How My Clients and I Have Made Exercise a Habit and You Can, Too
Throughout my adult life, getting sufficient exercise has often posed the greatest challenge. Growing up a dancer, I always loved to move my body, but once I joined the working world and had a family, exercise became increasingly difficult to keep up on the regular. This is something I hear from clients every day, as well. As our responsibilities mount in adulthood, exercise tends to fall off the radar in a serious way. The struggle is real, folks!
Over the years, though, I and many of my clients have succeeded in making exercise a regular part of our lives. We have overcome all the usual obstacles, like a lack of energy, lack of time, and lack of motivation or interest, and have grown so used to having exercise in our daily routines that our bodies and minds feel wrong without it.
Because we have done this, too, we stand to benefit immensely. Exercise, just as much as healthy eating, lowers your risk for disease, improves your mood, and increases cognitive function. It also helps you maintain your weight, of course, but take note that exercise and the cardiovascular fitness you gain from it lower your risk of all-cause early mortality from disease no matter what you weigh. It is one of the most powerful tools you have to stay healthy in the long-term and live vibrantly into old age, so who wouldn’t want to make it part of their lives if they could, right?
I’m hoping here to give you some insight into how you can. This week I’ve been spending some time looking back at the strategies my clients and I have used to make exercise a habit. There is a distinct pattern to our success, so I am going to share it with you in this blog post. How, when, and where my clients and I exercise may be very different, but in the end all of us do the following:
We make it a priority: To a one, all of us treat exercise with as much respect and care as we do our work, family, and home responsibilities. We enter it in our calendars and make sure it gets done just like any important task on our to-do lists. We build our schedules so that we can exercise when we have the best energy during the day. If needed, we retool our lives so that we can exercise, whether that means transitioning to a more flexible work schedule, getting a more regular babysitter, or waking up earlier. Even if we don’t feel like exercising one day, we lace up our shoes and do it anyway. We choose to exercise every day, just like we choose to stay in a long-term relationship or job.
We plan ahead and are well-supplied: We look at our schedules each week and figure out when we are going to exercise, troubleshoot any obstacles, and ensure we have the tools we need in place. If we know we have to get up early to work out, then we may make a plan to go to sleep early, set an extra alarm, pull our exercise clothes out the night before or even sleep in them. If we know we are going to work out after work, then we might take care to have a pre-workout snack on hand that will hold us over until dinner. If we are going on vacation or a work trip, we think in advance about how we are going to exercise while we are there and pack the clothes we need to work out effectively. Exercise happens a lot more easily because we prepare for it.
We keep an arsenal of different exercise options: We have a variety of different places we can work out and forms of exercise we can do depending not only on our whims, but also on the weather and the time of day when we are exercising. We may keep workout gear in multiple places, like home and office, so that we can have some “workout snacks” throughout the day if our schedule is too busy for a long stint at the gym or if we suddenly have to stay home with a sick kid and can’t go out. We are on the mailing lists of any number of exercise outlets in our communities so that we can stay abreast of what group classes or trainings are being offered, and we make a point of trying new forms of exercise just in case we end up liking any of them. We may have a few exercise apps on our phones or online services that we use to stream exercise classes at home or on the go. Whatever happens, we make sure we have a way to exercise every day and are ready to pivot when our plans are upended.
Most of the exercise we do hits more than one button for us: All the exercise we take part in benefits our fitness and makes us feel good, but in almost all cases there is something else about it, too, that satisfies our personal needs. It may serve as a social outlet for us if we participate in group exercise, or it may be a way to spend time and bond with our families. It may provide a great sense of achievement, or it may be a way to escape from our crazy lives and find inner peace. It may help us sleep better and manage our anxiety or depression, or, in my case, it’s a way to still experience the joy of moving to the music without dance. Whatever the scenario, though, we have all found forms of exercise that we love for a multitude of reasons, not just because it makes us healthier.
We get help when we need it: Just like raising a child, it takes a village to make sure we exercise regularly. So, we may get our spouse onboard for some extra child-care time or a cooked dinner so that we have time to go for a run. We may negotiate different hours or policies at work so that we, and possibly our coworkers along with us, can have more time to exercise and practice self-care. We seek out training from qualified exercise professionals in order to work out safely or improve performance, and, when we are hurt, we go to the doctor and get the physical therapy we need. We may also hire a coach who can hold us accountable and help us realize our exercise goals (hint, hint). Ultimately, even if we work out alone, we know that exercise is always a group activity and act accordingly.
We maintain a bounce back mindset: I introduced this concept in my last blog post, but it bears repeating. None of us would have succeeded at creating and maintaining an exercise habit if we didn’t know how to bounce back whenever we fell off the workout wagon. Everyone does at some point, whether it’s because of life circumstances, injury, or even plain old boredom, but the life-long exerciser always gets back in the saddle. We know the deep-seated reasons why we need to and want to exercise, and we keep those motivations front of mind. We see setbacks with our workout routines as temporary, and value progress over perfection when it comes to getting back to our peak fitness. Ours is a continual personal growth project. We set weekly exercise goals, and try, try, and try again to reach them until our workout habits are officially back online.
That is how we do it, and it’s a formula you can replicate for yourself. Consider how you might begin to cultivate each part of it in your life, and notice, too, what’s not mentioned in this formula. I haven’t told you that we all go out and buy a bunch of expensive workout equipment, watches, or tracking devices. Some of my clients use them and some don’t. A long-term exercise habit is not dependent on them. What it does take is prioritization, planning, variety, exercise you love for many reasons, a willingness to ask for and use assistance when needed, and the expectation and determination to always get back in the saddle when you fall off. These are things that anyone can do. If you need help finding your way to them, I’m here for you.