Unlock the secret to fitness - 5 Effective Ways to Build an Exercise Habit
Has this ever happened to you?
You set yourself a goal. You start off so well and then something happens. You lose momentum. You start to skip days and then eventually you give up.
This pattern happens all the time with exercise goals. Here’s the thing - we all know that exercise is a long game. If you want the many benefits of an active lifestyle, you have to be consistent with exercise. There are no shortcuts or quick fixes. Exercise needs to become a regular part of your life.
If you’ve ever set yourself a fitness goal, I bet you started off feeling very motivated. Something will have triggered that motivation. Perhaps you were fed up with feeling unfit and untoned, maybe you'd been told by your doctor that you need to lower your blood pressure or possibly you had a summer holiday booked and you wanted to feel good about yourself in your floaty dresses.
This initial motivation can be termed “should do” motivation i.e. “I should be exercising 4 times a week to help me lose weight.” This kind of motivation is what makes you set your goals and it’s what gets you out the door for your run, to the gym or to your yoga class. But it tends to be quite short-lived.
The problem with “should do” motivation is that it’s not usually powerful enough to keep you going in the face of obstacles and setbacks, such as work, family commitments or ill health.
What you need is continuing motivation to exercise, so that it becomes a habit.
So how do you go about moving beyond the initial motivation and actually building an exercise habit?
“A habit is generally defined as a behaviour that’s recurrent, is cued by a specific context, often happens without much awareness or conscious intent, and is acquired through frequent repetition.”
Better than Before, Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin.
1.Consistency is Key
Your main focus for the first 6-8 weeks is consistency.
Take advantage of your initial motivation and aim to do at least 4 exercise sessions a week (with one rest day). You don’t have to be smashing out a huge strength session or run each time. A brisk walk is perfectly ok. It’s the habit of exercise that you’re building so choose activities that you can do and enjoy.
Then you need to commit to this for at least 6 weeks. This is important as a 2015 study found that exercising for at least four sessions per week for 6 weeks was the minimum requirement to establish an exercise habit.
Try not to skip sessions either.
“The trick is you can’t skip days. Your workouts can be reasonable and still deliver results—if you don’t skip days. Your writing sessions can be short and the work will still accumulate—if you don’t skip days. As long as you’re working, you’ll get there.”
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits.
2. Become a Person who Exercises
“Be” goals are more motivating than “do” goals. So instead of “doing” exercise, focus on “being” someone who exercises.
Think about the sorts of things that people who exercise do. They plan their exercise sessions, they focus on how good exercise makes them feel, they prioritise exercise and fit it into their day (even when they’re extremely busy) and they take their gym kit on holiday.
To begin shaping your identity as someone who exercises, start doing some of these things - even if they feel a bit alien initially. Start by putting your exercise clothes out the night before or placing a set of dumbbells in your living room. Having the right kit to hand is what people who exercise do. Open up your calendar and put your exercise sessions in there. Book gym classes as soon as the booking window opens.
3. Set Rules for Yourself
When you become more active, more often during the day, it reinforces your self identity as a person who exercises. Find ways to add more activity into your day and turn them into rules. For example, you could have a rule of not sitting for longer than an hour, to always take the stairs or to get outside at least once during the day.
“In a quirk of psychology, people typically don’t argue with personal rules. It turns out that rules can help automate our behaviour to put us in a position to achieve success and accomplish our goals.”
Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish
4. Identify Your Bad Habits
When creating a new habit, it’s likely that you’ll also have to tackle a few bad habits. If you always hit snooze on your alarm, that’s a habit that will get in the way of you doing exercise early in the morning. If you typically use your breaks to scroll on social media, this could get in the way of you going out for a walk.
You know yourself best so try to be really honest about some of the behaviours that you need to change in order to build your new habit effectively.
5. Nurture Your New Habit
Short daily practices can help keep you focused on your goals. Each day remind yourself of what you’re working towards and why. Journaling is a good way to do this or pop it on a Post It on the fridge or your laptop.
Finally, practice kindness and compassion towards yourself. Celebrate your successes. Even the smallest of steps towards your goal is a success and is worthy of celebration.
