Fitness 101

Many people understand the benefits that exercise has to offer and know they should exercise regularly to maintain their health and fitness.  Some of these people may take the initial steps necessary to get started and join a gym, hire a trainer, and start an exercise program with the best intentions of improving their fitness.  Unfortunately, 50% of people that start an exercise program will quit within 6 months.  It turns out that just having the intention to exercise is not enough to stick with it for the long haul.  The good news is that there are some easy ways to help improve your exercise adherence and keep your new piece of exercise equipment from becoming a coat rack.

Do something fun!  Exercise doesn’t have to be a pain.  Whether it is kickboxing or pilates, boot camp or bellydancing: if it’s something you enjoy doing, you are much more likely to keep at it.  (See the A-Z’s of cardio for a few creative ideas).

Set it in your schedule.  Too often we say, “I’ll try to fit in a workout later if I have time”.  Unfortunately, when “later” does arrive, we are usually to busy or tired to exercise. Make exercise an important part of your regular schedule, and don’t make excuses.  Even better, sign up for an exercise class with a set schedule. 

Work out with a partner.  Get some support by finding a workout partner or group to exercise with.  People who work out with a friend or spouse are far more likely to stay on track.  Another possibility would be to work with a personal trainer.  Personal trainers provide valuable information on proper workout form and help motivate their clients to reach their fitness goals. 

Find a convenient place to exercise.  Having access to fitness facilities that are convenient and close by makes it easier to stick with your exercise plan.  Interestingly enough, if the exercise location is too convenient (i.e., buying a home gym) it can actually backfire and cause you to get distracted and forego the workout when you are already comfortable at home.  Sometimes making the trip to the gym gives you the focus and motivation needed to get a good workout.

Have meaningful, health-related goals.  People who exercise to improve physical fitness and health tend to stick with exercise more than those who simply want to look good in a swimsuit over spring break or fit into a wedding dress for one day.  In addition, it is very motivational to define these goals and write them down so they are more concrete.  “Ink it, don’t just think it!”

Provide cues for exercise.  Put up motivational signs, posters, or cartoons that remind you to work out.  Place your running shoes in front of your door or your workout bag in your car seat for further encouragement.

Do it in short bouts.  You don’t need to exercise all day to see benefits.  Research shows that moderate-intensity physical activity can be accumulated throughout the day in 10-minute bouts, which can help squeeze some exercise sessions into a busy schedule.  Take the dog for a walk in the morning, go for a stroll during your lunch break, and go for a scenic bike ride after work and you’ve accumulated enough cardio to gain some benefits.

Focus on intrinsic rewards instead of extrinsic ones.  Intrinsic rewards are things like fun, social interaction, health benefits, fitness improvements, and good feelings that provide some personal, internal benefit.  Extrinsic awards are things like money, prizes, trophies, free t-shirts, and other material items that come from external sources and provide some small enjoyment.  What is often the case is that extrinsic rewards may be initially attractive, but intrinsic rewards are what keep people involved in an activity over the long haul.  That free t-shirt may have got you to join the gym, but feeling good about yourself and enjoying the health benefits of your exercise program are what keep you coming back.

Use dissociation strategies.  What people focus their attention on during exercise actually has a big effect on adherence.  When the focus is on internal body feedback or association (e.g., breathing, how the muscles feel), exercise attendance and adherence is lower than for dissociative strategies which focus on the external environment (how nice the scenery is).  The idea is that people who focus on the external environment may reduce a person’s boredom, discomfort, and fatigue.  For this reason, many people select a stimulating environment to work out in and also listen to music or read magazines on treadmills to take their minds off the internal, associative aspects of the exercise.

Improve self-efficacy.  Self-efficacy refers to “situation-specific self-confidence” or your belief in your ability to successfully perform a certain task.  If you increase your self-efficacy for exercise, you are much more likely to not only stick with it, but also get a great deal of satisfaction from your accomplishment.  You can improve your self-efficacy for exercise by setting yourself up for positive experiences.  This means starting slow with a focus on doing the basic movements correctly instead of jumping into difficult, complex exercises that may leave you feeling overwhelmed or intimidated.  Personal trainers are experts in building their client’s confidence early on with encouragement and a safe, structured approach to increasing the training difficulty.

Alternate activities to prevent boredom.  Some people don’t stick with exercise because they say it is boring.  “All I do is run and it gets repetitive”, they might complain.  The good news is that there are hundreds of different exercises and training techniques to choose from.  When you are weight training in the gym, try different combinations of free weights, weight machines, resistance bands, bodyweight exercises, and plyometrics exercises to keep things interesting and to give your muscles more variety of stimulation.  You can also use cross-training to avoid boredom.  Cross-training involves using different modes of exercise to reach your goals.  For instance, bike one day, swim the next, and then do martial arts the following day.

Darin Smith – PE/PFT Instructor, Highline Community College