Today is the day!
It’s early January. You’ve committed to going to the gym every day and getting a workout in. Nothing can stop you.
You open the door, get to the front desk…and bam! Line. And not just for signing up. Lines for the damn treadmills. The LAT machine. Cycle bikes. All of the benches are drenched in a dozen newbies and old sweat. And don’t even think about eyeballing the squat rack.
All of a sudden, working out doesn’t seem to be working out.
Sadly, this happens every year. It’s become a stereotype, annoying everybody in the process. Sure, come February it thins out, but at that point you’re no longer excited to start a workout habit. Oh well. There’s always next year.
No. F*ck that.
You need to make working out as simple as possible!
This is the only way you have the power to overcome the throng of people crowding up your local LA Fitness. Simplicity in your workout is the key to eliminate any and all excuses you could ever come up with. And if you want working out to become the norm for 2018, you need zero ways out — the single way out is to crush your workout day in and day out.
So how do you make your workouts simple? This is what I want to tackle today.
There are three main areas you want to set up in order to avoid resolutioners and make your workouts a habit:
- Environment
- Triggers
- Mentality
Each are equally important. But you need all three locked in to have the best chance at getting a kickass physique, feel amazing and healthy, and live life on your terms.
Your Workout Environment
Okay, maybe I lied when I said environment, triggers, and mentality are equal in importance. Truthfully, your environment shapes everything. It’s what triggers you to begin with, and these combined help develop your mindset.
Here is how you should structure your environment to workout in the simplest way possible:
- Decide to workout at home. This means putting your workout clothes out in the morning so it’s easier to go on that run. Or choose a routine that you can complete from home. Do something within your ability, but is also really challenging.
- Make it the most obvious thing in the world. Put your yoga mat out on the floor in your living room, in front of your T.V. If you have a DVD set of workout instructional videos, place those on the coffee table, so when you go for some mind-numbing show, you opt for that workout instead. Make working out the no-brainer choice.
- Redo your pantry. Healthy habits beget healthy habits. If you change up your eating for the better, it’ll give you the energy necessary to work out. Soon the endorphins will be released through both fitness and nutrition. You’re on the right track!
It’s straightforward: If you want to revamp your lifestyle — working out on a consistent basis is a lifestyle — you have to revamp your living space. Be it your home, your work area, your grocery store, your normal haunts, they all need to be in-tune with your new approach to leading a healthy life.
(If you’re looking for an awesome program to do from home — and not even leave your yoga mat for the entire workout — I strongly suggest you give DDP YOGA a try. Ditch the dirty gym full of resolutions and unsustainable goals and go for a routine that gives you peace of mind. Whether you’re an athlete, a veteran, or in poor health, it doesn’t matter — DDP YOGA has something for everybody!)
Trigger Yourself Into Working Out
The next step is to get you thinking about working out…unknowingly. Before you go, “Huh?”, let me explain. If you put things in place to give your brain tiny reminders to work out, then it doesn’t have to remember to do it later in the day, when everything and their dogs come at you and derail your day.
This is similar to writing out a to-do list, or journaling; get your thoughts out on paper or on your phone, and it’ll be stored until it’s time to workout.
Here’s how you get triggered into moving your body:
- Put an alarm on your phone. A classic thing to do, choosing a time of day and setting it for your workout days is always good for establishing a habit. For the title, put something encouraging, like “Time To Kick Some Ass!” Or something close to that.
- Have your computer “shut down” when it’s time to workout. This one is pretty funny, in my opinion. If you would workout, but you’re stuck in a YouTube blackhole, what can you do? Use the Chrome plugin StayFocusd and basically kill your Internet access. For an hour or two, make it so that you can’t look up things online. Well hell, now what? Guess you should go workout.
- Select a certain food to be your workout “reward.” Say you love Oreo cookies. Instead of going and bingeing on an entire sleeve, make it conditional: “I can have five Oreo cookies, but first I have to do a workout in the living room.” You do your routine, you get your Oreos. Win-win.
Essentially, these pieces of advice are all alterations to your environment still. The difference is these environmental changes invoke action. They aren’t just conducive to working out, they damn near force you to get up off your butt and move.
That’s why you need to optimize your environment and your triggers.
Get Your Thinking Straight
Lastly, you need to get into the right frame of mind. It’s vital to the longevity of your fitness habit to think of working out as the regular thing to do. The exception — for which you’ll ultimately feel guilty for — will be skipping a workout or eating junk food. While this is an unfortunate side effect, it’s big for your habit to stick.
The trick is to be deliberate in your actions by thinking before you do stuff. Sound tiring? Well that’s because it will be…to begin with. Soon, your new mindset will be natural. It’s a matter of determination.
Here are a few ways you can start thinking differently about fitness:
- Don’t think in terms of “if this, then that.” Ready for me to contradict myself? Earlier, I said you could have five Oreos if you did your DDP YOGA workout for that day. Well, once it’s a little easier to just workout for the fun of it, stop eating the cookies. Don’t slip into the “well, I worked out, so I can indulge” thought process. You don’t workout to cancel it out with mindless eating and drinking. You do it for your health. Remember that.
- Ignore all fitness advice. Seriously. It’s poison. If you tried to read all the opinions on fitness — including this article right here — you’d die long before you ever did a single push-up. Find your lane, the activity you want to make a habit, put those damn blinders on, and cruise. Don’t get side-tracked by other fads or diets or workout routines. Focus on you. Period.
- Don’t set crazy goals. Another against-the-grain mantra. Goals are either too wild or too easy. Sure, you might pinpoint a perfect spot to aim for, but once you set it, then you have to do the work, when your brain thinks it’s already done it. Instead, think of today. Just today. What can you do today? Well, you can workout today…. Good! Do that! Worry about tomorrow tomorrow. A daily goal is better than a long-term goal, and much easier to stick to.
Habits over goals, stay in your lane, do your thing, and do it because it’ll make you feel amazing and will get you closer to your desired look and ability.
To Recap:
- Alter your environment to make fitness a priority.
- Establish triggers that force you to workout.
- Think like a healthy human being; focus on the day and how you can improve.
Do as much of this as possible, and I promise you your fitness habit will be crushed. And you won’t ever have to enter a cramped gym!
J. D. Lyda is the most passionate health and fitness writer in the world. Check out his site to see how he creates engaging articles and kickass social media. Feel free to contact J. D. Lyda to see if he can rep out consistent, quality content for you. Follow him on Instagram for his personal fitness and nutrition.
