Gym Consistency

If you have never worked out, or it has been many years since you have, then starting on your fitness journey can seem a bit intimidating. There are a lot of different possible routines out there, there is a lot of conflicting information out there. On top of that, you may be doing something that you have never done before. All of these things combined are working against you to start your new fitness routine.

You need to simply ignore all of these things as you begin. It simply doesn’t matter that you’ve never done a specific workout or used a specific piece of equipment before  - you are going to learn how. As you show up to your workout each and every day that you had planned, you’ll learn more about it. Similar to parenting, you learn as you go and as you become more confident in your abilities. You don’t need to know everything to start.

If you try to learn everything about your goal before you start it, you’d never start anything. While it’s important to learn and gain information about whatever you’re trying to accomplish, it shouldn’t be a gate to getting started and putting in the work to start. Too often we fail to show up to something because we’ve become too scared to even start it. Begin and keep at it as you gain your knowledge.

Consistency is the real key to success, whether it be in the gym or any other goal that you may have in life. Showing up should be your first priority, and then making your workout intense and to the best of your ability should come after. If you don’t show up in the first place, it doesn’t really matter that you know how to perform an exercise perfectly. Not being able to perform that exercise trumps the knowledge that you’ve gained.

Build a consistent routine of getting to the gym every single day that you had planned to do so. On days that you don’t feel like showing up, do it anyways. A poor quality workout is better than no workout at all. If you do have to skip a workout, don’t skip another workout. If you can make that workout up, then do so. In other words, a skipped workout should be planned in advance, not something you do because you simply don’t want to do it.

If you find that you struggle to either remember to work out, or to actually get to your workout when it comes time to do so, then you need to change some of your routines in advance. For example, if you workout in the morning, but don’t like to get up, then move your alarm across the room from your bed, and put your workout clothes right next to the alarm. You’re already up to turn the alarm off in the morning, so might as well get dressed now.

Set up other situations for yourself to make it easier to work out or to remember to workout. At night, you may have a lot of energy and say that you’re going to workout the next day. Use that energy to make it easier the next day to workout. By lowering the barriers to get your workout in, you’re much more likely to stick to it. Over time, this will become part of your daily routine, but at first you must work at it.

Consistently show up for your workouts - even on days where you are less motivated. The hardest part is getting started.