How To Make Exercise A Habit

Exercise is one of the best things you can do to improve your health and the shape of your body. Exercise will help you to live longer, make you happier and raise your level of self esteem.

However whilst most people know how beneficial exercise is to their health, exercising on a regular basis is something that can be hard to keep up especially if you have a busy schedule to keep.

For example you may work a 9 to 5 job and then when you get home you feel tired and don’t feel like exercising at all.

Instead you have your dinner in front of the TV and spend the rest of the day relaxing and taking it easy, all the while wishing you could get yourself into shape and start feeling good about your body.

Developing The Exercise Habit

Anyone who exercises on a regular basis will tell you that the hardest thing about getting into shape is starting in the first place.

But once you get into the swing of it, you will find it quickly becomes a habit and not only do you get your body in shape but you also start to enjoy it.

So when it comes down to it, if you want to start exercising even exercising for a few minutes each day will help you to develop the habit of exercising on a regular basis.

However as you are probably already well aware, a lot of people who start exercising give up after a few weeks. They set out with good intentions, but for whatever reason can’t seem to continue what they set out to do.

The good news is that if you really want to start exercising on a regular basis, studies have shown that if you can make it past the two month mark you will be much more likely to keep exercising for the long term.

This is because exercise releases endorphins in the body. These are chemicals that make you feel good, and at around two months of continuous exercise you start to get addicted to them.

So not only will you learn to love exercise, but you will start to feel as though you can’t do without it.

Setting Yourself Fitness Goals

Before you set out to exercise, it is very important to have an idea of what you hope to obtain. In other words, you need to set yourself some fitness goals.

Your fitness goals will help to make exercise easier by allowing you to organise what you do, and keep track of your progress. However, fitness goals must be realistic and what you think you can do not what other people can do.

This is a very important point to remember, because if you set your fitness goals too high too early, then you are likely to give up because you will find it too difficult and don’t enjoy it.

So start off slowly, and make it your aim to reach the two month mark. Because by then your fitness levels will have increased, and you will start to enjoy what you are doing thereby making it a lot easier for you to keep doing it.

One final point to make about starting to exercise is that if you haven’t exercised in a while, or have any existing health conditions or injuries, then it would be a good idea to see your doctor before you start doing anything. Otherwise you might cause yourself more harm than good.

How to Start Your Exercise Fitness Plan

Here are some tips on how you can start to exercise and keep it up for the long term.

Make A Plan On Paper

Once you have decided what your fitness goals are, write down on paper exactly what you hope to obtain and how you hope to do it.

Writing down your objectives like this will help you to keep focused on what you have set out to do, keep you organised and in control.

Having a plan of action also makes things seem more formal, which means you are much more likely to follow it rather than had you just thought about it in your head.

Set Realistic Fitness Goals

When you first start exercising, take it slow. There is no point in trying to exercise every day of the week if you have never exercised before, or haven’t exercised in a while, because you simply won’t enjoy it and will probably give up.

So set yourself realistic fitness goals, such as exercising once or twice a week to begin with. Later as your fitness starts to increase, you can exercise more often.

Remember, fitness is all about gaining momentum, and the only way you can gain momentum is by starting slowly.

Think About A future Event

If you have some special event coming up in the future try to visualise how good you will look by exercising.

Plan what you are going to wear for that event, and how your body is going to look. This will not only help to keep you focused on your goals, but will also help to keep you motivated.

Create A Deadline

With every fitness goal you set for yourself, it is important to have a date by which you want to complete it by.

If you just set goals without a deadline you are unlikely to complete them, because you will feel no urgency to do so.

However if you set yourself a deadline you will be much more motivated to achieve your goals, and will also be able to keep track of your progress.

Tell A Friend About Your Fitness Goals

An excellent way to keep you focused on your fitness goals is to tell a friend about them. If you know somebody else knows, then you will work harder to get yourself into shape.

The reason for this is simple, people care about what other people think of them and so we naturally try to impress those people who are important to us.

Make Time To Exercise

Right now you probably have a busy schedule, which means if you want to start exercising you are going to have to make time for it.

So look at your schedule and decide where you can fit in the time to exercise. If you are just starting off, then you may only need 10 or 20 minutes a week. But eventually you should be aiming for at least 30 minutes four or five days a week.