6 Tips for Building Sustainable Exercise Habits
Do a quick internet search and you’ll find hundreds of fitness programs. Each one will tell you which exercises to do, how to perform them, and how many sets and reps you should do.
The reality is that to get results from any of those programs, you’ll need to follow them regularly over time. As boring as it sounds, consistency really is the key.
Unfortunately, many people struggle to stick with any consistent exercise at all because they don't have sustainable exercise habits. If you can’t stick to an exercise program, the details of that program won’t matter.
That’s why it’s so vital to create exercise habits and make them an automatic part of your lifestyle. Building healthy habits should be the first thing you focus on when you decide to start exercising.
How Do You Make Something A Habit?
You build a habit by repeatedly performing a specific behavior until it becomes automatic. In other words, you practice until it becomes part of your routine and doesn’t need to be planned for.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”
How Long Does It Take Long To Form A Habit?
A popular myth is that it takes 21 days to form a habit. I don't know where that number came from, I actually spent a lot of time looking and couldn't track down any actual research that cited that number.
There is research on habit formation, though. Probably the best study on real-world habit formation asked participants to choose an eating, drinking, or exercise habit and repeat it daily. Participants weren’t provided with any external rewards or motivation for performing their habit behavior.
On average, it took 66 days for those participants to make their chosen behavior automatic, with the range being 18 to 254 days for a habit to form. So you'll probably have to put more than three weeks into working on your habit.
Want to learn more about habits? Here are some more articles for you:
How Habits Work And How To Build Them
How To Break An Unhealthy Habit
6 Tips For Building Exercise Habits
Making exercise a habit isn’t easy. In the study I mentioned above, about half of the participants didn’t repeat their behavior often enough to successfully form a habit.
If you've tried and struggled at habit-building in the past, it's ok. I have too.
So how can you increase your chances of success? Here are some tips and ideas.
1. Make An Action Plan:
They say failing to plan ahead is planning to fail. Things get in the way, motivation comes and goes. If you don’t have a solid action plan in place, you’ll find it really difficult to build your habits.
Brainstorm ways to fit exercise into your daily routine. Is it possible to ask your spouse or family member to pick up your kids from school two days a week so you can go to the gym after work? Can you fit a 30-minute workout in on your lunch break? Can you do short workouts during the week and a longer one on the weekend?
To create good exercise habits, you may have to move things around or ask for help. The goal is to make time to exercise. You also need to decide what you'll do if something comes up and alters your original plan. Spend some time and effort on this and write down your daily plans in detail.
2. Change Your Environment To Change Your Exercise Habits:
Your environment (the things you do and see every day and the people you interact with) makes a big difference in your behavior. Make it as easy and convenient as possible to stick to your workout habits.
Here are a few tips to change your environment:
If you’re sure that you’ll never be able to get to the gym, learn how to work out at home.
Tell your family or friends about your workout plans so they can help and support you.
Surround yourself with other people who love to exercise.
Learn more about fitness.
Place motivating reminders around your home or office.
Pack your gym bag the night before and put it next to your front door.
Write your scheduled workouts on a calendar that you look at often.
Do whatever you can to create an encouraging and supportive environment for yourself.
For more tips, here's another article I wrote about changing your environment to help you achieve your goals.
Personal Training Plan
3. Tie Your New Habit To An Existing One
Everyone has habits that are already automatic: brushing your teeth, eating breakfast, watching a certain tv show, dropping the kids off at school, taking the dog for a walk, etc. Those are behaviors that you perform regularly, without having to plan for them. You can use those behaviors as cues to help form your new habit.
In that habit study, participants were asked to perform their chosen behavior in response to a cue, such as “eating a piece of fruit with lunch”, “running for 15 minutes before dinner”. Those cues were an activity that the participant would be doing anyway.
You could plan to go to the gym after work or do squats during the 6 o’clock news show you watch every evening. Combining a new habit with an existing one will make it easier for you to perform the new behavior.
4. Focus On The Process Of Creating Exercise Habits, Not The Outcome
There are two types of goals: outcome goals and process goals. Outcome goals are what you want to achieve through your exercise habits. Process goals are the small, specific behaviors you perform to reach your outcome goal.
An outcome goal could be to gain 5 pounds of muscle. The process goals for that outcome could be to do strength training 3 times a week and eat protein as part of every meal.
Too many people focus only on the outcome of their behavior, but the process is what’s really important. Focus on each individual behavior and make it a part of your daily routine. If you can do that, results will follow.
5. Start Very Easy And Make Small, Incremental Improvements
You’re not likely to be successful if you try to overhaul your whole lifestyle at once. It’s important to make small, realistic changes and build on them over time.
If you’re currently not exercising at all but found a great program that requires you to work out for an hour a day, 5 days per week, don’t try to jump straight into the full program.
You’re more likely to be successful if you start with a 20-minute workout once a week. Once that behavior is automatic, add a second weekly workout. Keep building on your success until you’re regularly working out 5 times per week, then start increasing the length of each workout.
Be patient and make sure each behavior is automatic before trying to make another improvement.
6. Don’t Expect Perfection From Your Exercise Habits
Let’s go back to that 5X-per-week workout program. Going from not working out at all to exercising 5 times a week can be overwhelming. When people get overwhelmed, they think... maybe this isn’t the right program for me.
So they find another program. But that new exercise program requires too much equipment. The next one is also too demanding.
This can go on forever. Don’t get bogged down in the details or expect that you have to perform each and every workout exactly as described. Just start somewhere and aim to improve.
Remember that every little bit counts. If one day you don’t have time for your full workout, just do one exercise. Don’t have time for your usual 30-minute run? Run for just 5 minutes.
If you completely miss a workout, forgive yourself and move on. You’re going to stumble every now and then, and that’s ok. Start trying again the next day.
In the habit study, the researchers found that missing one day of the target behavior didn’t prevent habit formation, as long as the participants started the behavior again the next day.
People who have strong exercise habits are resilient, they bounce back after setbacks.
Are You Ready To Build New Exercise Habits?
If you're ready to build these new exercise habits, but aren't sure where to start, contact me. Let's discuss your fitness goals and where you might be stuck. I've coached dozens of people who didn't know where to start or who started and stopped multiple times. Sometimes a nudge is all you need to get over that hurdle.
If you want to work out on your own with a little guidance, check out my Strength Training For Anxiety Program. It's a 12-week workout program guided through an app so you can do the expertly designed workouts anytime, anywhere. You'll build physical as well as mental strength!