The Habits You Need To Master If You Can Never Stick To A Workout Routine

Forget the 34-point lists on how to conquer your workout goals because all you really need are these two proven tactics to get your butt to the gym on the regular.

There are fewer things more frustrating and agonizing than the resistance we experience in the lead-up to a big workout, run or anything else that requires, you know, physical effort.

Whether it is strapping on our workout gear, getting our butts to the gym or simply heading out the door, the moments of true mental struggle in which we search for every last drop of workout motivation always seems to take place right before it is set to kick off.

With all of the information out there on creating awesome workout habits and behavior changes, it's easy to fall into an abyss of too much information.

You've probably experienced the frustration that comes with trying to implement too many changes at once. No matter how good our intentions and well-planned our goals are, we inevitably experience the sense of being overwhelmed and discouraged.

Instead, keep things simple and straightforward with these powerful tips that will get your butt in gear, no matter how tough or how challenging your workout goals may seem:

1. The Power Of A Specific Schedule

Intentions and goals are just wishful thinking until the moment we start planning them out. And as it turns out, the way we plan our goals and habits make a powerful difference on whether or not we execute them.

In a fascinating piece of research, the designers of this study sought out to see how effective prompting (aka scheduling) was at getting employees at a large firm to get their yearly flu shot.

All employees (some 3,000 of them) received a mailing to remind them of their nearest vaccination clinics. Researchers further broke down the questionnaire into two additional versions that required the employees to fill out specific prompts:

- The first included specific dates and times that they planned to go get their shot. For example, September 10 at 4:30 pm.

- The second included a request for a specific date (but no time) when they would get their flu shot.

- The third was simply issued the reminder to get the shot.

As it turned out, the ones who wrote down the date and time of their planned vaccination were more likely to go through with actually doing it. Perhaps more surprisingly was that when it came to those who picked a day and who were simply reminded, there was no meaningful statistical difference.

The determining factor was the specificity of the scheduling.

How is this helpful with your goals?

It means that you should be creating a schedule for the things you want to accomplish. Like many, I have succumbed to “someday” syndrome more times than I care to admit.

- Someday I will start working out more.

- Someday I will start eating better.

- Someday I will start adding wind sprints to my training regimen.

You need to schedule the things you want to accomplish in your life.

Get specific, and plan them out ahead of time instead of letting yourself fall prey to the whimsical and flakey nature of our “motivation.”

We covered the jab–now here comes the upper cut…

2. Make Starting The Primary Goal

Ever heard of an instigation habit? Sounds tough, doesn't it? Like it's the provocateur of the habits? You'd be right. Instigation habits absolutely love to start shit.

Consider this: How many times have you drained every last ounce of willpower to get yourself to the gym, dreading the workout ahead, only to experience that sense of “this ain't so bad” once you got rolling under the bar?

Often, I would imagine. Research on habit formation backs the power of focusing on starting versus the execution of a goal.

When a group of 120 plus healthy adults were tasked with tracking their workouts over the course of a month, the only predictor of whether they executed their workouts was the strength of their instigation habits.

Think of your instigation habits in this manner: It's the thing that initiates the desired behavioral sequence you desire.

- Instead of thinking about the big workout you have to do that day, focus only on completing your warm-up.

- Rather than thinking about the 10k run you scheduled for yourself to do at 5:15 am (see, you're getting the hang of this), focus only on running down the block.

Starting is all that really matters.

Something funny happens when we start. Things don't seem so rough anymore. You gather some momentum from those first few steps.

At first, we overestimate the pain to come. We have a tendency to think things will be far more agonizing than they turn out to be. So once we get started and think, "Hey, it ain't so bad," we experience a sense of relief and optimism at being able to face the workout at hand.

And to help us with that is the fact our brains love to finish stuff. By focusing only on starting and starting alone, we perform a nifty little piece of mental judo. For once we start, it usually becomes harder to break away and walk away from the task unfinished than it is to complete it.

The Takeaway

When you understand that conquering starting something is the true predictor of results, it is oddly freeing. You can focus your efforts on doing the thing before the thing instead of getting stressed out and demoralized about thinking about the full depth of the workout ahead.

Try scheduling some instigation goals. Make starting at a specific time the only thing you do. You'll always find it's harder to stop once you begin.

This article was originally published on the author's personal blog.