Episode 524: Liron Kayvan: How to Make Fitness Goals Stick And The Top Fitness Trends This Year

0:01Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and hustle. Crush it. In today's episode of Fitness Friday, I'm joined by my dear friend and fitness expert, Liron Kavan, to break down the New Year cycle around training and health. And of course, share our perspective on the top three trends shaping 2026. We get into why most New Year's goals fall apart by mid-January and how too much daily decision-making sabotages long-term habits and what it actually means to build non-negotiables. If you're tired of the start over loop and want daily habits that actually support your lifestyle, this episode gives you clear ways to build consistency that lasts.

0:48Enjoy this episode and let me know always your thoughts.

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2:22Okay, welcome to 2026. Here we go again. I'm joined by my dear friend Leron. Hello. Thank you for coming on again. We do a lot of, we riff back and forth on fitness all the time. So that's why I love having you because it's an easy conversation. And I'm sure if you guys have listened to this podcast, you are very familiar with who Leroy Niz. He's been on a few times talking fitness, health, wellness. So anyway, thanks for being on the show. My pleasure. Again, everybody, welcome to 2026. And here we go again, right? All the new year resolutions, new you, new year, blah, blah, blah. I'm not a humongous fan of new year's resolutions.

3:04I feel So I know it kind of gives people a clean slate to kind of start over again, but that's also the problem. I think that people should be doing things every single day lifestyle-wise and not just wait until January 1st. And this is what I found interesting. Did you know that the second Friday of January is when the majority of people start falling off? Like, I think that it was like 80 % of people start falling off of their New Year's resolutions. Yeah, that makes sense. Right? When they make the New Year's resolution for like starting in the new year versus like, hey, you know what? I want to make this life change.

3:44I'm going to start tomorrow or right now. And fitness is also the number one New Year's resolution, right? Fitness is the number one. Health, fitness. That's why when you go to the gym, it's like packed, right? For the first two weeks. And then - My gym is. Well, there you go, right? Well, you know, you're a gym owner. So what happens? You just get a flood of people, especially now with, you know, companies like ClassPass and stuff. They offer people like New Year's deals and stuff like that. So you just, it kind of now has become this self-perpetuating thing where everyone just thinks, okay, I'll start in January.

4:22And they're thinking about that from probably October, November, right? So December is kind of empty because people are like, oh, I'm going to start in January. And that's the problem with the New Year's resolution is you're basically just like kicking the can down the road. 100%. And then like they, that's the problem. And then like they let themselves be probably more gluttonous and do all these things that they would otherwise not do. Okay. So I want to go over a couple of things. I researched the top three fitness trends for 2026. and what I found was, well, not that unique, but what I found people search for the most.

4:58Are you ready? Okay. Okay. And then I want you to compare it to what you see. Okay. All right. The first one, I'm not that surprised, but well, actually the first major one is low impact training. So the biggest trend right now in fitness is interval walking. Have you heard of this? I have not heard of this. This is brand new information. It's brand new information. I'm glad that I'm the one to tell you. Interval walking has been the number one searched fitness trend for 2026. So it used to be Pilates. Pilates is still up there because it's low impact. But walking has now like take interval walking, especially for many reasons.

5:42Number one, it's for people. Anyone can do it. Anybody can participate. I do believe, I know that you're not going to agree with me. I believe walking is - How do you know? Because I can see you're smirking. I just smirk. I think walking is by far the number one fitness, like the number one thing you can do for overall health, wellness, mental health, focus, productivity. Like walking, I think beats out everything. It's also great for insulin sensitivity. your VO2 max, like I said, your mental health, big one. You're shaking your head. Also for fat loss. I'm not shaking my head. Actually, funnily enough, I do agree with you.

6:23Really? Okay. I also think the barrier to entry is so low that there's no excuse not to do it. You can just walk out of your house and start doing the thing. So that's the number one. But interval walking, I really kind of, there's been a lot of different forms. How do you define that? What makes it an interval? Okay, so interval walking is basically walking at different paces. So you can do like a three-minute basic walk, I guess, like at a moderate pace. And then you can fast walk for a minute to two minutes. So you're basically changing the speed of your walking. And you can do it for 20 minutes, 30 minutes.

7:01And that's how they define it. And the other thing is it used to be – well, there was a whole trend with the – do you remember this 12, the incline? Yeah, yeah. 30, 30. 12, 30. Yeah, yeah. Walking on a 12 incline at three miles for 30 minutes. Yes. Which, I mean, yeah, that works. Any form of walking, in my opinion, works. You know, I actually tried this. And like, look, I'm not someone who buys into trends in general. So whenever there's a trend, that's why I'm smirking. I know. But I did try that workout because one of the girls at my gym was, you know, talking about it from TikTok or whatever.

