I’m an avid gym goer. I go to the gym almost every day for at least an hour. But I didn’t used to be. I was never a star athlete and any exercise I got used to be pretty irregular. It took me several attempts over months to form the habit of regular exercise. In my failed attempts, one of the most important lessons I learned is that if you want a habit to stick, it needs to be daily.
The first few times I tried to install exercise habits, they fell apart. Attempting to exercise three or four times a week, simply didn’t stick. What eventually did the trick was making it a daily habit. It may seem counterintuitive that exercising more frequently is an easier habit to install, but when you look into the mechanisms that create habits, it makes sense.
Daily Habits Are More Thoroughly Reinforced
Willpower isn’t the biggest issue in trying to change a habit. Most people have enough willpower to make it through the first week or two when it is really necessary. The problem most people have is that their habits aren’t conditioned deeply enough to switch the behavior on autopilot.
To understand why, let’s compare the exercise habits of Jill and John.
John sets out a plan to exercise Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. He plans for longer workouts of about an hour. On Mondays, John wakes up to the sound of his alarm clock and heads to the gym. Without realizing it the pattern in his head that links waking up (his daily routine) to the gym is reinforced.
But on Tuesday John wakes up and doesn’t exercise at all. The pattern linking John’s daily routine to exercise isn’t as strong now. This continues for several weeks and John finds that he still needs to remind himself to go to the gym.
Jill on the other hand plans to exercise every day. She only goes to the gym for a half hour, but she is there every single day. When Jill’s alarm clock sounds she automatically reaches for her gym bag and heads out the door. Her pattern is conditioned repeatedly until it is completely automatic.
Consistency is Key
If exercising is a chore, you probably aren’t making the habit consistent enough. Nobody is a drone who executes each day identically, but you can tackle the big parts that reduce consistency. Going from a weekly to a daily habit is one of those.
Even if you don’t exercise at the same time every day, daily exercise will be linked into your brain so that your day doesn’t feel complete without it.
Making Gradual Change With a Daily Schedule
I’m a big proponent of gradual over revolutionary change. Trying to do everything at once is a sure way to fail entirely. If you aren’t exercising at all or very infrequently, shifting to a daily schedule can be tough. Here are a few ways you can gradually shift while maintaining a daily schedule:
- Cut the amount of time per session – I like 60-90 minutes for a workout, but if you are already time starved starting with a daily schedule of 20-30 minutes can help.
- Build it into your life – If possible you might want to walk or bike your normal commute to work.
- Start easier - Don’t try a marathon each workout. Making yourself sick on the first day of exercise is an easy way to give up. Start easy and progress.
Find the Right Challenge Level
When starting a new exercise plan you need to balance between making it too easy and forgetting about conditioning it or making it too hard and giving up out of frustration. Habits of exercise for ten minutes are likely to be forgotten, while two hours of exercise a day might be too hard to take all at once.
If you’ve failed to stick with an exercise habit before, try switching it to a daily routine. I’ve done this a few times with different forms of exercise and each time I found it to be amazingly effective in getting the habit to stick.
I'm a speed-reading, vegetarian, holistic learning, productivity hacking university student.
Great post, Scott. I’ve found that making exercise a habit works well for me too. I love the practical tips you provide.
[...] Scott H Young New to Exercise? Make Workouts Daily [...]
Good article. It’s catch my mind so i’m thinking about. In your article i miss one big thing that it is my motivation for doing training (triathlon) near every day, since about two years. It’s something like fun. For everybody who want to do exercise i can say “Do it!”. If you want do go running, do it. Stop thinking about “There is no sunshine. I don’t know if i really want to run..”. Do it.
Another big thing is the target. I’ve during the year several “contests”. I don’t want the first or second. I’m succeed if i’m going through the finish line. That is my motivation, not doing exercise because i’ve done it yesterday.
Thanks for the comments Leo and Christian.
Great stuff you got here. I like to do many things but they don’t last too long….
eg: badminton only for a year, workouts only for half a year…
I’ll take your advice and actually stay committed this time round….
[...] Recently my friend and fellow blogger Scott Young did a great post entitled, “New to exercise? Make workouts daily“. It was a great post, and perfectly timed as it mirrors my own recent efforts at making exercise a daily habit. [...]
[...] In Scott’s posting on daily workouts he demonstrates how something that is done every other day is much less likely to become a habit than something that is done daily. This got me thinking. As I’m only walking three times a week at present this is unlikely to become a habit for me. [...]
