How To Make Exercise A Habit?

An action performed repeatedly produces amazing results.

We all have heard this phrase quite a lot of times during the struggle of making some activity a habit in our lives.

Doesn’t matter who you are but there’s that one thing in every one of our lives that we desire to make a part of our daily routine. Stats conclude that the most sought-after habit is the habit of exercise. And, that’s the habit that people struggle most to engrain in their daily lives.

So today we’re going to answer this question: how to make exercise a habit?

In this article, you’ll learn some useful and practical tips to make exercise your daily routine activity. Moreover, you’ll be given essential information about forming a habit that will be relevant for your whole life. So let’s get started!

7 Practical Tips To Make Exercise A Habit

Consistency Is The Key- I must acknowledge that it’s difficult to be consistent in exercising. That’s because your body gets tired after some time and requires you to skip a day to get some rest. So it’s somewhat impossible to repeat the same exercises daily.

So how can you counter it? You need to understand that you can be consistent in exercising daily. How? By performing slightly different and easier exercises. For example, when you’re feeling down and decide to have a rest from your cardio workout, you can walk on that day so your streak doesn’t get broken. In this way, you can exercise daily and be consistent. Remember the goal is not to act perfectly rather your aim should be to do it repeatedly. The more you repeat the higher the odds of developing that action into a habit.

Choose A Time And Stick To It- This helps a lot. Because when you dedicate a specific time window to your workout, your mind automatically reminds you of it. So you’ll be mindful of taking some time out for your body every day.

Besides, it will also help you in avoiding the distractions around you because you’ve trained your brain to perform your exercises at that specific time so you won’t have to do much in combating procrastination.

Five Seconds Rule- Whenever you feel like not executing your workout, start counting backward from five and get up from your place by the time you reach one. Just keep in mind that you won’t ever regret following this rule because at the end of the day you’ve completed your aimed task for the day.

This rule is highly effective in overcoming your biased inner voice that’s innate in all of us. If you genuinely follow this rule, you can easily fight laziness and procrastination.

Don’t be too harsh on yourself- Many beginners make this mistake before starting their journey of getting in shape. When they are highly motivated at the start, they become hard on themselves by performing some of the very hard exercises, which leads to burnout. And suddenly, a goal about which you were passionate becomes secondary and then slowly and gradually not important at all.

Your body needs to adapt to this habit and you must give time to it to do so. So just perform easier exercises at the start because your goal is to repeat them as many times as possible. Once you’ve repeated the action a considerable amount of times, then you can upgrade.

Make it easy- A question for you here: Why do you prepare for your work a day before? One of the reasons might be to avoid friction in the morning. Similarly, if you wake up in the morning and everything i.e. clothes, shoes are already prepared, then you’re less likely to go into bed again. That’s because the number of steps that you need to take before your workout has been reduced. So there will be less friction for you at the time of your workout.

Reward yourself- That’s a tip for your parenting too. Have you noticed what happens when children get rewarded for the completion of a certain task? Yes, they are highly motivated by it and are determined to do those tasks again.

It’s in our psychology to be motivated by accomplishing a task if we receive something in return. Otherwise, no one would be motivated even to get out of bed to do anything in the morning.

Besides, when you reward yourself you feel like you’ve done something meaningful and that you’ve fulfilled an important task. That gives you a sense of satisfaction and makes you happy because your brain releases serotonin, a chemical of elatement.

In the case of exercise, a reward can be a bar of your favorite chocolate at the end of the month or having dinner at your favorite restaurant. It can be anything that you love, that makes you happy, and that you crave. But bear in mind that you must not go too far and do something that wastes your hard work during the exercise.

Identify your ‘WHY’- Knowing your ‘why’ is to have a clear picture in your mind about why you want to do something. It is essential before starting any activity that requires consistency, perseverance, and patience. That’s because it keeps you motivated when the battle gets tough.

Your ‘why’ is useful because you can always remember the result when you’re about to give up. It helps you keep going and perform your workout with consistency.

So always remember your ‘why’ because there will be times when the resistance comes all over you and you’re about to give in, and at that very time your ‘why’ will help you get out of it.

So begin your exercise with the result in mind. And always daydream about it. This will motivate, as well as inspire you, and help you to be persistent when 95% of the guys leave their dreams undone.

How Long Does It Take To Make Exercise A Habit?

A habit is an action that you perform automatically and without thinking. It becomes automatic once you consistently do it for a certain amount of time.

So how long does it take to make exercise a habit?

Studies have revealed that you must repeat a task for 66 days for it to make a habit.

66 days seems a small number, right?

Yes, it is, given what you’re gaining in return. But still, you need to be consistent for this time and it’s not that easy. Follow the tips mentioned above and I am sure you can achieve this milestone.

How To Get Into The Habit Of Exercising In The Morning?

Executing your workout every day isn’t a piece of cake for everybody. The majority is usually busy with their work, family, and other activities, and this deprives them of taking some time out for their body. And even if they do, they can’t do it consistently due to some immediate issue that arises at the time of their workout.

So what’s the solution for that?

Expert fitness trainers say that morning is the best time for physical activity because at that time: you’re fresh, you have maximum willpower, and you don’t have a busy schedule. So you have the least resistance against your workout as compared to the whole day.

Therefore, every beginner should include exercise in their morning routine as it facilitates them in being consistent. But how to get into the habit of exercising in the morning?

Resisting the temptation to hit the snooze button is a real challenge for all of us. Especially, when you know you have to start moving as soon as you get out of bed. So here are some tips for you to avoid getting back to sleep once you’ve woken up.

1. Sleep early

Sleeping early is crucial if you want to start your mornings productively. Otherwise, you won’t have the energy to, let alone move, but to do anything.

2. Progress through time

One of the most effective techniques to stick with a habit is to make it easy. Our minds will give preference to the easy tasks over the hard ones on any given day. So to make your habit easy, you should always start small.

Don’t be hard on yourself. Setting a certain time to exercise will dry away your motivation. Instead, start your workout and then make improvements. Start at 7:00 A.m and day by day decrease that time by 5 minutes. Or start with a 10-minute workout and gradually increase your time.

3. Make it enjoyable

When you start with something you enjoy doing, it’ll be easier to get into this habit of exercising in the morning. So perform exercises that are easy and fun to do.

4. Pair up with a partner

Try to find someone who has the same goals as yours. And help each other achieve them. This way, you will be accountable to one another, and this will make it likely that you consistently show up for your morning workout.

5. Make exciting post-workout plans

Planning to do something that excites you first thing after your workout will make your habit look attractive. And attractive tasks are easy to perform as we all know. So make plans for things you want to do. This could be reading, a time-out with your favorite person, or simply a healthy, highly enjoyable breakfast.

Conclusion

Developing a habit of exercise solves a lot of our long-term problems. That’s why it is a useful habit for all of us.

Therefore, in this article, I’ve discussed how to make exercise a habit. I have provided some useful tips that also helped me a lot and I hope that they do the same for you.

I also mentioned some useful information like how long does it take to make exercise a habit and how to get into the habit of exercising in the morning.

Once you’ve read this article, mention the tips that I’ve missed in the comments, so we all can benefit.