Fitness Advice
How To Conquer The Exercise Habit Mountain: A 3-Phase Plan
Overcome your inertia, get moving and build a fitness habit that sticks.
If you’re struggling to build an exercise habit, do you think you could be lying to yourself? Bear with me…
Let’s say you want to get fitter, slimmer and healthier. Could you start working out 4 times per week from tomorrow if I gave you the exact plan to follow to get in shape?
Probably not right? But why not? Here’s what we tell ourselves:
- “Not enough time, too much else going on right now”.
- “I’m not a member of a gym and I have no home training stuff, so…”.
- “Well, I’ve got this shoulder/back/neck thing”.
- “I need to find the right training plan for me first”.
Those seem like valid reasons, but more often than not they’re just hurdles we put in our own way to justify procrastinating. Because the real reason is simply:
I’m so out of shape that it’s going to take too much effort for too long a period of time to look and feel the way I want to, and I’m just not prepared to do that right now.
So let’s fix that.
Why ‘Exercise Habit Mountain’ Seems Really High
As with home improvement projects or work projects, we are very prone to procrastinating about starting to work out, because it just seems like such an overwhelming task, right?
We look at everything that we feel needs done and think — nah, not right now.
That’s the problem with focusing on the end-goal. It’s like standing at the foot of a mountain you have to climb, staring at the summit, thinking:
“F*ck me, that’s so far away, I need to sit and make a plan on how to get to the top as fast as possible...”.
In actual fact what you need to do is to get your head down and start putting one foot in front of the other, while enjoying the journey where you can.
If you want to conquer your own Exercise Habit Mountain, I’ve a 3 phase plan for you to follow, to:
- overcome your reticence to start;
- build some momentum and confidence in the process; and
- ultimately one day find yourself at the top saying “Well whaddayouknow, here I am…”.
Phase 1 — JBS — Just Bloody Start
We need to start doing something.
So find what amount of exercise you literally cannot convince yourself you can’t do… and do that.
- Can you do 5 push ups a day? Probably. How about 10 then?
- Can you go for a walk around the block for 10 minutes a day?
This is not about doing ‘enough’ just yet, because of course this will not give you a 6-pack or bulging biceps in weeks.
But it does do something even more important long-term — it gets you used to moving, even when you’re not in the mood, because what you need to do feels doable.
Phase 2 — NWM — Now We’re Movin’
JBS takes as long as it takes. For some people after a few days they’re ready for more, for others it can take weeks.
You’ll know when it’s time to progress to Phase 2/NWM because you’ll get to the point where you are able and willing to do more work, more regularly.
Now after Phase 1 we’ve:
- got the body moving a little;
- loosened up your muscles; and
- quietened your inner Whiney Lazy Child,
we can move into something more structured. But again it needs to feel doable, and not something you feel justified blowing off.
- How often can you get out walking each week, and for how long? Can you increase the pace?
- Can you start jogging for a minute then walking for 2 minutes?
- Can you do a 15 minute home bodyweight routine a few times a week?
- If you’re a member of a gym, can you start going a couple of times a week to reacquaint yourself with the weights, the machines, the layout, the people?
The key here is to build some momentum, start working regular exercise into your week, in and around what else is going on.
Again, this will not magically transform your body shape within weeks. But you’re building stamina, strength and mobility while learning how to overcome the bumps in the road along the way.
So this time is priceless in the longer term.
Phase 3 — IWO — “I Work Out”
NWM takes as long as it takes too. You’ll know you’re ready for the next phase when you CRAVE more structure, when you find yourself wanting to get a better plan in place for your weekly exercise.
The question each week is no longer Shall I Work Out, it’s:
What Shall I Do This Week For My Regular Workouts?
When you reach this stage, this is a momentous time. Why?
Because exercising is a habit now. You are doing it so regularly that when someone asks what you do in your spare time you say:
“I work out”.
And since it’s a habit, now you have Oh So Much Time to try various workout splits, classes, cardio workouts or whatever you want.
Every 6–8 weeks you can have a new focus or a new plan, because you have so many workouts in your future.
Your health, fitness and body shape are slowly but surely starting to transform, and when you DO now gaze at the summit of your mountain it’s not so far away after all.
So… Head down. Start small and doable. Keep Moving. Add Structure. Reap the Benefits. Win.
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