Brighton Personal Training who just celebrated 50 years in the fitness industry. He shares insight into making realistic goals that are attainable and why staying healthy and fit is so important as we get older.

What is your advice to the people who return to the gym in January and lose interest within a month or so? How can they stay motivated?

There are a lot of people who want to start out on January 1st, and this is where I’m going to start; this is where I’m going to make a change in my life. This is where I want to lose weight, drop bad habits, and pick up good habits. The problem is that it usually only lasts 5-6 weeks, unless people hire a trainer. The number one reason why people hire trainers is because of the commitment they make to the trainer. The trainer keeps them motivated.

What advice can you offer to those who want to try it out on their own first, and what is a healthy goal to set in terms of weight loss?

If they’re going to be doing it on their own, I suggest they only do little bites. I get the people coming in saying, ‘I want to get in shape, I want to lose weight, I want to quit smoking, I want to stop drinking,’ and what they did was bite off more than they can swallow, and they get discouraged when it doesn’t happen. First and foremost, get started. Crawl before you walk, walk before you run, and you’ll be able to take it on better. Make realistic goals, as far as losing weight: a half pound to a pound a week. If you lose more than a pound and a half a week, there’s a huge chance it’s going to come right back on. So don’t try to do too much at once. People come in January 1st and decide they’re going to go six days a week, and they’re not in shape to go six days a week. Three days a week is a good start, every 48 hours for recovery. Don’t do too much.

What is the most effective formula for losing holiday weight and keeping it off regarding the combination of cardio, resistance training, and diet?

Before somebody decides to take on a diet, they need to keep track of every single thing they eat and drink for seven days. Then, you make an evaluation of what you’ve been doing. It’s much easier to write something that’s going to be possible, something that you can actually achieve. So, it might be that portion control is your problem. It might be that you’re not eating enough at all. You have to find out what the problems are, and then you attack the problems as far as nutrition goes. Cardio burns calories instantly. Your resistance training burns fat over a 24-hour period. One doesn’t work without the other. It’s a three-pronged approach.

The American Heart Association advises five 30-minute weekly sessions for your cardio (150 minutes total). The good news is that you don’t have to do the 30 minutes all at once. You might get up in the morning and, with the dog, put your heart in the settarget heartrate zone for 15 minutes. Okay, go to work. After dinner, take your dog for a walk again with your heart in the target heart rate zone.

Once someone is on a program, how long before they should modify it?

It doesn’t matter if I write it, you write it, or Arnold Schwarzenegger writes it; you have to change and stagger that program every four weeks, or your body is going to get stale and adapt, and you won’t have any more progress. If you continue to beat the body the same way day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, you’ll raise your chances of an overuse injury by 40%. Sameness is no good. You have to shake up the program every four weeks for you to continue moving forward.

Let’s address the fear many women have, thinking they will “bulk up” if they start lifting weights, and the importance of weight training regarding mobility as people age.

That’s a funny question because this September, I celebrated 50 years in the industry, and that same question went back 50 years, and the same answer still goes. What women need to worry about is putting on enough to keep their metabolism moving fast to recover from the workout so they burn the calories and fat that they want. Stop worrying about getting too big and growing out of your shirt. Listen, when you look in the mirror, you know what you want to look like and what you don’t, and if you see a body part that is getting too big for you, you adjust the program, and that body part stops doing what you don’t want it to do. You’re in control. You’re not going to wake up one morning and say, ‘Oh my God, I put on 20 pounds of muscle.’ That’s just not going to happen. But let me tell you how lucky of a person you would be if you could put that on. Because then, we could stop the deterioration of muscle and bone well into your 70s and 80s and keep function a priority. That’s the problem; it’s hard, and as you get older, after menopause, you don’t have to worry about that. Keeping muscle on is what you have to worry about, stopping the deterioration of muscle and bone. Let’s face it: no matter how healthy you are, if you are not functioning and can’t stay at home and take care of yourself in your everyday duties, you’re headed to an independent living facility or nursing home when it’s so unnecessary. People have a responsibility to themselves to learn an education on how to take care of themselves for the rest of their lives and stay independent. Independent is the word of 2024. Nobody wants to be dependent on somebody else to get their groceries, to take care of their home, get up and down off the stairs, get up off the floor. It doesn’t have to be a problem but it’s a problem if you’re sedentary. That’s the problem. Learn how to age gracefully. You’ll be happy for the rest of your life.

13WHAM’s Chris Lopez will be live on Good Day Rochester on Monday morning with Bob and his team of master trainers where they will go over more tips on how to keep active in the new year.