MONDAY MOTIVATION - 4 Tips for How to Create a Workout Habit: From Jen Sinkler: 1. Schedule workout time with friends so it doubles as social time, or join an existing workout group. This has the added benefit of building your fitness community. This was the golden key to good fitness, for me. Much as I’ve come to genuinely enjoy training over the years, without my workout buddies, I would be much less likely to show up for every single session. But I do because a) I want to hang out with them because we fit plenty of silliness between sets, and b) I don’t want to let them down by no-showing. The importance of community is borne out in the research: This type of support and accountability from those close to you is a major indicator of success in sticking with a program. 2. Set workouts as appointments in your calendar, and create at least two reminders prior to each session. I’ve worked in the fitness industry for over a decade, and like I said, I love working out, so people are always surprised to hear I still do this with my own sessions. Quite simply, setting appointments prevents me from getting caught up in whatever shiny object I’m currently engaged with and bagging on my training session. Treating workouts as nonnegotiable events creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. 3. Find something that feels really good to you. Find a way to make your fitness pursuit something you gotta have right this minute. For me, that is lifting weights and doing sprint workouts, but with as many options as are available, from circuit training to powerlifting to yoga to dance to Pilates and so on, experiment until you find an activity—or a mix of activities—that you want to repeat near-daily, and then embrace it. 4. Hire a coach to maximise results. To prevent program-hopping (that is, changing up your fitness routine so often that you never see results) hire a personal trainer to write a program specifically for you and also coach you through it. Or, find a gym with periodised programming built into the schedule. Even with my experience in teaching others fitness techniques, I found I fared better when I had a coach who was committed to helping me make progress, build my skills, and stick to a program. I find the same holds true with my clients: Having someone map out a plan and work with them to execute it leaves little room for distraction. This strategy automatically blends the first three tactics and can serve either as a long-term plan or as a useful training-wheels approach until you’re able to instate a framework that allows you to find sweet success, both right away and for a lifetime. #mondaymotivation womenshealthmag/fitness/creating-workout-habits
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 07:00:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015