Why Exercise Should Be Part of Your Daily Routine
Exercise is important to our health; emotionally, physically, and mentally. It can be hard to make exercise a part of your daily routine. Whether that is because it’s hard to find the time, feel as if we can’t make time, can’t find a class to fit our schedule or just life in general, life gets busy and exercise routines are often the first to go.
The good news? You can take steps to help you get past some of these hurdles and make exercise part of your daily routine. Whether you are just starting, already on your fitness journey, or trying to restart, these steps can help you create a routine and stay consistent with your fitness journey.
Create Goals
Think about why you want to start or continue a fitness routine. What do you want to get out of it? What are you trying to accomplish? Remind yourself of these goals, or consider setting new ones. You wanted to start your exercise routine for a reason. Take note of why that is and make sure it still resonates with what you want. There are so many goals out there from losing weight, improving health markers such as heart rate or blood pressure, improving our ability to live day to day, improving at our given sport, aesthetics, competing, or even just finding what our limits are. All of these are important and none of them are more important than others, what matters is what they mean to you.
For some of us, that might be having an honest conversation with ourselves on why this is so important for our health, or realizing things in your life have changed so priorities have changed. Take some time to think about why you started, or why you want to continue.
Finding Time
There is only so much time in your day. The difference is the responsibilities and priorities each of us have within that time. These decisions influence where we spend our time. Now remember your why. This will help you realize the importance this has for you. In our opinion, your exercise routine and physical well being is of utmost importance. Your quality of life depends on it. Now that doesn’t mean you have to workout everyday for 5 hours a day, but we do want to find a routine that allows you to live the life you want, for as long as you can.
Take a look at your daily schedule. What are some of the major checkpoints in your day? Such as when do you wake up, when do you go to work, eat lunch, come home from work, spend time with family, eat dinner, go to bed, etc. Make a list of these key points and try to find time to train within that list.
Find a Routine That You Enjoy
Once you have your reason why and have set your when, it’s time to think about where or how you will train and workout. Finding a gym or studio that you trust and enjoy, will make it that much easier to stay consistent.
What kind of training environment do you enjoy? There are a lot of options that work for all different types of people. You can do personal training, group fitness, virtual training (program design), or just exercise outdoors (running and hiking).
Working out shouldn’t always feel like work, you should also find enjoyment in what you’re doing and working towards. If you are having trouble figuring that out, feel free to schedule a consultation with us to discuss how we can help you with goal setting.
Get Started
The last part is the easiest (and hardest) part of this process. That is to be consistent and forgiving of yourself if you don’t always follow through with your routine. I know those don’t seem as if they go together, but they are both very important. The best program or exercise routine for you to see results with is the one that you consistently do. If we want to stay consistent we also need to be understanding and forgiving of ourselves if we don’t meet our consistency standards at times.
Life is crazy and is always changing. Forgive yourself if you fall off the wagon and don’t beat yourself up for it. Remember, consistency always reigns supreme in any routine, especially when training. Placing your training routine in your schedule will show how much you prioritize that time, because it is important and it is something you want and deserve to do.
