Protect Your New Workout Routine From Your Old ‘UnFit’ Routine

Is your new Workout Routine being sabotaged by your old routines?

Okay so you’ve decided, again, that you are absolutely, definitely, without a doubt, going to begin your workout program tomorrow morning. If you are anything like me, you have said this to yourself on several (dozen) occasions, only to let days slip by without being able to tweak your routine enough to make it happen. Or you started with lots of enthusiasm on days 1 and 2, a little less on day 3, and by day 4 your old routine is starting to swallow up your workout time again.

Routines are like well worn paths on a dirt road; your car’s tires are nestled nicely inside and practically steer themselves. On some days it can feel like the effort it takes to wear a new set of tracks is more than you can summon. The good news is that the effort only needs to be applied for about 21 days before it begins to feel as comfortable as your old routine did. The bad news is that when you’ve yet to make it to day 6, day 21 feels like a very distant goal. The problem here: having an option.

When I went back to university, I learned that my college had begun recording and broadcasting a selection of courses over cable television. You could simply record your classes and watch them at your leisure, presenting yourself on campus for exams and to hand in assignments. I promptly signed up for as many of them as I could fit into my degree program. They were perfect; I could do the work whenever it was convenient and it didn’t interrupt my regular routine (which included full-time work). I would just fit them in and around what I already had scheduled and my life would be blissful and balanced.

Of course that was until midterm exams were a week and a half away and I had accumulated a hefty collection of videocassettes, containing over two thirds of the class material covered to this point (say nothing of the readings I had not yet gotten around to fitting in). After that cruel week leading up to midterms, I had learned a valuable lesson. The following semester I took only live courses, at seemingly inconvenient times, and achieved the balanced schedule I was looking for.

My original idealistic plan had one simple flaw: it didn’t account for the strength of my already existing routine. At any given moment, I needed to know that now, and only now, was the time in which I could attend my lecture or seminar. Having the opportunity to “do it when it was convenient” ensured that I would never get around to doing it. My old routine would creep back in like a collection of weeds, eventually suffocating my new routine. The same can be said for working out.

Make Your New Workout Routine a Success By Booking a Course of Sessions With a Personal Trainer or Take a Fitness Class

Make Your New Workout Routine a Success By Booking a Course of Sessions With a Personal Trainer or Take a Fitness Class

If your routine has developed into one in which you have no fitness program and you suddenly decide that today is the day for change, you may find yourself struggling against the current of your existing habits. If in any given moment you are able to choose to “do it when it’s convenient” it’s likely that you just won’t get to it at all. So do what I did in university: take the choice away; sign up for a class or two that you have to attend at specific times or book a series of sessions with a personal trainer.

There are also a number of options other than the typical gym classes, which can be costly if you aren’t already a gym member. You can sign up to learn to swing dance, take martial arts lessons, learn bellydancing, join a community volleyball team, learn figure-skating, get certified as a lifeguard… The list goes on and on.

Most options out there are very affordable and many are available at local community centers near your home (call them for a catalogue). Best of all, when it’s class time, you can’t put it off; it’s now or not at all.

After a few weeks of meeting with a personal trainer or taking a class, you will have learned something new and you will have developed the habit of working out at regular intervals. When your session or classes  are over, you can sign up for another set, or, having now built up the momentum of this new routine, you can simply insert your favorite workouts into the now-empty time slots and glide easily into the next phase of your workout program.

This can also be useful when you need to revive your commitment to an existing workout routine that is getting crowded out by new demands and protect it from vanishing amidst a flood of intrusions. After all, your desired routine can only provide you with those fast results if it takes hold, and the easiest way to make sure procrastination and inertia don’t creep into your new routine is to simply pluck them right out of the equation.