Habit: Your Most Powerful Exercise Tool

Whether you are a pro at working out or you're in the nascent stages of an exercise regiment, you can probably admit that sticking to an exercise routine is difficult. You may have tried all different sources of motivation to keep you going, but the trick you need has been there all along. Habit is the key to a strong exercise routine. Why Habit Works Part of the problem with exercise is the fear that you have about it. You worry that you will feel too tired to go to work after heading to the gym, or you're afraid that you won't have any more personal time for yourself because you use most of your free time to exercise. Building habits helps you to get rid of these fears because you quickly see that nothing is as bad as you originally perceived it to be. Furthermore, once you form an exercise habit, it becomes part of your life, just like turning off the alarm clock in the morning and making breakfast. Most great athletes have wonderful exercise habits, take a look at athletes like Karl Malone or more recent athletes like Dan Bailey and there is no doubt that they have some great habits to stay in shape. Integrate Exercise with Other Nutritional Strategies One way to bring exercise into your routine and to make it a habit is to do it as soon as you engage in other healthy parts of your day. For example, you may want to go for a run after you drink your shake in the morning or participate in an aerobics class after you ingest your afternoon supplements. Think of exercise as an addendum to the healthy activities in which you are already engaging, and it will ride the coattails of that habit until it can stand by itself for you. Allocate Designated Time You should also set aside a certain time of the day when you are going to participate in exercise. That way, you will know that every day at whatever time, you are going to get in your workout routine. By designating a set period of time in which you will exercise, you don't need to worry about it interfering with other tasks. Set aside chunks of time to tackle homework or to write up a new proposal for your plan at work. When each task of your day has a place, you begin to form healthy habits overall. The decision to make exercise a habit is one that can change your life because you will find that it just becomes part of your day-to-day routine.