Since Kennedy’s invitation (demand?) to sweat as civic duty, “the gym” in many forms has become a major part of modern life, even as only 20% of Americans work out regularly (but many more do mental gymnastics thinking about how they should work out — or resenting those who do). Jogging, with its no-frills appeal, became a sensation in the late 1960s. Yoga made its way from secluded retreats to YMCA schedules in the ’70s. By the 1980s, aerobics, barre, and countless dance-exercise formats became fixtures in private studios and at commercial gyms, which had barely existed before the 1960s when they cropped up in cities, suburbs, and office buildings (and are only multiplying today). These days, all of the above continue to thrive along with countless others, from circuit training to indoor cycling.This explosion of fitness in American — especially women’s — lives owed much to feminists’ exploding ideas about female frailty and, as one woman described Jane Fonda’s contribution, “making it okay to sweat in public.” But for all the feel-good potential of women’s fitness, it’s hard to ignore the palpable misery in the annual New Year’s promises to exercise that have become standard since the '80s exercise boom. In 1986, a Sarasota Herald-Tribune article interviewed women who had somehow done the unimaginable: both “made a truce with their diet demons” and followed through on this newer challenge of regular exercise. “I have to go when I’m unconscious,” one woman confessed, claiming that she’d never endure the torture of early-morning runs if she were awake enough to think about the decision of leaving her bed. For the rest of the (all-female) interviewees, the fear of death (a parent who had succumbed to heart disease) or of fat (“I hate…to feel myself jiggle”) fueled their “fitspo.” Rather than liberating women from the tyranny of dieting, a more expansive exercise culture layered on yet another requirement to properly embodying modern womanhood — or, rather, another opportunity to fail at it. “New year, new you” became about the discipline to both restrict your food and hit the gym, a one-two punch that still dominates too many January issues of women’s magazines.Resolving (again!) to become more fit is thus so irresistible because in our culture, a commitment to exercise doesn’t just reflect a self-involved desire to tone your abs; it’s a statement, a commitment to display your moral and civic fitness. And unlike doing a better job at the private tasks of balancing your checkbook or organizing your closet, fulfilling on your fitness resolution is often highly visible, whether literally embodied in your newly whittled waistline or pinged to the world via your check-in at your local CrossFit box.Does it have to be this way, though? Must exercise resolutions make us so miserable? Short answer: no.But it’s worth thinking about why fitness resolutions can feel doomed to failure. Beyond the psychic impact of our current body-obsessed, Photoshopped, insta-filtered culture, there are structural reasons why it is arguably more challenging for many Americans to stay fit today than ever before. State and federal investment in physical education and public recreation programs has dropped since the grand promises of the early 1960s. The most affordable foods are the least healthful. The rise of unpredictable shift labor makes planning consistent workouts challenging for many. A luxury fitness sector has largely flipped the image of the wealthy fat cat; today more familiar examples of affluence are the slender green-juice swilling SoulCycle devotée or the toned triathlete outfitted with the latest high-tech tracking gear. Notably, the Obamas’ “Let’s Move!” campaign asks Americans to make the same commitment to physical activity as JFK demanded almost 60 years ago, except today the White House targets poor people of color rather than affluent whites.But if the struggle is real, the “January effect” apparently is also. Just as the financial markets tend to rally, people also feel especially motivated in the first month of the year. This burst of energy is not to be ignored, especially in the wake of what many are (hyperbolically) calling “the worst year ever” ; we need inspiration where we can get it. Rather than roll your eyes at the New Year’s resolution to get fit, it is worth getting real about why — beyond nailing the #sweatyselfie — you are committing to exercise, and how to keep it up all year.Any gym rat can tell you that a commitment to fitness shapes your overall attitude and experience even more than it does your body shape. Busting out one more burpee than you thought you could or daring to attempt dance-cardio actually expands your sense of your capabilities, and in a low-stakes environment. At the same time, knowing when to hit snooze or take a day off from a regular routine calms the all-or-nothing terror that missing a day means you’ll never work out again or that you’re a bad person. Resolving to make exercise about pleasure rather than punishment, and fitness goals about self-fulfillment rather than squeezing into skinny jeans, increases the chances that fitness will help you lead a more satisfying life beyond the gym…and that you will be one of the few who might actually need a new resolution come December 2017.