It’s never a convenient time to go to the gym and it never will be. We know intuitively that exercising consistently is arguably one of the most established paths to total health – it’s why we all know we should exercise more. But where to find the damn time? The Resistance, as Steven Pressfield calls it in his book The War of Art, dominates our lives and constantly wins the fight for our motivation. But over the years, I’ve learned that willpower alone isn’t enough to fight The Resistance. Artificially and spontaneously conjuring up a spark of motivation isn’t sustainable. We always fall back to the path of least resistance.
Our ability to do the things we set ourselves to do is only as strong as the systems and rules we set in place. When we follow them consistently, we build momentum and it takes less energy to follow through. Here are ten strategies I’ve used for the last five years that have helped me prevent my weight from deviating more than around five pounds, reduce my body fat, build muscle, control my type one diabetes, and keep my lazy ass going to the gym.
1. Know the details of your why.
Why do you want to go to the gym? Surely you have a good reason – lose weight, look good in (or out of) a bathing suit, improve your health, or just because you know it’s good for you. These are legitimate reasons but they’re as clear as a foggy drive up a mountain. You need to get specific.
How much weight do you want to lose?
Which bathing suit do you want to look good in?
How low do you want to bring down percent body fat?
Whatever it is, know where you’re at and set your sights on where you want to be, in painstaking detail.
Clarity drives action.
2. Know the consequences.
This point is a follow-up question to the last strategy: what will happen if you don’t commit to going regularly? I know that if I don’t go, I’ll be tired and feel like crap all day, my blood sugar levels will get out of control, I’ll have to work harder to get myself to go next time, and my mind will be cloudy and easily distracted. Not going is rarely worth the cost.
What are your consequences?
Does not going to the gym mean you’ll continue gaining weight? Will it reinforce a bad habit? How will you feel about not going? Will this be the umpteenth time you say no to yourself? How’s that been working out for you?
It’s important to know what success looks like, but we must remind ourselves of what failure looks like, too.
3. Plan the week before and log your workouts.
One of the most counterproductive things you can do is show up to the gym without a plan. You become as picky as a food critic about what workout “sounds good” and talk yourself out of doing anything difficult. We do this because we haven’t committed to anything, so the possibilities are endless. This isn’t good when you’re pressed on time.
The day before your week starts, have a plan in place and ask yourself:
- How many days do you plan on going this week?
- What type of workouts will you do? Bodybuilding? Cardio? Yoga? HIIT?
- What regimen can you follow to put yourself one step closer to your goal? If you don’t know, do some research or talk to someone who does know (i.e. a personal trainer or Google).
Here’s the small daily planner I use to log my workouts.
At the end of the week, ask yourself:
- How did you do?
- How many days did you go? Mark the days you went and the days you didn’t.
- What weight did you lift and how many sets did you do?
- How far did you run and how long did it take you?
Writing down answers to these questions help us stay on track and adds another element of accountability. Not to mention that it provides us with valuable information on how to tackle future workouts. Even if you didn’t plan the upcoming week, don’t start the day’s workout before knowing exactly what you’re going to do.
You may be thinking that if we’re already writing this stuff down, why should we count the days we’ve been going? Counting the number of days you’ve done something is one of the simplest and most powerful strategies to keep any habit. James Clear, in his practical book Atomic Habits, says that habit-tracking strategies like counting days work because making progress is satisfying, and visual measures (like marking a calendar or journal) reinforce the behavior and add immediate satisfaction to any activity. This is an important prerequisite for making habits easy and sustainable. Many habit-tracking apps can help with this, as well. There’s one I love called Habit List which I’ve been using on my phone for the last few years.
4. Just show up.
The hardest part about exercising can often be the simplest. The thought alone of going to the gym holds us back as we make it something bigger and more difficult than it is in our minds. The simple cure to this is to just get up and go. Don’t wait for motivation or inspiration – they rarely come when you need them.
From a psychological perspective, doing just about anything is the first spark in building momentum. If you just get dressed or show up, two things can happen: you stimulate your brain to get ready for a workout or you’ll get to the gym and find nothing else to do except work out. Either way, it’s a win.
5. Meal prep every week, or at least the night before.
To maximize your health, you need to exercise and eat right. When you’re doing one but not the other, you’re missing out on a lot. Weekly meal prepping helps bridge this gap because it’s a habit that’s reinforced by exercise.
When you eat right, you perform better, and your strength and stamina increase fast – reducing the time to get the results you want. It’s rejuvenating and a high that never wears off. You’ll spend a few hours on a Sunday shopping and prepping, but it pays you dividends in the time and energy you save throughout the week. Additionally, you don’t have to think about what to eat, you don’t need to go anywhere, it’s (hopefully) healthy, and you save money. It’s a beautiful cycle once you get it going.
