7 Tips to help you stick with an Exercise Routine

The benefits of making exercise a part of your daily routine are both eminent and abundant. Working out daily go beyond than just helping you live longer. Being in a good shape gives you more energy, boosts strength, enhances coordination, improves self-esteem, raises self-confidence and maintains mental health equilibrium.

All of these potential benefits often get people excited to start exercising. However, beginners often have trouble sticking with their exercise routine in the long term. Even after 4 to 6 months of maintaining a good fitness regimen; people are found to begin procrastinating excuses — “I am too tired,” or “The weather is bad,” or “I am busy.” Half of all people who start a new exercise program ditch it within the first year.

If you’re looking to boost your health by making a consistent exercise routine, here are some tips that can help you stick with an fitness regimen.

Start Slow

Start slowly and build up gradually. Take it easy as you get started. Give yourself plenty of time to warm up and cool down with easy walking or gentle stretching. Then speed up to a pace you can continue for five to 10 minutes without getting overly tired. As your stamina improves, gradually increase the amount of time you exercise.

Wanting to push your limits and train hard is admirable, but it is often not productive. Listen to your body. If you feel pain, shortness of breath, dizziness or nausea, take a break. You may be pushing yourself too hard. Overtraining and pushing too hard can lead to serious injuries and cause lasting damage. That is not only bad for your health, but it can also kill your momentum when you’re trying to get started.

You may take months to recover from a serious injury. And by the time you feel better, your fitness level will likely be worse than it was before the injury, making it even harder to reach your fitness goals.

Find an activity you like

The World Health Organization recommends that adults spend at least 150 minutes a week doing moderate aerobic exercises. And they recommend at least two days of moderate strength training per week focusing on the body’s major muscle groups.

Nearly 3 hours per week is a lot of time to spend on something. But luckily, there are a lot of different types of aerobic activities out there. And finding one that you enjoy doing can make turning that activity into part of your fitness regimen much easier.

It also helps to find activities that are easy to engage with. Badminton is a great exercise, but if the nearest Badminton court is a 20-minute drive from your residence, you’ll need a backup activity for the days when you don’t feel like dealing with the commute.

Set realistic goals

Set some realistic goals. Unrealistic expectations will set you up for frustration and failure. A better approach is to set a long-term goal, such as work out for 30 minutes five days a week, and break it into monthly targets. During the first month, focus on exercising three days a week for at least 10 minutes or longer each time. During the second month, work out an additional day per week (so you’re up to exercising four days a week). Add another day in the third month. Then, every two weeks, extend each work out session by five minutes until you reach your goal.

Track your progress

Sticking with an exercise routine requires a lot of motivation. And one way to stay motivated is to keep track of your fitness progress.

Try keeping track of how many days you’ve stuck with your training, how much you’ve progressed, how the training is affecting your daily routine, and more. Having a clear sense of how far you’ve come can do a lot to help you keep up with your training.

There are many ways to keep track of your progress. But one of the easiest and most convenient methods is to pair a fitness band with a good health-tracking app.

Celebrate!

Celebrating small goals and achievements in fitness is important. It takes weeks to see real changes. Even a pound of weight loss or a pound of muscle gain is reason to reward yourself. Go out with friends, or spring for a new pair of jeans.

All-or-nothing mindset

All-or-nothing thinking (Duality) is a common cognitive distortion that results in seeing your world in black or white or in complete opposites.

Do not be rigid or believe that you have to do a workout exactly how you imagined it. For an example, you have structured that you will do a full 45-minutes of high-intensity work at 5 A.M. every morning — and if any element of that plan falls apart ( you wake up at 5:30 instead of 4:30, for instance), there are high chances that you will not do the work out on that day at all. Or, if your gym is closed for some reason on a particular day — then you will not try any other physical activity for that day.

While it’s good to have some structure to your workout plan, when things don’t go exactly according to said structure, instead of believing that you’ve blown your workout for the day, do as much as you can anyway—even if that’s only 15 or 10 minute.

Come out of all-or-nothing mindset to something-is-better-than-nothing mindset.

Get Professional Help

Sometimes, people are cautious about investing in a professional help. Cost can be an issue; some people might feel intimidated by working with a trainer. But certified fitness professionals are trained to work with clients of all backgrounds and fitness levels. And many can work out package deals to make the service affordable as per your budget.

Working with a personal trainer has many advantages. One of them is that a trainer can help tailor your exercise routine to your current fitness levels; so you can safely start moving towards your fitness goals. Trainers can also instruct you on proper form and what safety equipment to use when engaging in different activities.

When you’re hiring a professional, make sure to check their credentials and get someone experienced.  A neglectful coach or trainer can make accidents much more likely.

Over to you

Over to you now, thanks for reading this article on “Exercise Routine”. Please share your experiences on sticking with “Exercise Routine” in the comment section; I and our other Invajy readers would love to learn from your life experiences.

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