13 Tips For Making Exercise a Habit

Habits are safer than rules; you don’t have to watch them. And you don’t have to keep them either. They keep you.

- Frank Crane

You can make exercise a habit even if you hate exercising. I know because I’ve made a habit of exercise for ten years, even though I dislike exercising. Exercise itself is painful and boring. After I’ve run a mile around the track, my legs ache, chest burns, and eyes sting from sweat. I detest the prospect of more, monotonous laps. I have occasional moments of pleasure, but most moments are painful.

Although I dislike exercising, I like the immediate and long-term results of exercise. Immediately after I finish a successful workout, I often feel a pleasant endorphin high. I also feel good about myself for just finishing. If I’ve exercised outside on a clear, warm day; everything looks more vivid and serene. It’s nice.

I appreciate the long-term health benefits of exercise. Exercise improves your mood, sanity, life quality, and even your sex life. It helps reduce your body fat, blood pressure, insomnia, and risk of heart disease. Also, I like the way my body feels when I’m fit.

Many people believe that to make exercise a habit, all you need are exercise goals. Besides my usual concerns about goals and happiness, I doubt goals can sustain exercise for years. Many people make a New Year’s resolution (goal) to exercise more. The smart people even create specific exercise routines and schedules. If my gym is any example, most of these people fail. The number of people at my gym doubles right after New Year. By mid-January, about one-half of the new people are gone. By the beginning of February, ninety-five percent are gone. If all you need are goals to make exercise a habit, what happened to all these well-intentioned people?

Goals can be helpful to get you started, if you like goals and create smart goals. A smart goal does not depend on your inherent physical limitations. For instance, a smart goal might be “I’m going to exercise three times per week for thirty minutes.”

Goals related to your physical performance are risky. For instance, if your goals relate to how fast you run, what happens when you can’t physically run any faster? It could be discouraging and make you give up. When I was a teenager, I wanted to become a bodybuilder. To be good at bodybuilding, you have to train really hard and have the right genetics. I didn’t have the right genetics, so I was limited. As a result, I would lift weights for six months, quit for a few months when my progress stalled, and then start again. At the beginning, I would define and rapidly complete my goals. My goals were always based on growing the size of my arms, legs, chest, and so on. After awhile, my progress stalled, my goals became unrealistic, and I became discouraged.

So how do I keep exercising even though it hurts and is boring? Simple – I made exercise a habit. Exercise has become a habit for me like brushing my teeth, taking a shower, putting gas in my car, paying bills, going to the dentist, washing dishes, and feeding the dog. I don’t like these habits either, but I do them anyway. I don’t even consciously think about whether I should do them. They’re automatic.

You can make exercise a habit. It isn’t easy, but I have thirteen tips to make it easier.

1. Think of exercise as a necessity. You need to create the right attitude towards exercise. Try thinking of exercise as a necessary habit like your other necessary habits: brushing your teeth, locking your car, turning off lights, and so on.
2. Start small. You need to start with a modicum of exercise. I suggest starting with thirty minutes of walking three times per week. Then gradually work your way up to five times per week with slow jogging. After that, add a little strength training and stretching.
3. Set a minimum trial period. You need to commit to at least a thirty day trial period of exercise. A forty-five day trial period would be even better. It takes consistency and time for new behavior to become a habit.  During the trial period, you create an exercise plan and follow it precisely. You can modify the exercise plan after the trial period based on what you’ve learned.
4. Set specific times. You must choose the days of the week and times you are going to exercise. You may want to schedule your exercise so that it always occurs after the same activity.  This makes the pre-exercise activity an automatic trigger for exercise. For instance, if you exercise first thing in the morning, you automatically expect to exercise as soon as you wake up. You also need to create a backup plan for what to do if you can’t exercise at your desired time. When will you make up the missed exercise? Try to make it up within twenty-four hours.
5. Decide when not to exercise. You must decide when you aren’t going to exercise now, so you feel guiltless later. Are you going to exercise during a vacation, business trip, or holiday? I usually exercise during holidays, but not during vacations or business trips. Do you exercise when you become sick? If I’m not too sick, I usually do a light version of my workout. Otherwise, I don’t workout.
6. Expect some physical pain. You should expect some physical pain while you exercise. After all, you’re pushing your body to do things it normally doesn’t do. It’s important you learn to distinguish between good and bad pain. Good pain results from the normal strain of exercise and makes you stronger. Bad pain comes from an illness or injury and needs medical treatment. After you exercise for awhile, you’ll be able to tell the difference.
7. Manage your post-exercise soreness. After you exercise, you should cool down and stretch to limit your soreness. In the beginning, you may what to take a mild pain killer (aspirin, ibuprofen, and so on) to limit your soreness. After you have exercised for awhile, you won’t get as sore unless you exercise extra hard.
8. Distract yourself. Since exercise can be boring and painful, it’s a good idea to distract yourself. My favorite distraction is my iPod. I listen to music or books that I download from Audible. Some aerobic machines at gyms have small televisions attached, so you can watch your favorite TV show while you’re exercising. You can also distract yourself by talking to an exercise buddy (see below).
9. Hire a personal trainer. Lisa, my wife, is a personal trainer and yoga teacher. Clients often hire her for a “few sessions”, but stay for years. She helps make exercise interesting, consistent, and useful for her clients. If a personal trainer helps you keep exercising, consider it a smart investment in yourself and your health.
10. Find an exercise buddy. If you are a social person, you may want to exercise with a buddy to help you exercise consistently. An exercise appointment with your buddy motivates you, even when you feel like skipping.
11. Try some variety. You may want to add variety to your exercise routine to keep it interesting. For instance, for aerobic activity, you could bike, walk, run inside (on a machine) or outside. Feel free to mix it up each week, if it helps you.
12. Combine exercise with other activities. You can combine your exercise with something else that’s useful. For instance, I learn while I run or walk by listening non-fiction books on my iPod. You can do errands while you exercise; if you need to go to the bank or post office, then walk, bike, or run over.
13. Be kind to yourself. Even if you rigorously apply all of these tips, you may still stop exercising. That’s OK because nobody is perfect. The important thing is to be kind to yourself and start again. You may have to restart ten or twenty times before it becomes a habit.

I’m sure I’m missing ideas for making exercise a habit. Please leave a comment if you have a suggestion or decide to make exercise a habit. In the meantime, I have to run.

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Tags: Exercise, Fitness, Habits, Personal goals