3 Steps to Make Exercising a Normal Part of Your Life
If being consistently physically active was easy everybody would be doing it.
I get it. I hear that a lot and I agree. If you’re someone that is not used to exercising regularly, or even just doing it every now and then, I could see how going from zero to ten could be difficult. I’ve gone through that myself in the past. There was a moment in my life that I was sedentary (not exercising at all) for nearly 2 years. Believe me I know what it’s like to have a job that consumes your time and energy. Exercising, hell even just going outside and walking for a few minutes was more of a chore than sweeping and cleaning out my garage.
And I’m someone that absolutely loves exercising. If I could live in a gym with my wife and soon to be child I would, but you could imagine that it wouldn’t sit well with my wife. But I get it. Consistency can be difficult. I realized what the problem was and I believe it’s probably what you struggle with the most. If you search online for how to start exercising, you’ll get a million articles all telling you essentially the same thing, “just start”. Ummmm ok. How? Where? When? Why?
Seriously these articles give you all these fancy words and strategies that don’t make it easy or even appealing to start. Most of them encourage you to exercise at an intensity that you probably are not interested in at the moment. Maybe you’re not looking to start exercising yet. You’re looking at starting to walk or even just find the time to start but the answer is not easy to find. I think I’ve figured out for you how to do it and it’s as easy as it can possibly get.
It starts with not even thinking about the exercises. Yes having a goal is important to get you motivated but even that does not make it clear on how to start today, let alone do it for the long term. Your first goal is much more important than deciding whether you want to lose weight, gain muscle or try to fly like Superman, or Supergirl. Your first goal is formed by addressing these 3 strategies, which will help make consistency much easier for you. Talk about killing two bird with one stone.
Ready to simplify exercise even more?
Strategy #1: Determine Your Number of Days
Focus on this one thing alone first. Base this solely on your schedule and be honest with yourself. If all you can do to start out is twice a week then that’s ok. It doesn’t even matter which two days of the week you start with. Just make sure that for the first week of your new journey you actually exercise twice. Remember the exercises don’t matter or even where you do it. It can be you just walking outside with family or friends. Try this out for 2 weeks. What you may find is that you’ll begin to feel a sense of accomplishment and empowerment to move along faster. That’s what you want but stay small. Don’t go all in immediately before completing the next two strategies.
Strategy #2: Determine Your Days of the Week
After having exercised for the number of days you wanted to, pay close attention to the days that you exercised, You may notice that there were specific days that were the easiest for you. Perhaps you found that Monday and Wednesday were the best days for you to make available for physical activity. Now you can be a little more specific. When you feel like you’re ready to commit the same number of days each week consistently, decide on the actual days of the week you’re going to train. The reason you’ll want to do this is so that exercising can become a natural part of your weekly routine. Excuses become less of a distraction and now you have a little more control over your exercise routine. It’s not left up to chance and hope anymore. Try this again for at least 2 weeks. Once you’ve mastered this you’re ready for the final step.
Strategy #3: Determine Your Best Time of Day
Now you’ve been able to break two barriers that most people have a hard time with. You’ve adopted portions of consistency and control. Now selecting the best time of day for you to exercise is the final piece of the puzzle. Why is this important? Again, controlling your schedule and eliminating possible excuses is where consistency is allowed to live. If you look back at strategy number one you will also notice that you’ve developed a pattern for the time of day that you selected to exercise. Maybe it was the morning or afternoon. You might notice that it was even more specific than that like 2pm or 5pm. Go with that. Add those specific times to the days you’ve selected to exercise and now you’ve successfully created a routine.
Routine is crucial. Having a sound routine:
- Provides structure
- Builds good habits
- Increases efficiency
- Negates the need for willpower and motivation alone
- Builds momentum
Give these strategies a try. Eliminate everything else and just try to focus on implementing these strategies before trying to rack your brain on what exercises to start with. You’ll see that in one month exercising has become a regular part of your life without even realizing it. Once this routine has been created then you can concentrate on what you want to accomplish with it. This helped me get back to doing what I love to do. My first goal last year was not to build muscle or get stronger. It was simply to exercise for no less than 75% of the year. I adopted these strategies when I started and haven’t looked back since.
I promise you this is extremely easy and highly effective. All you have to do right now is decide when you’re ready to start down the path of a healthier life. The rest is easy. Once you’ve mastered these strategies let The Comic Corps make exercising and achieving your physical goal headache free.
It’s your move.