7:37And so I tried it. It was actually not easy. It actually wasn't. Trying to keep that pace and that incline for 30 minutes was challenging. Well, I think it all depends on what your baseline is. Yeah. Right? But I walk a lot. I walk an hour a day. You walk an hour a day. So what I do is I walk whenever I'm on the phone. I walk whenever I am kind of walking from point A to point B. And, you know, I've said this before, but my non-negotiable is if there's anything that I have to do or go that is under two miles, I will walk it. I don't care if it's like a business meeting, a lunch, a dinner, I will not get into a car.

8:19That's amazing. And it's rare to, especially for busy people like yourself. And I know you, you're extremely busy. And the fact that you do it means that really anyone can do it. And it's very rare that people choose to do that. Well, this is what I think. Thank you. Well, I do it because I believe so much in giving yourself non-negotiables and parameters that you work within. Like kind of bulls for life. Rules of life. I believe in giving yourself like particular rules of life to keep you accountable. I agree. Right? Or else you can just go haywire. 100%. Especially for personality types like mine that, you know, left to my own devices, you know, I would eat, you know, five bowls of pasta.

9:03stuff. I would, you know, be gluttonous in every possible way. So I gave myself, and I think people should give themselves like parameters and boundaries, so to speak, to be the most effective, optimized version of themselves. I call it hard lines, like having a hard line, which is another way of saying non-negotiable. They're just rules that you just follow and you kind of go on autopilot and you just don't think about it anymore. This is what is happening. You brush your teeth. Most people have brushing their teeth twice a day. It's just hard lines around that. You just do it. You can do the same thing with fitness easily.

9:40And if you do, you'll find it actually quite easy to stick to. I think it's with anything in life, like fitness, of course, but I think giving yourself hard lines or ways to be accountable to yourself is very, very important, especially, but I think what comes before that is having the self-awareness to know where your triggers are, where you will fall and then plan accordingly. So like, because I know where my, I know myself and I know how I would basically flail or, or how I would kind of get myself into a problem. That's why I had these hard lines. I mean, I think people would learn that through the process of having those hard lines, learning themselves and where they start making excuses.

10:24Right. And if you're committed to it, then you have to make that choice. Am I going going to make an excuse or am I going to follow through on my non-negotiables? Another one I want to say is for me, one of my hard lines or non-negotiables is that I will not take a meeting, do a podcast or schedule something that is work related until I exercise first. That's like a non-negotiable for me. And again, like knowing how busy you are, I don't know if people at home know this, but like, I know how busy you are. The fact that you do that means really anyone can do that. Well, not necessarily anybody.

11:01I mean, fortunately I'm in a situation where I can make my own schedule. I have pretty much autonomy and I work for myself. However, with that, I also eat what I kill, right? So like if I don't work that I just don't make money or I just don't, I just don't be, I'm not able to do what I do, but that's why, why I do it for me is twofold. Number one, it actually makes me more productive when I exercise before I work or do a podcast because it like turns on my brain. It's the best form of brain training. Exercise to me is the number one best form of brain training you can give yourself. You will be more productive, more efficient, more effective, smarter.

11:45I can go on and on and on. So why I give myself that parameter is like if I do not exercise before I work, I'll just be sluggish. And now I've trained myself and my brain has been now trained where it just doesn't turn on until I get that done. And I will be probably 10 times more productive if I worked out before. So I don't even give myself that option. So that's the first part. The second reason is that makes me like, okay, it's like kind of like habit stacking. You know, like if I wake up, I eat my breakfast, I have my water, blah, blah, blah. Then I go, then I work out, then I go to work.

12:24That's my stack, right? So it's again, the habit stacking is again, what keeps people accountable and keeps them successful. Do you look forward to working out? No. Do you look forward to the feeling you get after you work out? Yes. I never do anything based on how I feel in the moment. I do things based on how I feel after the fact. I think that's one of the things I've noticed about fit people versus non-fit people. Almost every person I know who's fit has an unconscious shift of their attention to how they're going to feel when they leave the gym or finish their workout rather than how they're going to feel going into the gym or starting the workout.