6. Plan everything around the workout.
It’s not that you don’t have time to go to the gym. The problem is that you give your time away to other things which you’ve convinced yourself are more important. What if you flipped this around and made your workout the most important thing of the day? And planned everything around that?
At my work, lunch is loosely from 11-12 pm. That’s my workout time at least four days a week. I will say no to work events, schedule meetings around that time, route calls to voicemail, and eat lunch at my desk just to preserve this slot. I’ve been doing this for the last couple of years and, not surprisingly, it’s worked out perfectly. I get more work done because I’m energized, and I’ve learned that most “emergencies” are not emergencies. This is hands down my favorite and most effective strategy. I’ve even had many co-workers join me!
Can you think of any open slots of time in your daily schedule? Morning? Mid-day like me? Afternoon or evening? If you have anywhere from fifteen to sixty minutes, you can make it happen, too. If you don’t, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate your commitments and what you’re saying “yes” to. If exercising is truly a priority for you, then you will make the time using strategies like this one.
7. Keep the workout short.
Your workout is only as good as how smart you train and how hard you push yourself. Not how long you’re at the gym. You can have an incredibly effective workout in just thirty or forty-five minutes. Heck, I’ve even done some in ten or twenty minutes. I rarely spend more than an hour at the gym. After those sixty minutes go by, I’m antsy to get out and get on with life.
Unless you’re training for a competition or it’s your job, there’s no need to be there for so long. You can have a productive workout if you keep up the intensity, take short breaks, and stay focused – no talking, social media, or browsing the internet between sets. This strategy also prevents you from getting bored. When you’re in there to hit an objective under the clock, it’s a game against your fatigue and the clock. This keeps things fresh and interesting.
Whatever you decide to do, also keep in mind to frequently do something you enjoy, especially if you’re just starting or returning from a long exercise hiatus. You want to make it rewarding for yourself so you can keep coming back for more. When it comes to staying fit, doing something is almost always better than doing nothing.
8. “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”.
Being held accountable by someone other than yourself changes how you do things. It’s far easier to let yourself down than a close friend or family member. This is the reason why group fitness programs such as spin classes, martial arts, and CrossFit have been wildly successful.
Suffering and struggling alongside a comrade to reach an objective or surmount adversity is also how the strongest relationships and habits are formed and sustained. You must surround yourself with people who have the same interests as you. My wife and I have met some our best friends in CrossFit, and over the years we’ve kept in touch because of our shared love of fitness. The next time you go the gym, if you can, take someone with you or join a class or program.
9. Bring the gym home.
If something is keeping you from leaving your house, you’re on a time crunch, or the will to put a workout together is unbearable to even think about, then have something do the programming for you: a home fitness video. I like to use this strategy when my slothfulness is peaked out after days of inactivity and I need to tell myself, “ENOUGH!”. There are countless home fitness programs out there, but one that I’ve been using consistently for many years is Beachbody’s Insanity.
The name is appropriate. Popping in one of these videos is like throwing a grenade into your living room and jumping on it. It will immediately eradicate your laziness, energize you, kick your ass, and you’ll be happy when it’s over. It’s a sixty-day program with about thirteen different bodyweight workouts (no equipment needed) that range from forty minutes to one hour. There are regular programs and “max” programs that are a little longer and more intense. It comes with a calendar but you can do the workouts in any order.
If this doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, that’s okay. There are many others with varying intensities and less craziness – Zumba, Yoga, Pilates, Crunch, Tae-Bo, anything from Beachbody, and lots more. Remember, you must keep it fun and interesting. But trust me, you won’t be disappointed investing in Insanity.
10. What is your locus of control?
Our days are inundated with lots of obligations. We tell ourselves that everything is equally important and needs to get done now. If we do this long enough, we feel like our lives are not in our control. But we fail to realize that we do have control over the most important things: our thoughts and actions. Everything we do starts with a thought that transforms into a choice, and eventually into action.
At the end of the day, it’s only you who is in control of your life; not circumstances, events, or anyone else.
If you mess up and get off track, just jump back on it. Immediately. Don’t wait until next Monday or after the holidays because every day you wait will add to the difficulty in getting back into it. There’s never a good enough reason to wait when you can do something NOW. Each time the sun comes up, there’s a new opportunity that doesn’t depend on what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow. There’s no need to add unnecessary emotional baggage, blame, or guilt, either. When does that ever help?
We will succumb to obligations, lack of motivation, and laziness from time to time, and that’s okay because we’re human. We’re doing this to cultivate a habit to last a lifetime, not a season. Stick with it, and never let yourself give up.
These are just some strategies that have worked well for me, but don’t stop there. Keep adding more to your arsenal. In the war against the Resistance, there’s always a very well-justified reason (aka excuse) to not go to the gym. But remember: it’s never a convenient time to go and it never will be.
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