Do or do not…there is no try!
[...] Now we aren’t quite Jedi fighters now are we? So using the power of our mind alone to lift things sounds rather far fetched. Maybe so, but our mind is more powerful than most people realize. And like Yoda [...]
[...] So, my plan is to start exercising daily as suggested by Scott H Young in his post New to Exercise? Make workouts daily. I have received a daily exercise DVD from Blockbuster to try out and as I am waking up earlier I will use it in the mornings. I am also going to organise an appointment for a new programme at the gym. I admit it is going to be difficult next week because I’m away from home for three nights, but I guess that is just an additional challenge. [...]
[...] Recently my friend and fellow blogger Scott Young did a great post entitled, “New to exercise? Make workouts daily“. It was an excellent post, and perfectly timed as it mirrors my own recent efforts at making exercise a daily habit. [...]
[...] Scott Young wrote a fantastic post today on “New to Exercise? Make Workouts Daily”Here’s ONLY a quick extractHe plans for longer workouts of about an hour. On Mondays, John wakes up to the sound of his alarm clock and heads to the gym. Without realizing it the pattern in his head that links waking up (his daily routine) to the gym is … [...]
Great post =^^=
It’s practical and managable though I kinda need your help… I’m a highschool student who can’t get that much exercise – I’ve started doing 2000 steps on a stepper thing daily aswell as my usual walk to school.
Any ideas on how I can be a bit more active and keep it up? I’m a only a few pounds bigger than I should but I want to be able to change that and manage it so I don’t fail on my ass. Any ideas?
Mariah,
Try forming a routine and sticking with it for thirty days. That way you can turn exercise into a habit. To make exercise more fun, here are a few suggestions:
* Get a partner
* Try classes (dance, martial arts, yoga, etc.)
* Get a trainer
* Get an mp3 player and some music you enjoy
* Find a challenge level that is difficult but not overwhelming
* Experiment!
thanks for the reply – I’ll try my best
[...] MIT’s everyday, don’t try to drink enough water during the day, don’t try to do weight lifting exercises three times a week. Just do it! Remember Yoda: Do or do not…there is no [...]
Hi Scott,
Nice article! I came through to it from the Zen Habits website. I’ve just started a 2 month fitness blitz so it’s great to read motivating articles like these!
Elliot
Hi Scott,
You don’t have to post my comment but I have been an experieced personal trainer as well as a college swimmer and having structure in a workout has always been key for me to stay in shape. There are always days that I don’t want to go to the pool or to the gym but if I know someone else is going or I know I have a workout to do it makes it a lot easier. I just wanted to let people know if they need any advice on what they should do I did make a website providing tips and workouts. Scott if you think the website is good or helpful to your readers I will let you put it up so as to not spam your blog with ads. But I stronly suggest sticking to a structured workout whether you are at a gym or not. Good luck!
Sean,
No problem. I do allow comments with links to websites, as long as they are relevant and the author is writing them to help, not hawk a product.
-Scott
Thanks Scott, Our website is http://www.GoWorkoutDialy.com and it provides 3 daily workouts for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. We also have a blog updated by professional athletes and Olympic medalists. Hope this helps jumpstart a few new people to get in shape!
[...] 我的一个朋友Scott Young最近写了一篇文章《New to exercise? Make workouts daily》。这篇文章很不错，我最近也在试着养成每天锻炼的习惯，文中有不少观点和我的一些想法不谋而合。 [...]
Sorry I appoligize the site is http://www.GoWorkoutDaily.com it was spelled wrong above.
[...] habit where you work out 3 or 4 times a week is hard because it does not feel consistent. Instead, make exercise something you do every day. Build the habit into your day – after your morning coffee, first thing you do when you get home, [...]
[...] New to Exercise? Make Workouts Daily Source: This is a post from Scott H Young http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/04/23/new-to-exercise-make-workouts-daily/ [...]
[...] Young has a good post here about making workouts daily. Now that I’ve been working out daily for about a month, I can [...]
I have just purchased a cheap treadmill, and I am wondering if long termuse will damage my knees and if so is there anything that I can do to avoid that?
[...] MIT’s everyday, don’t try to drink enough water during the day, don’t try to do weight lifting exercises three times a week. Just do it! Remember Yoda: Do or do not…there is no [...]