Creating habits around exercise will allow for long-term success. It is that simple. Exercise is a wonderful thing. There are very few (if any) downsides to it and it is something that anyone is able to do. Your ability to exercise simply comes down to whether or not you want to do it at that moment in time.
Exercise does not discriminate. It does not care if your situation is different from the person next to you. You could be the fittest person in the world or on the very start of your journey. You will still benefit from what exercise has to offer.
It is not something that can be beaten. You cannot conquer exercise. The more you do it, the more you will be able to do it and so the cycle continues.
So if everyone is able to do it and everyone can benefit from it, then why are some people (seemingly) so much better at it than others?
The reason is that they have created some habits around their exercise success and they simply allow themselves to build on those habits over time.
Habit #1 – Setting Goals
One of the main reasons that people do not succeed with their ability to exercise in a consistent manner is that they do not have motivating goals.
If you are truly looking to be successful in the long term with your exercise, then you need to set some goals and parameters around it.
This does not mean that everyone has to aim to run a marathon, climb a mountain or become a body-builder, but it does mean that you need to train with purpose.
If you are able to wake up each morning with a strong reason to exercise then the excuses become less frequent. It is the unmotivated person that finds any excuse to not exercise when they don’t want to.
So how can you set some goals for your health and fitness?
This is about being honest with yourself and digging down to the true reason around the importance of exercise to you.
Questions like:
- Why is exercise important to me?
- What would I like to be able to do with my fitness?
- Am I aiming to be a certain weight/size of clothing?
- How do I want to look/feel at my fittest?
These questions are designed to get you thinking about the purpose of your exercise.
If you answer them properly, dig down and ask why a few times, be honest with yourself, then you will have some great goals.
This is turn will help develop some positive habits for exercise success.
So get cracking, there is no better time than the now to set some goals!
Habit #2 – Change the program…frequently
Doing the same thing day in and day out can get incredibly boring.
There should no surprises to that statement.
A big reason that people fail to create habits around exercise success is that they simply are doing the same thing for too long.
They find a program that gets them some success initially and stick to it (rightly so).
The big issue is that if you stick to the same program for too long, your body can adapt and the results can become less frequent. Once this occurs, there can be a bit of boredom around the training program itself. Soon, you start to resent the training session.
Once this starts happening, the successful habit that you have built can fall away quite quickly.
So how can we ensure that the exercise that we are doing is consistently motivating, getting us results and allowing us to see success?
You must frequently change your training program
It is that simple.
Mix up what you are doing and you will always be motivated to train. This in turn will allow you to create some exercise habits for success.
Different ways to change your program include:
- Having a new strength program to do every 4-6 weeks.
- Changing the exercises you do when visiting the gym once a month.
- Swapping out the walk for a swim or vice versa.
- Getting an exercise buddy and doing some group classes with them.
As long as the changes you are making are still in line with the goals that you are looking to achieve, then you will be on the path to success.
So mix it up! Try some new things and see if it keeps the excitement levels high for a longer period of time.
Habit #3 – Train smarter not harder
A massive reason why there are some people who seem to have great habits and success with their exercise is because they train smart.
Reducing the risk of injury is vital to long term exercise success.
It is very hard to keep the motivation up and even harder to find ways to properly exercise if you are injured.
If you are giving it your all, all the time, then it can be very easy for things like form and technique to fall by the wayside. When tiredness and fatigue sets in, the muscles are simply not able to handle the load they once could.
Your mind will find it harder to process what it is doing at its normal rate and all of those can combine to doing an exercise incorrectly which in turn could lead to injury.
There is no need to train at a million miles an hour all the time. Not only does it increase the chance of injury but it is not sustainable.
Another example of this is overtraining.
Overtraining is very common and is understandable when it happens.
Imagine this:
You start a new program, enjoy it and get some wonderful results. This in turn makes you want to exercise more and more because we you can see the great success that it is having.
The cycle continues.
Exercise frequency increases and increases and you start notice some aches and pains setting in. They weren’t here when you first started and now they seem to be taking over.
Overtraining has found another victim.
There is a tipping point that we all must be aware of.
If you train too much, you are not giving your body the chance to rest and recover between workouts. If this is occurring then you are going in to a training session already fatigued which in turn will place undue stress on the body.
It is a balance that needs to be hit in order to see success, but if you can find the right mix between training and rest, then you will have created some wonderful habits for exercise success.
3 simple habits, if adopt them, you will greatly increase your chance of ongoing exercise, health and fitness success.
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