13:05Well, yeah, I always say that your emotions is information. It's not factual. Like I think that like don't ever do something based on how you feel, right? That's not fact, it's feelings. And that can shift and change. So I won't do that. I will do it anyways. Like I say these things, like these four words, like I do it anyways, those four words, no matter what, right? If I'm sick, like not totally sick, but you know, if I have a little snuffy nose, if I'm sad, if I'm mad, if I'm low, if whatever it is, I will do it anyways. Do you apply that to non-fitness things too? Yes. Well, it depends. I think what I love about it is fitness is a microcosm for everything else in life.

13:51What you do in one area of life is how you do something in every other area of life. So how you do one thing is how you do everything. But fitness has really trained my brain to really have like a level of discipline and really just a self of sense of standard more than I apply it to everything else in life. So that's why to me, you know, I really, I really kind of like deep dive into, or I became like super interested in like the business and area of fitness, because I think it's so much more than just like lifting a weight and putting it down. Right. Like I think the skills and the foundation that you get from building a fitness routine, and lifestyle is unsurmountable and will basically 1 million X your life in every other area.

14:46So that's why. How's that for an answer? That is great. Now, with that being said, let's go into... Okay, so walking is number one. Walking is good. Walking is number one. The other thing I found very interesting is recovery is the other thing that's become... It's number two on the list in terms of top searches, like cold plunging, saunas. Massive right now, yeah. But I feel it's been massive for a long time. But I feel it's been massive for a long time. I don't know why now it's becoming... Probably because it's becoming an industry. But wasn't it an industry before? I think more and more now you're getting these companies that are recovery-based companies with recovery-based products.

15:31But they were always around, Hyperice, Therabody. Yeah, they were early. But I'm saying you get loads now. Everyone's kind of wants a piece of that pie. And a lot of it's a lot of it's really good stuff. I mean, in general, I would say that recovery is something that people still, no matter how much they know that they need to prioritize it, like people who have any sort of experience in the fitness world, it's still underappreciated by most people. Okay, I have a question for you. In that space, in the space of recovery, what is your number one modality? Sleep. In recovery? Sleep. Number one.

16:05Yeah. Good, long sleep. Really? Yeah, I got it with my life. Someone was telling me today that Matthew McConaughey is the same. Random. Well, it's Matthew McConaughey. He says it. Yeah. I mean, the guy is not only a hyper-successful actor, but he's also extremely fit. So he has this really well-balanced approach to life, I think. most people err on the side of one or the other. Their professional life and then their fitness life are two separate things. But a guy like him... Okay, well, let's couple this. Great. Matthew McConaughey's fit. He's always been fit. He's got great genetics. I love Matthew McConaughey.

16:44He's been on the show. What about in terms of recovery though? What do you think? You say sleep is a number one modality. What would you say is number two? It's closely related to sleep. I think is, so I don't know, this is 1.5. I can go more steps for it, but just sort of relaxation slash napping slash specifically, I think yoga nidra. Yeah. But yoga nidra is actually, it's technically non-sleep deep rest. Basically, I think that people should not only be sleeping, but taking time in the middle of their day to just switch off. But it is kind of an asterisk on sleep. It's kind of a form of just general rest.

17:23I think that stuff is more important than just rest in general is more important than things like jumping in an ice bath. I think ice, you know, cold therapy definitely works. I use hot therapy and cold therapy both. But I think if you're prioritizing that over things like napping or just taking time in the middle of the day. And definitely if you're trying to ice your way to recovery without getting really good night's sleep, then I think you've got putting the cart before the horse. Okay. I like that. I think that at the end of the day, well, the research actually says that people are trying to work out smarter, not harder.

18:07So that's why recovery has really hockey pucked. People want to work out less time, of course, but more, but not even, not even to do HIIT training, but just more smarter, smarter ways of working out. That's great. That's great. But I do think sleep, obviously, personally. How much do you sleep, Jen? Not very much. Okay. I can tell. Okay. First of all, I think that not that I don't, I want to sleep eight hours. I think I try to sleep. I try to sleep eight hours, but if I get six hours, I'm happy. I've been waking up a lot lately just because I think that when your brain doesn't shut off, that's why.

18:47But I definitely, I know I very much value sleep, obviously. I mean, but what I was going to say is besides sleep, the other recovery that I think is like monument, I think the best one is just sauna. I think it's my favorite one. I do not like a cold plunge. I think it's terrible for your hormones, for women. I think it's good for men. I don't think it's great for women. And I just don't like it. Yeah. You know, I just don't like it. I remember when cold showers came out and everyone was doing it because of Wim Hof and stuff. And again, there is a place for it. I'm not saying it's throw the baby out of the bathwater.

