Progress in fitness (and everything) is all about consistency.  I’m stating the obvious, right!?  But it’s not in the knowing, it’s in the doing.  Thankfully, being consistent is easy if you harness the power of habits.

We all (unfortunately) know some habits are easy to form – Friday night drinks for example, or banana bread with your morning coffee.  Once formed they’re really tough to break!  Every time the trigger comes around (Friday night or buying your morning coffee), you can be tipsy or chowing down banana bread before you even know what you’re doing.  And if you do think about it, there’s always an easy excuse – it’s ok because it’s your special treat, you’ll stop next week, and so on.  Habits are a bummer, right?  Wrong…

Here’s why – you can change bad habits and choose new habits which you actually want.  Brushing your teeth is boring but you do it every day without thinking because it’s a habit.  Making a habit of your training is powerful, and this should help you do it.

1) Eliminate decision making

• Make a training plan and complete every session (make a habit of it).  Don’t be too ambitious.  If you plan too many sessions or they are too hard, you won’t finish them (or sometimes even start!), and once you miss a session or two, it’s a slippery slope to missing more.  If it’s achievable, you’ll make a habit of completing sessions.
• Have a similar training structure each week.  Plan similar sessions for the same day, time and location each week.  Then it becomes automatic.  Instead of, “Gee, what’s on my program today, I don’t know if I feel like cycling”, you think “it’s Tuesday morning, I leave for my hills ride at 6”.  In the latter statement, there is no doubt, no decisions to make.  It’s just what you do.  Of course, if you’re getting bored in your training then you need to change things up, but that’s a story for another day!

2) Remove barriers

The early stages of new, healthy habits can be hard.  So make it as easy as you can.  Think of any possible barriers and remove them before crunch time.

Imagine the alarm goes off for your first morning training and you lie in bed wondering what to have for breakfast, what to wear, where is your water bottle, where to run, etc etc.  Sounds way too hard!

Don’t put yourself in that position.  The night before, lay out all your clothes and gear, get breakfast ready, know your training session, and deal with any other barriers you can think of.  Getting out of bed is hard enough, so be kind to yourself, get organised, and make getting up the hardest thing you have to do.

3) Link a positive reward

That was awesome, you did a great session!  Don’t just shrug it off, acknowledge it.  Linking something positive with your new habit (the exercise session) makes you feel good and you’re more likely to continue.  It needn’t take time or money (though it can if you want).  You could sit on the grass where you finished and take a slow, deep calming breath while feeling grateful for your efforts.  Or you could play your favourite song while you get changed afterwards.   Anything that makes you feel good and you can do immediately after the session.

As Aristotle said, ‘We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.’  Make a do-able training plan and stick to it each week.  Knock over the barriers before they get in your way, and soak up your positive reward.  You’ll finish your session before you know it, and with consistent effort comes consistent results.  Go for it!