A routine is defined as “A sequence of actions regularly followed, a fixed program.”   Are you looking to start a fitness routine?  Have you been down this road before only to find yourself falling off the wagon?  Here are a 10 tips that we give to our clients at MVP Sports Center & Physical Therapy that greatly increases the chances of keeping your routine and finding success.

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1: Commit to a 40 day workout plan:  To develop a routine that will become a positive habit, you should start by dedicating yourself to your new routine for 40 days.  Accomplish this and you’re looking at a MUCH greater level of success!  Write down your goal, devise a plan and get to it!

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2:  Making your workout routine a daily habit:  A daily routine will create a sense of consistency that will be crucial to your success.   Doing something daily will eliminate the “day off” that turns into “days off” and eventually a routine that has become abandoned.  Your training program will have different levels of intensity and time requirements, so doing something everyday will not be “too much”.  A daily routine will also eliminate the pitfalls that come with doing something every couple of days.  Working with a coach or trainer will definitely help you in the process.  Our staff can take all of the guessing out of the program design and hold you accountable for holding up your end of the bargain!

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3:  Starting your workout routine and keeping it simple:  Don’t try to do too much in a day as you get started… think: “Crawl before you walk” and so on.  Coming out of the gates too fast will not only discourage you because you can’t even get out of bed in the morning, but you will begin to questions how in the world you are supposed to keep this all up!.  Let’s keep it simple and work up to those tougher days.  You will actually learn to enjoy your fitness routine and all of the positive benefits it will add to your life!  Working with a coach is a good way to develop a good and sustainable program that you can KEEP while getting you acclimated over an appropriate time period!

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4:  Keep yourself reminded of what you are doing: There are so many things that you can do to keep yourself reminded of why you are looking to keep your workout routine.  Here are a couple ideas:

  • Tell someone what you are setting out to accomplish and let them reward you with sticking to the routine.
  • Enlist a friend (and even family members) to do this with you and to keep you accountable.
  • Put stickies up in key places to remind yourself of what you need to do AND not do.
  • Build your schedule on a calendar that includes your routine.  Putting it on your daily calendar and scheduling around it will eliminate the excuse of “I just don’t have time”.
  • Write a journal entry every day or blog your daily events.
  • Use an App to track your daily accomplishments – we like “Cal Tracker” as an example
  • Working with a coach or trainer is a great way to have someone to keep you accountable to your routine and overall program.
  • Subscribe to a daily email reminder service – there are a bunch of them out there!

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5:  Staying Consistent:  A great way to stay consistent is to have a well thought out and documented plan of attack that can be easily accomplished.  Your routine should not require too many obstacles to complete your fitness routine.  Your routine should be a part of your daily ritual…just like waking up or having dinner.  Have the appropriate amount of time carved out for each day and try to keep this time around the same time of the day.  This consistency will help elicit that innate response to starting your routine and accomplishing your tasks for the day!

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6:  Eliminate the “Time Wasters”:  We all have them and it is amazing how much time they can take up in our day.  If you are having an issue with finding the time to make your workout routine a blazing success, take a look at your typical day and be honest with yourself… what is taking up chunks of your time that you could otherwise dedicate to your routine or other productive tasks?  Is it TV, video games, surfing the web, too many unnecessary commitments or procrastination?  Next time you feel the urge to give some of your time to one of these unproductive habits, take that as a cue to do something different and productively manage your time so that you can keep your routine! This is a hard one, but you can do it!

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7: Don’t get discouraged:  We are all human and we will make mistakes, so don’t expect to be perfect…ever!  Challenges, frustration, hiccups and mistakes will happen along the way.  This is all normal, but how you deal with them will be the key to your success.  You need to expect these bumps in the road though.  Knowing they are coming and know what you need to do to get past them will be your best plan of attack!  Stay positive, keep yourself supported, know that you are getting better at your routine each day and that you are one day closer to success!

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8:  Remove the temptation:  Letting temptation remain on the table during your process of developing your workout routine will serve as a recipe for disaster.  You know your weaknesses and temptations better than anyone, so be honest with yourself in the beginning and remove them from your environment.  A good way to go about this is to confide in your friend(s), coach or trainer who is supporting you through this process and have them help you eliminate the temptations.  You need support!  Giving yourself a forcefield of support against these temptations through a support system will yield much greater success.

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9.  Be with “like minded” people:  Its a funny thing when we look at how much our behaviors can be influenced by the people we spend time with.  You truly become like the people you spend the most time with, so choose wisely and find some good role models!  This is a time tested truth.

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10. Visualize – See yourself crossing the finish line:  Develop and keep a mental image of yourself crossing that finish line!  Imagine the hardships you will be confronted with along the way and how you will over come them.  Know what the consequences of failing are so you can better understand why you are doing this.  Simply put, have a good mental image of everything you are going to deal with so you can literally go from imagining this process to physically crossing the finish line as a success!

 

Do you need help with starting a routine?