19:23But all it did for me personally was make me not look forward to showers because I was going to have cold showers. Well, also, I think it's a stress of like having that angst every time. It's like, to me, that to me is not appealing. And there's other things you can do. Like the other thing is like not everything is for everybody. Right. Right? Like know thyself. Right. This is the issue. Like everything could be, just because something works for you doesn't mean it's going to be working for me. And then what we try to do is we see an influencer or someone that says, oh, this is the best thing since sliced bread, but it doesn't really work for you.

19:55And then you feel guilty or bad about yourself because you're not doing it. That's true. Right? So I think, you know, going into the new year, pick one thing in that area, in that space, and like try to do that. You don't have to do everything. And the nice thing about that is you get momentum as well. If you can start with one thing, rather than having ADD about it, start with one thing and just master it and get successful at it. It will give you the momentum and the confidence to then start adding other things, rather than starting with four, five, six, seven different things and kind of just not having anything stick.

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21:44The other one, the number three, most trending in terms of things that people are searching for or Googling or chat GPT-ing these days is home gyms and fitness tech. So that's a big one. So this is like, I kind of feel like what was trending during the pandemic is kind of now having an uptick a little bit, which is interesting because at the same time, what's really trending on the social front is community. And it's like two opposite. Yeah. Which is really interesting. Well, the extremes often magnet, you know, polarize each other and they kind of feed each other. There are more people probably wanting to be home, especially after COVID.

22:28It still has that. Some people really liked being on their own, and then some people it was like torture for them. Yeah, but I do find it interesting, like home gyms, AI, tech kind of assisted workouts. You're talking about like tonals and mirrors and things like that? I'm talking, yeah, like first of all, I'm a humongous fan of something called Amp Fitness. Have you seen this thing? I have heard of it peripherally. You can tell me about it. Oh my God, it'll blow you away. First of all, it looks like an iPhone, but just a little bigger. And it's really intuitive, but more than that, it gives you three different levels of resistant training.

23:08So you can do eccentric, you can do regular, you can do band. And it's super small and it's aesthetically nice, but I've been using it super easy to use. And I'm not just saying that because, I'm saying it because legit, it's amazing. So companies like that, I think, are going to have a real big uptick because of the fact that home gym stuff is becoming popular again. I just don't understand what is. Yeah. Oh, I know why. I mean, I don't know why, but I'm guessing is because everything, there's been so much focus and emphasis on like AI in general. Yeah, yeah. So anything that has an AI element in it, right?

23:52Very hot. It's very, very, people are very curious. And so like an amp, it's AI, like it's basically, it's helping you with your workouts. It's tracking your workouts. It's doing everything in terms of like telling you when you should progress or progressing it for you. It's very intuitive. So maybe that's why. It's easy to follow, yeah. But you're okay. I want to ask you because you're, again, you're a gym owner. Are you noticing, besides like we talked about like the January, have you noticed that even in like the last year, people have been showing up more or less? Showing up to the physical gym?

24:26Yeah. If you do like boxing classes. Yeah, no, I mean, my business is growing for sure, but, and it's continuing to grow. But I think what you have to do with a gym is you have to realize that you are competing with home gyms. You are competing with apps. People do kind of want to stay home. they want to work from home they want to work out from home there's the convenience factor and you just have to kind of accept that and then you have to focus on what you offer and really the biggest thing that you offer with a physical brick and mortar location is two related things one is your own energy as the trainer the coach etc etc the gym owner what you're bringing almost really physically to people you know i do believe that there's something that we can't put our finger on which is like energy that people get, they feed off it.

25:12And two is the community. So the other members of the gym, those two things, which are related, you cannot replace with AI, you cannot replace with a home gym. And I think that maybe there's some type of hybrid model where people do a few workouts from home for the sake of speed and convenience, because convenience is a huge factor in fitness. Nobody wants to drive 45 minutes to their gym, right? There's nothing Exactly. Demotivating than that. Well, you know what I've noticed also is I'm a member of, let's say, Equinox, right? I have like the all access to all the gyms and blah, blah, blah. All the bells and whistles.

25:46All the, like all the locations that say, right? Do you get laundry as well? Do I get laundry? No, I don't think I do. You know what? I might. I don't even know. You don't even know. Because honestly, this is a thing. Like I have to have a lot of time to go to the gym. Yeah. Does that make sense? Because I got to like get to the gym. Yeah. I got to like walk up the stairs. I got to do all the things. And then like by the time I'm there, I'm like, oh my God, now I can start. So there is definitely that convenience factor of working out at home, right? So my point is like here I am spending all this money on a membership to all of these gyms and yet I work out at home, quite honestly, like 75 % of the time.