How to make exercise a habit by choosing the right activity

When you are just starting to exercise or just increasing the amount of physical activity in your daily life, it is almost always perceived with enthusiasm. You can immediately buy a subscription to the fitness room, make a training schedule, tell your friends about your plans, as you are sure that now you will definitely monitor your health. Now remember how quickly your interest fades, and its place is taken by the desire to return to the usual way of life.

The first thing that comes to mind is the verdict that you lack willpower or self—discipline. But often the problem lies not so much in this, but in your incorrect approach to the very choice of physical activity. If you define an activity without focusing on yourself, your needs, desires, and habits, it will be much more difficult for you to adhere to the designated schedule. We have compiled several rules by which you can choose for yourself the type of physical activity that you won’t get tired of in a month or two.

6 Ways to make exercise a habit by choosing the right activity

1. Focus on pleasure, not just benefit

You should not blindly make a choice in favor of the physical activity that can bring you the desired result in the shortest possible time. More precisely, to make this criterion the only defining one. If at the same time you don’t like the activity itself or, even worse, it causes you rejection or irritation, you won’t last long. Your psyche will quickly begin to resist the very idea of going to training, as it will be perceived as a heavy duty. It is better to look for the kind of physical activity that can bring you pleasure in itself. It’s about the feeling that you enjoy the process; you don’t have to constantly overcome yourself, endure irritation and use willpower. That is, if you like to walk briskly with your favorite music on your headphones, you shouldn’t force yourself to run or ride a bike.

2. Try different formats; don’t overload yourself from the very beginning

You can demand maximum involvement in one particular type of physical activity from the very beginning. Visit. A F R I N I K . C O M . For the full article. This attitude manifests itself like this: you buy an expensive gym membership, set a strict schedule, perform exercises under the guidance of a coach, and, of course, quickly face emotional and physical burnout.

Remember, if you’re just starting to change your lifestyle, you don’t need to immediately determine what you’re going to do. Try different physical activities and their different formats to understand which of them you like. For example, it may turn out that working out at the gym is not for you, that classes at home or outdoors are more suitable for you, that you feel more comfortable being in a group, or that you have always been attracted to martial arts rather than a rocking chair. There are many options for what new things you can learn about your preferences if you give yourself time to try different things.

3. Choose the activity according to your character, and not according to other people’s expectations

Everyone is different: someone feels uncomfortable in the gym, and someone, on the contrary, loses motivation doing sports alone, and so on. Therefore, it is extremely important to choose physical activity not according to its popularity or the advice of others, but according to your own needs and desires.
Be sure to take into account the peculiarities of your character. If you are a calm person who does not particularly like to communicate with anyone, swimming, walking, cycling, classes at home, or individual workouts may be suitable for you. If interaction with other people is important to you, you want to feel excitement, to compete, then you may give preference to team sports, activities with a competitive spirit. In general, choose activities that match your temperament, and then you won’t have to overcome yourself over and over again.

4. Don’t make the result your only motivation

You can start increasing your physical activity solely in order to get an external result: lose weight, make your body more prominent, and get closer to the desired image. But you’re driving yourself into a dangerous trap. The fact is that the visible result does not appear immediately. For a while, you will have to fight with yourself, force yourself to study, while using a huge amount of internal resources. Moreover, when the changes do become visible, you quickly get used to them and stop drawing motivation from them. If suddenly your progress slows down, your interest in classes will decrease dramatically, and you risk returning to your previous lifestyle.

You should not perceive physical activity only as a tool to achieve the desired appearance. In this case, playing sports will become a heavy duty for you without any positive aspects. Identify for yourself other reasons why you spend your time on this activity: for example, it helps you reduce anxiety and stress, emotionally relieves, improves mood, increases energy levels, and so on.

5. Pay attention to your condition after classes

It is useful to evaluate not only your condition during the activity itself, but also how you feel after finishing your workout. Sometimes, even if the process itself seems effective to you, you return home emotionally and physically exhausted, feeling empty, unable to find the strength even for the simplest tasks. If this feeling is not new to you and you are constantly confronted with irritation or even inner disgust at what you are doing, it will be extremely difficult to maintain a training schedule in the long run. Physical activity that is really suitable for you leaves behind a feeling of vivacity or at least pleasant fatigue, but certainly not total impotence. You feel that in the process you have emotionally relieved yourself, relieved the accumulated stress. So choose for yourself the kind of activity that will support you and energize you, and not the other way around.

6. Keep track of changes in your needs and adjust your physical activity to them

Do not think that after you try different types of physical activity and select the most suitable one for yourself, you will need to stick to it always. Your needs and desires may change over time. What pleased you and suited your lifestyle six months ago may now lose its relevance or even begin to cause you rejection. Due to a move, a decrease in energy levels, a state of health or workload, you may want to switch to another activity, and this is absolutely normal.

Do not perceive a change in the format or type of physical activity as a manifestation of weakness or your inconstancy. If you start berating yourself or continue doing the same thing as before, overcoming internal resistance, it will not lead to anything good. You risk running out of energy and removing sports from your life altogether. In order not to bring the situation to this, try to be flexible: try something else, combine several activities, take pauses.