I’m not only going to tell you why I work out. I’m going to tell you why a lot of gym rats work out. This is a secret that most of them don’t want to tell you. But I’m about to spill the beans.
Anytime you do something for that long it becomes a habit. I go to the gym the same way most people brush their teeth.
You wake up, and you do it. You don’t think about it. You just do it.
This is also why I don’t look down on people who can’t seem to stick to the gym. I get it. It’s hard. Doing something as difficult as working out multiple times per week is tough for anybody.
That’s why I try to get people in the habit of going to the gym as quickly as possible.
Here are some tips I came up with to help with habit creation:
- Get your workout clothes ready and sit them at the door before you go to sleep at night. This is for those who train in the morning. This way you’ll be forced to get out of bed to go to the door and get your clothes on. Put on your clothes and keep going right out the door.
- Set very specific short term goals. Being specific will allow you to narrow your focus and ignore all the noise. Short term goals will light a fire under your butt while long term goals make procrastination easy. If you have a goal of bench pressing 225 lbs. 6 months from now it becomes easy to say, “I don’t NEED to go. I can miss a day and still hit my goal.”
- Don’t do too much too quickly. Too many people take an all or nothing mentality to fitness. Starting with a 6 day/week training schedule leaves you nowhere to build to and will burn you out more quickly. Start off small and build from there.
- Have some fun. The best way to keep yourself going to the gym is to actually enjoy yourself while you’re there. This will take some experimentation on your part, but you have to find a particular niche that you have fun with. Whatever you find enjoyment in, use it to push yourself into that weight room every day.