Is exercise a daily habit? Is it part of your lifestyle yet?
If not, what’s stopping you?
Turning your fitness vision into a concrete reality requires long term discipline and consistency. And the best way to do so is by making your exercise routine a daily habit. Let’s face it: Human beings are creatures of habits. This mechanism evolved over 1000’s of years to conserve energy and optimize performance so instead of struggling to perform the daily task, the automatic pilot kicks in and takes control.
Therefore, if you’re looking to improve your fitness level by forming a healthy exercise habit, here are 4 guidelines that can help.
Exercise in the morning (if you can)
When it comes to achieving staggering consistency with a training program, picking the right exercise timing is critical. For that, and according to many studies, the best time of the day to go for a workout is in the early morning when the rest of the world is still asleep. Usually during this time of the day, there aren’t many things to do unless you prefer staying in the comfort of your bed.
If you think that you’re up to the challenge, get up out of bed and meet me at the CMF studio for a 7:00AM SPIN class Tuesdays and soon to be Thursdays. If you have the time, follow it up with our 8:30AM Bodysculpting.
Can’t make it on Tuesdays and Thursdays, check out our Monday, Wednesday and Friday 8:30AM classes.
Commit For 30-Days
The best approach for forming a new habit is by committing to doing the new activity for at least 4 consecutive weeks, non-stop. As a result, make sure to block out a specific chunk on your daily calendar for the next 4 weeks; that’s your exercise calendar.
Commit to another person
Human beings are also social creatures; we dread social rejection and being disapproved of—even by people we don’t really like. So why not use this instinctive mechanism to your advantage. As a result, instead of being a lonely wolf, make sure to do the bulk of your training with a workout buddy or buddies at CMF. The latter must share your training vision and have similar fitness levels.
In addition, you can hold each other accountable for the actions you need to take while providing encouragement and incentives thus you’ll all see your consistency and performance levels going through the roof.
Make your exercise enjoyable
If your exercise is enjoyable and fun, then you’ll be looking forward to doing it. Nevertheless, not all workouts can be fun—especially if you like to up the ante and push your body to your next level. In fact, going out of your comfort zone is essential for growing and improving your fitness level. Nonetheless, you can inject some fun into your training program by doing the following:
- Vary your training programs – this is where I come in. I try to keep it fresh, inventive and always changing. Stagnant is not in my vocabulary.
- Listen to your favorite music and keep updating your playlist with upbeat and inspiring tracks. Want to hear something in class? Let us know – we might have it.
- Reward yourself for the hard efforts. Just make sure that the rewards are non-food based.
- Keep track of your progress by taking measurements, before/after pictures, and soliciting compliments from your family members for progress.
Though these guidelines are simple and easy to follow, getting results requires rapid and consistent implementation. Make sure to put into action what you’ve just learned and remember to always exercise with your current fitness skill – DON’T push yourself to a point that your body is not ready for.