There is often tremendous inertia when someone wants to start exercising. Procrastination is often the main culprit. Hundreds of reasons suddenly appear that will seem more important than exercising. All one has to do is to exercise until one crosses the threshold. This is the point where the pain of not exercising is more than the pain of exercising. Once you have crossed this threshold, exercise would have been firmly ingrained as a habit. (Read “When The Pain of Not Exercising is More Than The Pain of Exercising” for more information)

Here are 9 steps that may help in getting you committed to exercise until it becomes second nature.

1 – Define Your Goal for Starting Exercise – Nothing could be more important than this first step. Possible reasons could include wanting weight loss, enhancing health, building muscles, increasing endurance, increasing fitness or other possible reasons. Once you have identified your goal, find out more information about exercises that will help you achieve that goal. For instance, someone wanting to reduce blood pressure will benefit tremendously from jogging but jogging alone will not help someone build muscles. Similarly, weight training may help someone build muscles but may not help another wanting to improve on stamina or endurance.

2 – Make an Investment – Making a financial commitment often helps keep you committed to exercise until the habit becomes deeply ingrained. An investment could be as simple as buying a set of dumbbells, a new pair of jogging shoes or even buying a treadmill or a new gym membership. The excitement of buying something and using it is often tremendous help in the early days of starting exercise when the inertia to begin, is the greatest.

3. Fix Exercise Time – You should fix your exercise time in advance. Decide on how many exercise sessions you would like to do in a week. 3 exercise sessions a week should be a minimum. Decide on the day of the week that you want to exercise. I would recommend Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Off course it ultimately depends on your schedule. Decide the exact time of the day that is allocated for your exercise sessions. Would you exercise early in the morning or in the evening when you get back from work. Once you have decided this, write it on a piece of paper and paste it on your refrigerator. This is now carved in stone and you should do all you can to keep to this schedule.

4. Get an Exercise Buddy – Pick an exercise buddy that has similar goals as you. Having an exercise buddy will keep both of you honest to yourselves. When one is slacking, the other would probably be available to bring the slacker back on track. You may not need to exercise together although exercising together would keep both parties even more accountable.

5. Exercise With your Exercise Buddy – Exercise or go to the gym with your exercise buddy. You can have more than one exercise buddy. This keeps a lot of people on track in the gyms. It also subtly adds competition as everyone is trying to outdo each other.

6. Get on a Structured Program – Most of the time people fall back on their exercise because they do not have a structured program to follow. Most people go to the gym and fool around on a few machines and are really aimless. One should decide what is the goal of the exercise initiative and have a plan drawn out for 4 to 8 weeks. With a little research, one could find a credible exercise program on the internet.

7. Record Exercises Done – Keep a log of the exercises done. Even the most experienced athletes do this. It instills a sense of competition in one’s self. There is that drive to lift more weight or run further or run faster in the next session.

8. Do NOT Miss Your Exercise Sessions – One has to overcome tremendous inertia when starting on an exercise program. It requires a lot of effort to build on the momentum. Every exercise session missed, works against you. As a rule, you should finish all exercises for the week before midnight on Sunday. If you have missed your exercise sessions, you should make up for it even if it means that you have to do 2 exercise sessions in a day. While this may not be optimal for your body, it is a good lesson for your brain and to ingrain the right habits. It will teach your brain that there is no point in coming up with excuses to miss exercise as you will have to finish it one way or another before Sunday midnight.

9. Keep Away From Demotivators – Be prepared to face friends and even relatives who would be uncomfortable with your need to exercise. People who do not exercise will discourage you. Often these people will be able to find a million excuses for you not to exercise. Keep yourself focused. Be upfront with them and tell them that its important for you and you will want to see it through until you achieve your goals. This may even be good as making such a declaration will keep you honest to yourself. If this does not succeed, as a last resort, keep away from these demotivators until you have the exercise habit firmly ingrained.

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Tags: exercise, procrastination, overcoming procrastination, exercise inertia, goals, gym buddy, Suresh’s Threshold, weight loss