Making fitness a habit can be a real struggle. As a personal trainer for over 26 years I have used these top tips with many beginning clients to help them create a new health and fitness routine
Schedule Your Workouts
Put your workout sessions into your calendar even if you’re just doing stretches in your bedroom — like you would any other appointment, so it’s not just something you squeeze when you might have time… Because we all know how that goes
Put a SUPER FUN reminder in your phone.
Make sure you do the SUPER FUN part so your brain gets excited about it.
Think peppy and positive like these reminders:
⏰”Time to HIIT it!”
🎧”Your favorite playlist is waiting”
💥Are you ready to CRUSH this?
And, finally, don’t set yourself up for failure. If you’re not a morning person, forget about that 7 a.m. Bikram class, or if you know you never get out of work on time, don’t make 6 p.m. your health hour, either.
Set yourself up for SUCCESS! Take moment to really decide if this scheduled time is actually likely to happen!
Make It Fun
The years of logging boring minutes on the elliptical are over.. 90’s anyone?
There’s more than one way to workout.
But all the trendy workouts can make it hard to figure out what you actually like to do.
Hitting up a Barre class that you are never excited about just because it’s trendy is not the way to go
Finding a workout you’re interested in is key to keeping you from feeling defeated and quitting
Look into all the options .. There are so many these days:
🏋️♀️ gym membership,
🏋️♀️ group classes,
🏋️♀️ personal training sessions,
🏋️♀️ working out at home
🏋️♀️ using a trainer app,
🏋️♀️ online workout plans
Until you settle on the thing that gets you excited and one you will actually DO! Don’t do it just because your friend is excited about it. It has to fit for you!
Not even sure where to start?
Try a class or session that combines a few things, like strength and cardio, so you can try a couple things out in one go,
But avoid hardcore bootcamp or yoga classes that require you to stand on your head, or anything with intermediate or advanced in the class description when you are just getting started. There will be plenty of time for those when you make this fitness thing a routine. Focus on building that habit first and grow from there!
Start Small!
Back in the 80’s and 90’s we had our minds wrapped around the 60 minute workout. This is because our “step” classes we scheduled on the hour
You actually don’t have to go to the gym for an hour to begin to see results… Especially when you are just starting out.
Your 20-minute running routines will naturally increase in duration as you get into your groove. And thanks to high intensity interval training (HIIT) , even as you get stronger, you might be able to avoid spending hours and hours in the gym to get really great results.
I have a few days a week where i only have 30 minutes to train so I put in some short, intense (<< You can work up to this) , full body workouts on those days. I like the feeling of planning a short effective workout and getting to finish it rather than doing a longer workout and having to cut it short
Biting off too big of a goal will set you up for failure. It’s better to just start with something – even if it’s small.
REMEMBER THIS: Good health is CONTAGIOUS too!
When you are just getting started on a fitness routine it is important to surround yourself with people that want to be healthier also.
👍 Go to lunch with friends that like to eat at healthy restaurants
👍 Listen to your friends that know just a little bit more about health and wellness than you do (Just make sure they know what their talking about;)
👍 Hang out with that one friend that really makes you feel happy and is excited for yout life as you are
👍 Find an accountability partner that will both encourage you AND hold you to your promises!
We become the 5 people we hang out with so find a group that is supportive, encouraging and makes you feel amazing about what you are trying to do in your life (I have to give a shout out to my girls t the studio here because they are AMAZING at making the “new girl” feel great!! And I love them for this!)
Give yourself a short term commitment
Before you get fit you need to make exercising a priority.
🎯 Aim to sweat it out every other day, even though from the beginning, your mind is probably telling you that either exercising stinks OR that you should go all gung ho!
🎯 Create a short term goal that you can WIN at, and then add on from there
🎯 To change that mindset, you literally have to change your brain — as your tendencies change, new pathways are forged.
🎯 When you have success at a short term goal, you brain will want to do more of that. It will begin to see you as a winner!!
It can about three weeks to 66 days to build up a new habit.
So give it a go for at least 3 weeks, and then it will start to feel easier.
You can easily add another 3 weeks to the end of your first “sprint” to really make sure you are locked in to the new habit of exercising
DON’T LET SOME DISCOMFORT SCARE YOU OFF
A series of lots of squats will probably have you hobbling down the steps for a day or two, and for some people, that can be reason to call it quits,
REMEMBER THIS: The aches you’re feeling are because your body is physically changing for the better.
When your body is hurting (safely), it releases endorphins to help you handle it.
The feel-good hormones actually make you happier, and allow your body to rid itself of the stress hormone, cortisol.
Isn’t that AMAZING?… And motivating?
Now that you have these tips Take some time to put them to good use.
Check out our free Beginner Fitness Guide!
