How to Start a New Fitness Habit

Every New Year’s Day, probably millions of people make a pledge to start exercising. However, many of those people either never follow through with their pledge or they try to and fail. This is because starting any exercise habit, whether it be swimming, jogging, sprinting, weightlifting, etc. is very difficult.

Thankfully, it isn’t impossible.

There are tips and strategies that you can use to make starting a new fitness habit easier. In this article, we will explore how you can start a new fitness habit and how you can stick to it, no matter what life throws at you.

Why People Fail

One of the best ways at succeeding at something difficult is to start, not by planning out what you plan to do but to instead start out by analyzing why exactly so many other people seem to fail. By learning where others fail, you can help yourself figure out exactly where to succeed.

The first, and by far the biggest mistake, is a failure to set tangible goals. Too many people set a very generic pledge for themselves, such as a pledge saying that they will “start a diet in the new year,” or that they will “visit the gym every day.”

The issue with these goals is that they are extremely vague and that they are extremely generic. Vague and generic goals are difficult, if not downright impossible to achieve. So, when people give themselves types of goals, they are already setting themselves up for failure.

Another big issue is the often complete lack of any sort of reward/accountability system. See, humans do best when there are notable rewards if they do well and punishments if they don’t do well. As we will cover later on in this article, rewarding yourself and holding yourself accountable are crucial aspects of introducing a new fitness habit into your life and having it actually stick.

Yet another issue is a lack of any sort of detailed planning or scheduling. So many people start off their exercise habit by doing it whenever they have time. The key to getting an exercise habit to stick is to have time each day or week (depending on the sort of exercise) dedicated to it each week. You have to stick to that schedule and make it a habit, yet sadly many do not do that, and it is part of the reason why their fitness habit fails.

How to Succeed

Now that you know why people fail, it is important to figure how you can succeed where many others have failed. Here are some tips and strategies that can guide you through the process of adopting a new fitness habit.

Pick A Habit (or Habits) That You Enjoy

Ever hear the old saying “if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life?” Well, the same logic very much applies to fitness. So many people get bored with their regular fitness habits because they choose to do things that don’t appeal to them like running on a treadmill or lifting weights.

This makes exercise a chore and no one likes doing chores.

The solution here is to try your best to find a fitness habit that you like. This is obviously a lot easier said than done, but it isn’t impossible. Good activities that are both fun and engaging including swimming, yoga, and cycling are all good ways to get fit that also happen to be extremely fun.

Regardless of your own personal preferences, the main takeaway is to try and find something that you enjoy. Do some serious research and look for lesser known fitness regimens that may appeal to you.

Set Realistic Goals

A good way to ensure that your fitness habit sticks is to start off by setting small, achievable goals for yourself. Too many people set these lofty goals, or even worse, no goals at all, and then they get sidetracked easily. By setting small goals for yourself, you can give yourself a constant, clear sense of achievement, which will motivate you to continue on with your new fitness habit.

Smaller goals are easy to make. Just take a large goal (such as losing 100 lbs. in a year doing your new fitness habit) and break it down into smaller goals (such as losing 5 lbs. a week).

Rewarding Yourself and Holding Yourself Accountable

Finally, you should get into the habit of rewarding yourself for sticking to your goals and new fitness habit and holding yourself accountable when you don’t. The latter part is a bit more difficult, but still very possible.

For example, if you miss a session or two of your new fitness habit because of something avoidable (such as sleeping in or simply blowing it off to do something else) then try and take away something else in your life.

For example, if you miss a training session, hold yourself accountable by denying yourself an end-of-week reward.