In part 1, you found out how forming habits can make doing your training as easy as eating banana bread with your coffee! Here in part 2 are some tricks to make bedding down those new habits a whole lot easier.

1) Train with a friend
You don’t want to be that flaky friend who is late, cancels at the last minute or no-shows. That really sucks. You want to be the good friend who is reliable and always there for your mates. So go training and be the good friend!

2) Be accountable
These strategies are not for everyone and not for all the time.  Sometimes they really helped me, but at other times I much prefer to enjoy the process, go by feel and not be pressured.  If you like a bit more structure and thrive with little pressure then give these a try:
• Make goals, track your progress and achieve them. Progress towards you goals (or not) is objective measurement – encouragement or a reality check to get back on track.  Just keep them realistic because overly ambitious goals that you don’t achieve can backfire and be demotivating.
• Tell other people your goals.  In conversations, on Facebook, even in an email.  Let friends and family know.  If you fall off the wagon, it’s embarrassing and awkward fielding questions about it, so extra incentive to stick to your plans.
• Keep a training diary. There’s nothing nice about looking back at the week’s training diary and seeing a big, white page of blank staring back at you. But if you kicked butt that week, it feels great to review your handywork. That diary is there for the year (or more) so there’s no escaping it!

3) Make it fun
Training that’s as fun as a tooth extraction won’t last long enough to be a habit. Try to enjoy it. Train with a friend or a club, try new exercises, train in beautiful spots, challenge yourself to do personal bests when you feel good or have an easier session if you’re tired. If training isn’t enjoyable at least some of, and hopefully a lot of the time, then you’re either not training right or you’re in the wrong sport.

4) 5min rule
Despite the best of intentions, sometimes training time comes and we just ‘don’t wanna’. I heard a quote: “what has ‘not feeling like it’ got to do with anything?”. In many cases that’s great advice. But sometimes your body is trying to tell you something – maybe you’re tired because you’re fighting a bug, overdoing it, or stressed out. Make a deal with yourself to train for 5mins anyway. If you still feel bad after 5mins, take a rest day and you’ll come back rejuvenated next time (make changes if this happens often though). Most times, after 5mins, the endorphins will kick in, you’ll start feeling better and will end up doing the session anyway.