After the New Years frenzy of setting fitness goals to lose weight etc. most people’s workout routines start to disintegrate by March. This is because “new year new me” motivation is fleeting and has no impact on long term goals. There are so many studies and books about how motivation isn’t sustainable and is actually not necessary or useful in creating healthy Habits. What is, however, is consistency, discipline and weaving good habits into your life through different points of connection.
How To Stay Consistent With Working Out In 2024
Here’s our list of 5 things you can do right now to stay consistent towards your fitness goals in 2024. Need some SMART fitness goals? Read our blog on 4 fitness goals you should set for 2024.
Workout At The Same Time Everyday
Schedule your fitness routine at the same time every day. Choose a time that works best for you and block your calendar. If you want to wake up a little earlier to workout, make sure you give yourself a bed time. Generally, people who train in the mornings are always the most consistent. Over time, this set time will change depending on your job, life, etc. Remember to be flexible, but consistent. Try to stick to your same time as much as possible, but be okay with changing it here and there as things come up.
Why Should You Workout At The Same Time Everyday?
Working out at the same time every day is habit forming. If you have a narrow window of time in your day to schedule your workout, allow the pressure of “I have to do this now or else it won’t happen today” aid your consistency. You’ll notice your workout routine will start to feel like clockwork.
Write Your Goals Down
Write your goals down, write down weekly updates (ie. you worked out 3 days last week and hit your protein goals x amount of days), and share them with your friends and people who support you.
Why Is It Important To Write Your Fitness Goals?
Writing down your goals creates accountability for yourself and accountability to others. Not to mention, if you decide to write your goals down daily, your goals start to creep into your subconscious mind, which is a great thing! Writing your goals down can give you clarity and help you reverse engineer the goal, meaning if you write down your main goal, you can work backwards and identify small steps to get you there. Most importantly, writing your goals down helps you celebrate when you get there!
Find Support
This doesn’t have to be a gym partner per se, but surround yourself with people who support your fitness and health efforts rather than discourage you. So often, close friends and family can be judgy or try to derail our fitness goals by pressuring you to do things that aren’t in alignment with your goals. For instance, your friends that want you to go out drinking with them all night.
The biggest mindset shift to deal with pressure from loved ones who aren’t supporting your goals is to use the language “ I WANT/ DON’T WANT” vs “I CAN/I CAN’T”. Having choice in the matter empowers you and gives you autonomy.
If you don’t have anyone in your life with similar fitness and healthy lifestyle goals, find community at your gym. You can even work part time at a gym to be in an environment with like-minded people. However, we suggest that you don’t find a single gym buddy, but spread your gym friendships out to multiple people. This way, you’re ensuring your external motivation doesn’t fall on one person and their ability to show up.
If you need an online fitness community, you’re covered. Our Facebook group is awesome, active, and EVERYONE is welcome.
Why Should You Have Supporters When It Comes To Fitness?
Teamwork makes the dreamwork. When you have a network of people who support your goals, it creates beneficial feelings of being socially fulfilled, while creating external accountability for your goals.
Get On A Solid Training Plan
Having a solid training plan/program is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing that you can do to create consistency around fitness, period. Having a solid training plan means you have some sort of external accountability with a coach, and you’re on the right track towards seeing real progress and momentum towards your fitness goals with progressive overload. Not to mention, having a solid plan takes the guess away. You go to the gym, do your moves. and get out. Or stay at home and work out. Either way, you have an exact game plan of what you need to do.
Why Is A Training Plan Important?
Having a training plan is important in creating consistency, learning what’s best for your body, and is a long term investment towards fitness. Hiring the right trainer is an investment too – a good coach makes all the difference. And, a good coach will teach you proper form for the 8 foundational movement patterns, which will bring nothing but benefits down the road.
Don’t Set Stupid Goals
Goals should be attainable. Not unrealistic. Unrealistic goals are usually weight loss or muscle gain goals because they are hard to measure and you can’t really track your progress the way you can with actual SMART goals.
Final Thoughts On How To Stay Consistent With Working Out In 2024
Depending on the day, motivation may come, it may not. Bottom line, motivation should never dictate your consistency. Instead, try to build habits around staying accountable to yourself, such as setting a time for your workouts, writing your goals down, etc. And it’s equally important to incorporate outside support to keep you going, such as having a community of support or working with a trainer.
Want to learn more? Listen to the Stronger Than Your Boyfriend Podcast – Episode 147: 5 Ways to Stay Consistent in 2024
