How to Design a Fitness Routine You Will Stick With

We all want to see the benefits of consistent exercise but many of us will struggle to find a fitness routine that we will actually stick with. How many times have you vowed to be more active and start working out only to get a few days in and already find yourself ready to give up?

Sometimes the problem with sticking to a routine is more than sheer willpower.

There are a handful of other factors that can affect our ability to successfully adhere to consistently working out. Here are some things to consider when designing a fitness routine. Following these simple steps can help you find the “stick with it’ness” for long-term success.

Find your Fitness Style

Your enjoyment will be a motivator to continue with something long-term. Lack of enjoyment will set you up to fail. Before starting a fitness routine it is important to ask yourself these questions to help discover your fitness style.

• What do you enjoy doing? Remember, if you don’t enjoy your fitness routine, you won’t stick with it.
• What motivates you?
• What holds your interest and drives your life?

Maybe you work better with others. You might think about joining fitness classes where you could connect with other fitness minded individuals. If you enjoy being in nature you could consider designing your plan around being outdoors.

Fitness should add to your quality of life, not diminish it.

If you have the mindset of suffering through it, you will not continue on for the long haul. Finding your sweet spot with fitness will help you experience it as a benefit and will be something you continue with as a lifestyle.

What type of climate and community do you live in?

If you live in a colder climate you may not want to plan running outdoors during the winter. However, you may enjoy snowshoeing or cross country skiing. In hot and humid climates a 5 mile jog may be too difficult if it is too hot outside, but you may enjoy swimming or even a forest hike. Or you may need to schedule your outdoor exercise early in the morning before the day heats up.

How far is your commute?

You will want to consider travel time to and from the gym if you choose to join one. If you have a half hour commute to work, you may want to look for a fitness center near your place of work so you are not tempted to go home first. You may have a space at home that you can dedicate to fitness. Whatever the case, you want to make the space one that is motivating and that you won’t be looking at piles of laundry or dirty dishes. If fitness is made a priority other things may have to wait to be done. We will talk more about this later in the post.

Other things to consider before jumping in would be real physical limitations or injuries.

• Will you need to adapt your fitness routine for your current health? You can always adjust it down the road. Don’t wait for perfection. Start where you are now and do what you can now.
• What stage of life are you in? Your stage of life will determine the timing of when and how often you will be able to find consistency with your routine.

Asking yourself these questions will help you set realistic expectations for yourself going into your new routine, so you can avoid setting yourself up for failure.

Establish your why

As important as accessing your fitness style is, it is equally important to establish your “Why”.

• What is most important to you?
• What do you stand to lose or miss out on if you do not get your health in order?
• What do you hope to gain from establishing a lifestyle of fitness?
• Why is this something you need to do?

Getting a grasp on the real motivation behind your fitness will help you follow your routine for longstanding results.

reorder your Schedule

Once you have settled on your fitness style and the “Why” behind your routine you will be able to look at your schedule with a new set of eyes. If your “Why” is big enough, you will be willing to do whatever it takes to fit your routine into your schedule. This will empower you to implement your fitness routine and stick with it because it won’t feel as daunting.

We will make time for whatever is most important to us.

Ask yourself these questions as you weigh your options.

• What can you afford to give up or take off your schedule to make room?
• What is a non-negotiable?
• What would you like to take off your schedule but feel powerless to do so?
• Are there things you could double up on and work into your routine?
• What do you have control over?

Your fitness routine HAS to be on the schedule. If it is not scheduled it will not happen.

Life can be busy and complicated, especially if you are raising a family. But if you do not choose to prioritize fitness now, it most likely will not happen later in life. There will always be other things that take precedence.

Map out a plan

Once you have reordered your schedule to line up with your priorities you will want to set a plan in place. If this plan is to stand the test of time you will need to consider the cost. There will be some give and take. Anytime we add something new into our lives it will detract from what is already a part of our lives. Now this sounds a bit negative, but it doesn’t have to be. As long as you are aware of this unwritten rule, you can plan accordingly.

Set your plan in place, but be prepared to readjust with different seasons.

Think flexibility.

Try looking at your plan with the mindset of what could work if I just set it in place. Sometimes we look at something we want to accomplish and talk ourselves out of it before we even start because we don’t see the possibilities. We only see the obstacles and are afraid we will fail. That being said, you will want to plan for disruptions because they will come.

You cannot fail if you keep moving forward.

prepare for roadblocks

If you are too rigid in your thinking you may be setting yourself up for discouragement. Plan ahead for distractions and set backs.

There will be things that get in the way.

Situations or events that are out of your control.

How will you handle them?

You will want to be mentally prepared for the roadblocks you may face along the way. Come up with a few possible roadblocks based on your life right now and create a solution for getting to the other side without getting completely off track. Setting this plan in place will help you avoid getting stuck behind a roadblock for long. Instead of being caught off guard, you will be ready for action.

It is important to guard against the “all or nothing” mentality.

Just because you miss a day or two of workouts doesn’t mean you need to throw the towel in on exercise. Or just because you have to divert from your routine for a week doesn’t mean you also give yourself permission to fall off the tracks with your nutrition. And if you did happen to fall off the rails with both fitness and nutrition one day doesn’t mean you can’t get back on track the next.

Remember, this is a lifestyle. All or nothing has no place here.

Give yourself grace and don’t stress about checking off the fitness boxes when life happens.

Like I said before, fitness should add to your quality of life not subtract from it.

create a pattern

It is impossible to create a fitness routine we will stick with if we keep reverting back to old ways. Breaking free of old patterns requires the creation of new ones. This may sound a bit counter productive. The way habits and patterns work in our daily lives was once described to me like this;

A Couple Illustrations

Have you ever seen a cow pasture? (Hang with me here, I’m not comparing anyone to cattle! This is strictly an illustration.) When the cattle are let out of the barn there is one well-worn pathway they will travel over and over again. Once those ruts or paths are in place it will take a new enticement to get them out of that rut. There will need to be something that sparks change. And that something will have to be consistently in place until the steps have adjusted over time to create a new path.

Another example is a two track road. For those who live in Northern Michigan you know how muddy and rutty these roads can get, especially this time of year. When driving these roads, there are deep ruts that are usually unavoidable. But again, overtime these ruts could be replaced with the introduction of a new way of driving.

It will take intentionality and mindfulness to break free of old patterns.

But it is possible!

Step One

Being mindful of old patterns that need to be replaced is the first step. Old patterns could be bad habits or even negative mindsets. Read more about the power of mindset over habits in another blog post. Once we recognize the specific ruts that we may be stuck in when it comes to fitness, we will be able to find the solutions.

Step Two

It is imperative to our success that the old patterns be REPLACED with new ones. You cannot just stop doing these things, you must replace them with a better option.

This is where mindset with either make or break you.

You must believe that the replacement is a better option or you will keep going back to the old ways. The new path will be hard, at first, but once a path is established it will be easier and the old path won’t seem as inviting as it used to. If you can create a fitness routine you love and stick to your plan, you will never regret the effort put into paving the new path. You may even look back one day and think, how could I have ever lived without fitness in my life?