Make Movement A Habit: Tips and Tricks to Improve Your Lifestyle
My name is Myles and I am an online fitness coach. As a coach many people look at me and just automatically assume I love exercising, I love being active all the time, and I love that burning sensation. Not to say that these things are not true. But just like you, I go through phases where I can not be bothered to train or to move about. More often than not I will be active in my day-to-day life outside of the gym, but that is because I have made movement a habit in my life, a non-negotiable and when I have days where there is minimal movement involved I really notice.
What are habits
Habits are actions or behaviours that you perform daily, when something is truly a habit, you do it without even thinking. Think about your morning routine, when you wake up you may turn off your alarm and then check the time, and then check the weather app before getting out of bed to start your day. That three-step routine of alarm, time, and weather is an unconscious habit that you do.
Habits do not start out as being automatic, you have to go through a period of consciously making an effort to perform them. The more complex the habit, the more effort you will need to put in to make it automatic. Bear in mind that you already have habits that you do, some of these you class as good habits and others you class as bad habits. If it is something that is not productive or healthy for you, that would be classed as a bad habit. Some good and bad news, bad news, once a bad habit is automatic, it can not be broken. The good news, these bad habits can be modified and moulded into better, more helpful habits.
Image 1. A change in the routine of the habit can lead to the same reward as previous
Adding more movement into your day is another form of habit. Depending on what that movement is and the intensity, going from 0-100 is not the best approach to take. Keep it simple and realistic when starting.
Example: could be you feeling tired around midday, usually, you have another cup of coffee to give you the energy boost. Modify this habit, the cue of tiredness kicks in, make the conscious effort to walk around the office for a few minutes during your lunch or go outside for a brief stroll to get some fresh air. Now you are reacting to the same stimulus, but you have changed the routine and you have also introduced a means to help you get more movement in during the day
Outdoor Movement vs Gym Movement
Movement is a broad term and I find it best to separate it into two categories. We have outdoor movement and gym movements.
Outdoor movement refers to you being active and moving outside of the gym environment. This can be walking, running, hiking, or taking part in recreational activities.
Whereas gym movement refers to you performing movements in the gym such as squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, and rotating. Both categories will help you maintain a healthier lifestyle and ensure you elicit the health benefits from physical activity.
Depending on your situation, you may only be able to focus on one category much more than the other. There is no issue with this as I mentioned earlier, keep the habit simple and then look to build on it. If you want to train more consistently then make that the focus for the time being.
How to make movement a habit
Simplicity is key when trying to form a movement habit. Before starting this new habit, list these 5 things.
Why do you want to do this- Create the link that will help keep you motivated.
Is the task realistic to you- Unrealistic tasks will only set you up for failure and lead to demotivation.
What resources do you have- Do you have things around you that will help the journey i.e a timed reminder every day to move.
What are possible obstacles- setbacks are guaranteed. Identify them beforehand and that will put you in a better situation to handle them.
Remind yourself of your ‘Why’- When demotivation hits, what will be your reminder of why you are doing this.
Put it in Practice Example
Your habit/goal: Get into a running routine.
Why: Have always liked running and want to have something that will help me clear my head.
Can I adhere to this: Yes because I only need to start with small distances 1xper week.
How you will do it: During the week is hard due to my working schedule but on weekends I can wake up a bit earlier on a Saturday and do a run.
Possible setbacks: Weather, tiredness, life occasions.
How to overcome: Dress for the weather, once out of bed the rest is easy, life occasions are unavoidable, I can do it on the following day.
Put It In Practice
Your habit/goal:
Why:
Can I adhere to this:
How you will do it:
Possible setbacks:
How to overcome:
Setbacks
On this journey of creating a new habit, the only thing that is 100% is that there will be setbacks and obstacles that will present themselves and cause a delay in the habit becoming automatic. Knowing this, it is important for you to deal with them accordingly and not let them derail you. Just because you are unable to go for a run one day, does not mean that all your efforts are out of the window.
Continually missing day after day is when you start to see the habit crumble. This is one of the big benefits of having an online coach, having someone there to keep you accountable and guide you back onto the path you were heading down makes the journey that much easier. However, they can not do all the work for you. There needs to be a strong element of you putting in the groundwork and adhering to this new habit you are trying to create.
Call To Action
What is a habit that you want to create, put it together follwiong the guideline outline above and email me once you have and we can have an indepth discussion around it and how you can best approach it.
I hope this helped
Till next time,
Myles
