Hey,

How is your day going - hope you are doing all you can to stay safe and healthy ?

The current predicament our world is facing is really worrisome - everyone is probably in their homes for longer than they normally would

To pass time, it is normal to want to be productive and build useful habits - for me, I decided to get back to my workout routine like a prodigal son coming back to his father

This time, it was different.

I picked up a few things that ensured I was able to exercise at least five times a week - normally, I would give up after DAY 1 and try to justify my excessive sleeping and unhealthy consolation diet (these were days of back to back Pepsi and Junk food)

Before I go ahead, you should understand that exercise is never enough - proper diet is important, as well as a stable mind

Now, allow me to share what helped me and could probably help you - this was how I got my workout routines to stick !

1. The 2-Day Rule

I learnt this from a YouTuber. Here's how it works. For any habit/routine, make it an obligation to not go two days without observing it.

Let's say Bola chooses to exercise more often. She can start on a Monday, skip exercising on a Tuesday but knows she has to do something on a Wednesday

This simply means you are allowed to take a maximum of a one day break - of course, this is flexible. You can choose to take a two or three days break - just make sure you get it done AFTER

The essence of this is to put you in control of your routine, and not feel heavily tied to it - if you exercise once in a week, in a month that is about four times you would have worked out

Better than starting out struggling to keep up with exercising daily and abandoning everything when you can't keep up.

This really helped me. I started with exercising 3x a week (max) and with time the number increased.

2. The Ultimate Goal

The sole purpose of working out is to stay fit, the aesthetics - bulging muscles, chiseled abs, fuller buttocks are always secondary

Many people make the mistake of placing body building first before staying fit - I used to be those people

Until, I realised things were easier if I thought of staying fit first before worrying about body goals.

Except you are a body builder in view or actor preparing for a body-transforming role, stop stressing on your flaws !

One day I asked myself if I would keep exercising if it had no muscle gaining benefits and just helped me stay fit - my answer surprisingly was NO

Do not habitually check scales or mirrors if you are starting out - they will always haunt you and remind you why you should throw the towel

Get yourself familiarized with the ultimate goal of exercising - and work with that !

3. No Equipments

I see people think of exercising and immediately picture a dumbbell or gym

The problem with starting an exercise routine in a gym or with equipments is that it makes you handicapped

Imagine you have been exercising only in gyms or with equipments - with the rise of the global lockdown, there would be a lot to take in

...What home workout plan is best for me ?
...How will I exercise using just my body and nothing else ?

You need to get used to traditional push ups, leg raises, crunches, dips etc. This widens your options and will help in sticking to that workout routine

Plus, having gym membership sometimes exposes you to certain people - the kind that will just come to gyms with the intention of establishing dominance and flexing muscles

4. Form Is Everything

Stop converting every kind of exercise to a contest.

One of the reasons I kept quitting my routines was because I strongly believed in repetitions - back then if I could not do 20 pushups, I would break down and consider myself lazy

Now, I know that exercising is not about the number of squats you can pull off - but how well done and balanced it is

Ten slow and solid pushups are better than a hasty uncontrolled fourty - you are not proving anything to anyone !

5. Right Thing At The Right Time

This may be the most important point, how well a routine sticks depends on how frequent it is observed

The main reason I have been consistent with my workout regimen is because I have more than enough time for it - back in school, it was near impossible

Take a moment to figure out your least active timeline - for me, this is usually very early in the morning where I have no engagement or distraction

Yours may be later in the day, just find out that time period

6. BONUS TIP

There is more to say, but I do not want to bombard you with so much information - it is not about how much you KNOW, but how much you can APPLY

As a final tip, whenever you cannot keep up with a workout routine - do not break down or blame yourself

This will not be a good time to check that belly or look at that arm either. It is okay to forget a day or not have the strength to keep up

When you get to this point, you may want to cut down your exercises to a few on those slow tiring days

If you do not have a routine worked out already, spend some time doing your homework - start with the basics (pushups, crunches, squats etc) before you go for the very complex

Breathe and relax !


Thank you for reading this far, I hope this sets the right momentum you may need to sticking to your workout routines and any other routine at all



Air hugs,
Emmanuel