The allure of the New Year is something that captivates everybody. First of all, the New Year swoops in just one week after Christmas–right when we’re at our laziest, and right when we feel the most motivated to take charge of our lives and get it together. With the New Year comes the chance to hit reset on the clock of your life–it’s the perfect time for self-improvement. And what better way to do that than with the creation of a long list of resolutions? Competitiveness and trying to be the best is baked into our culture, and manifests itself in the most unsuspecting parts of our lives. Even TikTok trends. For example, take a look at the infamous Winter Arc.
Urban Dictionary describes the “Winter Arc” as a period of time where “every man must face the mental and physical challenges of winter.” Influencers on the internet have taken this to heart–and even imposed some of these challenges on themselves. The first video that surfaces when the words “Winter Arc” are typed into the TikTok search bar is one of a man completing an egregious workout. The Winter Arc videos are known to be utterly ridiculous. They consist of people completing exercises in extremely exaggerated ways, with incredibly incorrect form, all to lift more weight and achieve their gym goals more quickly. Videos like these have exploded in popularity, ostensibly for their ridiculousness, but really because society relates to it. These videos are products of desperation. They show people completing insane, unorthodox workouts in an attempt to have a Winter Arc that will leave them with perfect bodies in time for summer. Though the Winter Arc is largely a joke on social media, and is by no means a direct reflection of our society’s behavior in the gym, it does show how we, when desperate enough, will go to insane lengths to achieve our goals.
We make our goals unattainable–but this is nothing new. For decades, the Winter Arc has woven its way into our lives, just as the holidays are wrapping up. Remember that Jane Fonda workout CD your mom unwrapped at Christmas all those years ago? Maybe the gym wear your aunt gifted you this holiday season. Or maybe even the gua sha you bought yourself as a present this year, so that in 2025, you’d have cheekbones and a jawline that could cut diamonds. All of these are more subtle examples of us making ourselves our New Years projects, and subjecting ourselves to the Winter Arc. As Youtuber and podcaster Emma Chamberlain states in her podcast Anything Goes, “Once [your Winter Arc] is over, at best you won’t be able to sustain what you did and you’ll go back to some of your old ways.” She points out a hole in the Winter Arc, observing that no matter how good your ideas for improvement are, once the New Years Resolution fever fades out, so do they.
Still, the Winter Arc is useful. It establishes routine, is based on healthy habits, and introduces mental fortitude. So how can we find a balance? It starts with making sure your goals aren’t rooted in desperation, and are instead vessels for true self improvement. Resolutions that are unattainable and too extreme are likely to be forgotten, discarded, or given up on–whereas ones that are attainable have higher success rates. Emma Cutting from Colorado State University gives us an outline on how to do this in one of her articles, saying that resolutions that last are always “SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.” Also, resolutions extend all throughout the year–and gradual change is the most effective.
At the end of the day, the Winter Arc isn’t just a joke to laugh at on TikTok; it’s a commitment we can make to ourselves. So, shouldn’t we value it as such?
