Sunday, May 27, 2007

Building a Habit to Exercise

We will probably not bring up the word hosting once during this entire post. We will provide you with some tips on how to get in the habit of regularly exercising. All of us have, or know someone who has tried to motivate themselves in order to exercise but after a few days they just give up. You should not worry about this because many other people face the same issue and it is very difficult to build and maintain the habit of exercising. Discipline and will power only work in the short term when you are looking to get in shape, it takes a lot in order to maintain the habit to exercise. One way to look at the entire process is that if other people could do it, you could do it as well - this mentality could be applied to many other aspects of life.

1. Set your Goal. What do you want to achieve?

* Bigger muscles?
* Less fat?
* More strength?
* More speed?

2. Set a Deadline. Set a date by which you will reach your goal. Write your goal and deadline on a piece of paper and put it somewhere you can see it multiple times a day.

3. Make a Plan. Once you have set your goal, you must back it up with a plan.

* Which exercises will you perform?
* How many sets and reps will you do?
* How many times a week will you go the gym?

4. Exercise First Thing in the Morning. When you’ve just had a tough day at work, it can be hard to train for another hour at the gym. A solution is to exercise first thing in the morning:

* Wake up early
* Eat breakfast
* Prepare the stuff you need for work
* Go to the gym

5. Stick to your Plan. This is something I experienced on numerous occasions. The days you don’t feel like exercising, are often your best days. Maybe it’s the mind-body connection: the body says no, but the mind says go. Thus the body eventually says go too. I don’t know.


6. Train With Someone Who Has The Exercise Habit. If you’re training partner quits, you’ll probably end up quitting too. But if your training partner hangs on, you’ll take it as a challenge.

7. Be confident. You can achieve whatever you want, if you believe that you can do it. Having a clear goal and a plan will already arm you with self-confidence.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I need to get in shape...thanks for the reminder hahahaha