Top 10 Habits You Need To Make It To The Gym Everyday
Going to the gym consistently can be a real challenge in your day to day life. Between work, family, and other general commitments in life there’s usually not a lot of time for you. With that in mind here’s 10 habits you need to form to make it to the gym every day in your busy schedules.
1) Quiet Hours
When you really want to make habits for going to the gym consistently, you need to take into account your daily patterns and schedule. When do you have time-first of all? Take into account your occupation and family commitments that have to be done on the daily, and see what time you have left in the day. If you feel you don’t have any time to make it to the gym then a change might be necessary for sleeping habits or limiting some free time. the best time to go to the gym is quiet hours for you. Doesn’t mean it has to be really late in the night or early in the morning, it just has to be the time of day that you are least busy. After that, its simply a matter of putting aside a little time to get those gym habits going.
2) Stabilizing Your Goals
Knowing what you want to get out of going to the gym or anything really, can really help you solidify habits in your daily life. If you just go to the gym and aimlessly push weights around you’re not really stabilizing yourself in what you want to accomplish. Don’t worry about paying money for a personal trainer or doing a ton of research on what you should be doing. Start off at the gym with simple numbers. See how many pushups you can do, or how far you can maintain a job before you start to feel tired. Bring a pen and paper, write the number down at the gym and there you have it. Keeping track of your basic numbers at the gym, such as how many reps or miles you did on a treadmill will give you numbers to beat. No comparisons needed, just get to the gym, challenge yourself, and form those habits.
3) Make it Fun
If you’re like me at all, I enjoy a little bit of competition. But that can be hard at a gym when you have regulars who go above and beyond normal working out. The comparison factor just doesn’t match up. So like I said before if the competition aspect is fun for you, compete with yourself. Once you walk into the gym you stare that equipment down and say I’m doing 3 more reps today, or I’m shaving a minute off my time on that treadmill. Otherwise, if you still cant find some fun, consider looking at the workout programs in your local gym. Many gyms have themed programs that allow you and a group of people to tackle some goals in an inspiring environment. Other than that, listen to music or load up an audiobook while you work out, find a way to enjoy the gym so it doesn’t seem like a negative activity with frustrating habits.
4) Get To Know People
Like I mentioned with those gym programs, meeting people and working out with them can be a great motivator and habit former for sticking with the gym routine. it also adds a bit of accountability to the mix, if someone asks you when you’re going to be at the gym stick to the time you say. Don’t leave people hanging around wondering where you’re at. The gym can be a great place to make some new friends and be a part of a community that can open many enjoyable doors for you. Plus there’s always the misery loves company aspect at the gym, everybody’s doing it to feel better but it can be hard work. Push the pain, talk it out, make some friends that will keep you focused on those habits for making it to the gym.
5) X Your Calendar
This is a really simple and effective habit for making it to the gym consistently. Whether you use a calendar or simply keep track of things on your phone-mark down each day with some color or a different x to portray you went to the gym that day. And taking it a step further and putting the time that you were there is great too. The reason for this being is that it is a quick mental check on accountability to meeting your goal to go to the gym consistently. As soon as you get back from the gym I want you to mark your calendar, and I want you to do this every day that you go. This is a quick action that you will be accustomed to doing, so if there’s ever a day where you realize you haven’t marked your calendar figure out why and don’t let it happen again, or if your gym is still open-go sweat for 20 minutes. Hold yourself accountable when it comes to making it to the gym.
6) Commitment
Now numbers get thrown around a bit for this specific habit. Many people say that if you do something for a consecutive number of days, you will form the habit of doing it-this works for the gym well. Now, this changes progressively depending on what it is you are doing, and how it responds to you personally. With going to the gym, and what it calls on you to do, it can be hard to consistently go day in and day out. Thus, the habit that you should form, is to go no matter what go the gym every single day but don’t worry so much about the timing of how long you are at the gym. Really you want the habit of simply going first, and then streamlining it later once you get used to going to the gym. So even if it’s only for half an hour or less, just get to the gym and get some activity. Then when your schedule frees up another day or you figure out a better time to go to the gym, you can gain some of that mixed exercise time back.
7) Stress Relief
Going to the gym can be physically taxing on your body. So how on earth can you consider it a method of stress relief? In my opinion, it’s all about the overall feeling. You feel better about yourself at the gym, knowing you’re doing something to better yourself. And even though you might be sore or worn out, you always will feel a weight off of your shoulder, because quite frankly you’ll be too tired to worry about anything. Plus in stressful scenarios where you can do much about it, going to the gym and just working that feeling out physically can be the best medicine. Plus if you start to go to the gym anytime you are feeling stressed or having a rough day, you reinforce the action as a positive-helping you maintain the habit.
8) Start Small
Now I’ll be honest with this one, when I first started going to the gym, I blew myself out. I was so pumped and ready to lose weight and make a change that I ended up doing too much too fast. Which is really not good for you. I know it can be frustrating when you feel like you don’t have the time to make it to the gym as often or for as long as you would like. Thus, when you do have time you want to make up for it and really push yourself. Which to a degree is fine when going to the gym. But if it’s to the point where you struggle getting out of bed physically the next day, your body is going to need a decent chunk of time to recover. Then you’re back at stage one and missing out on going to the gym consistently. Start small, know your limits, and edge them but don’t try and blow past them. Otherwise, you’re not going to want anything to do with the gym.
9) Stay Positive
This ties in with a handful of my other habit forming tips about going to the gym. The more you make the gym out to be a negative, the less likely you are to make it a habit of going, obviously. And ill be the first to admit, I’ve had some days at the gym where I just wasn’t having it. Felt worn out a little, muscles weren’t wanting to push through, and so I called it an early day. And yes, that is okay to do. Again there will be days where you just shred it at the gym, you beat your personal goals or you just don’t even feel that tired after a good workout. So don’t look at things as if you’re letting yourself down or not doing enough. Don’t get cocky about it either though! Actualize that you are committing to this healthy habit and if you need to call it one day a little early that’s okay. Push yourself a little harder on your next visit, or on a day you don’t feel that worn out, stay an extra 20 minutes. No matter what, go every day, and find a positive about going every day. That keeps everything moving when it comes to the habit of going to the gym.
10) Maintain The Habit
We’ve already talked about this a little bit when it comes to sticking with the gym visits. But here’s where we get into a little bit more specifics on scenarios that tend to break your gym habit. Life happens, sometimes you can’t make it to the gym for emergencies or the day just gets away from you do to work. I cannot stress enough how important it is to not let these lulls linger for any longer than they need to be. The longer you go without your gym habit, the easier it’s going to be to keep missing days when really there’s no good reason to. Plus, if there’s ever times of stress or reasons that throw your life in a bit of a complicated mess, the gym can really be a place of solace for you. Don’t miss out on something that’s so good for you, and can give you so much.
