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Five Secrets for Steadier Workouts
The Wall Street Journal.
Here are some habits of those who exercise frequently that just might help your members:
1. They work out at the same time most days.
A study published in April in the British Journal of Health Psychology examined 181 people who exercised an average of 300 minutes a week—twice the federally recommended minimum.
Most of those people picked a regular time to work out and stuck with it.
2. They have a streamlined pre-exercise routine with visual cues.
In another study published in 2017 and led by Dr. Kaushal, new gym members were asked to create cues to prompt them to exercise. A cue might be running clothes, shoes and headphones laid out on a dresser. The plan is that when a runner wakes up, he sees the cues, dresses and dashes out the door.
3. They’re more flexible than infrequent exercisers about how long or vigorously they exercise. When you’re more flexible, you’re able to shift your position, your stance, do something less. It removes the psychological punishment of ‘Oh, I failed.’
4. They’re more likely to exercise for pleasure than for weight loss or other long-term health goals. People who chose an exercise for enjoyment completed an average of 29 reps, compared with 19 reps for those who chose the exercise they thought would help them with health goals.
