Looking to get fit in the New Year? Here are some of our favorite new workouts (plus who to do them with) that are sure to get you past that beginning of January craze and looking great. 

The Best Workout to Do on a Date

Learn how to fight with your date? While jabs, crosses, and body punches may not seem romantic, boxing classes offer a fun partner environment where you can engage with and encourage your SO. Compared to other workouts that stifle talking, these classes encourage communication. Assuming you aren’t Floyd Mayweather Jr., it’s a unique experience to throw on the gloves and let loose. At the very least you will get a good photo out of it.

Try Beginner Boxing Classes at Polk Street Boxing Gym or Kick Ass Cardio Boxing at HIT FiT SF in the Mission.

The Best Workout to Do with Friends

Take charge this year and plan group workouts with the same zeal as bar crawls and birthday parties. Not only do they come with less regrets, they can be just as fun! The Bay Area hosts a myriad of runs and relays for a variety of athletic prowess. 

Ruin that white t-shirt while running the “Happiest 5k on Earth” at The Color Run, slide over taxi’s with your BFF in the Men’s Health Urbanathlon, or create a tradition (if you haven’t already) at the iconic San Francisco Bay to Breakers.  

The Best Workout to Do Outside

We live in the world’s natural StairMaster, and it’s free (after you pay your highest-in-the-country rent, that is). Hit the stairs for an intense calorie burn that targets muscle groups in your lower body, especially the glutes. If you want to avoid the well-known Coit Tower, Lyons Street, or 16th Avenue steps, check out your local park. It’s not as important how many stairs there are, rather how long you stay at it. Try sets ascending the stairs sideways, by skipping steps or via the dreaded bunny hops. Increase the numbers of sets as you get stronger, and throw in some push-ups and crunches between sets to take the workout to another level.

The Best Workout to Everyday

If you can do it anywhere, anytime, and practically wearing anything, there are no excuses! Spend some time with your old friend this year, The Plank. In just 60 seconds, you can challenge your core, shoulders, arms and glutes. Try the “Plank a Day Challenge” for a no excuses boost to your daily routine. If 60 seconds doesn’t bring the burn, increase to 90 seconds and so on. The Guinness Book of World Records’ longest time in an abdominal plank position is currently set at 4 hours 26 minutes. Challenge accepted.

The Best Workout to Do for the Ultra-Competitive

If one of the only things you dislike more than working out on a cold, rainy night is losing, consider setting up monthly competitions with your friends or significant other. Pick the duration, a prize and then let the competition commence.  Whether through one of the many 30-day workout apps, the Challenges feature on Nike+, or flooding everyone News Feeds with gym check-ins, when pride and a prize is on the line, you’d be surprised with what you are willing to do.  At our place, we use “His and Her” calendars and an array of activity-themed stamps to track our workouts. The person with the most stamps that month gets to pick a movie we see in theaters.  For the record, The Purge 2 wasn’t that good but I worked really hard to resurrect Love Actually last month.