3 Habits to Get You Back Into the Gym

I train at home now.

It used to be in a gym.

I'm grateful that we have a garage that we aren't using for cars so all of our gym equipment can fit in there.

You may hear that and think that this makes it possible for me to workout as many times as I want, morning, lunch and dinner.

If anyone is a real human being, you know that this isn't always guaranteed.

Distractions abound as you get older. We have to get the kids up (or they wake us up) in the morning. We have to get them ready.

Then there's work.

Can I sneak in a workout at lunch time or will there be a meeting at that time?

Can I just workout after work? But the kids are out of school then. After school comes dinner, bed time routines and finally relief.

The couch is all too tempting. It takes massive willpower to go into the gym instead of sitting for the rest of the night.

It doesn't matter how much willpower you have, how motivated you are or how many motivational speeches you listen to, willpower drains through the day no matter what. Every little decision you have to make, no matter how small, drains it. So it makes sense that you feel a certain way at the end of your day if you don't live a completely stress-free day.

You aren't broken, but how do you fix this? Is there a way to fix motivation? Is there a way to increase willpower?

I don't think you need to worry about either of those things.

You still have motivation because you want something deep down. (Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.)

You still have willpower, but it's going to drain as the day goes on.

You just have to sidestep those things and add in 3 simple habits.

3 Habits That Keep You Stuck.

The solution for me has been working out in the morning.

Again, if you have more free time than I do and fewer responsibilities, or a gym you go to where the environment gives you a pick-me-up after work, don't change anything.

This is for the people who say they "don't have time" or are so drained at the end of the day that they can't move, even though they said they'd workout at night.

Morning workouts have helped me be more consistent. Mornings are more peaceful.

I recently listened to a Graham Cochrane podcast where he recommends 3 habits:

• Cut down social media use to 30 minutes per day (for getting time back, being more present and reducing negativity and comparison).

• Wake up and move your body (for getting more energy, confidence and sleep consistency).

• Journal (for mental relief and planning).

Let's think about the opposite of all of those.

Social Media Use

A lot of people are wasting their time on their phones, using social media as "entertainment." It's not usually thought of as that, but it's much worse. If you say you "don't have time to workout," then do me a favor. Go to your screen time and see how much time you spend on average on social media. Google says adults average 2.5 hours per day on it.

2.5 hours!

Aside from the actual time on there, what is that doing to your brain?

We scroll first thing in the morning (randomness, comparison, negativity). We scroll before bed (more of the same). Both of those times should be quiet and peaceful. We use it during "down" time, pulling us out of the current moment and giving us more randomness. (Your brain actually needs more real down time than you're giving it. It will thank you.) The opposite of scrolling is just reading a book.

I think social media is worse than entertainment. At least when you watch a show or a movie or play a video game you have to pay attention for 30 minutes or more.

Mornings

Now for the morning workouts. If you're reading this wondering how to get more time to workout, you're probably in a different season of life. I get it. You're not a college kid any more with endless free time and even more on the weekends, allowing you to stroll into the gym at your leisure at 10am. House responsibilities, kids, jobs, pets. They all drain you slowly through the day. Everyone's willpower drains, no matter how easy their schedule. If your schedule is busy, that drain happens faster.

So people will get mad at themselves and call themselves lazy because they can't seem to muster the energy to workout at the end of the night.

You're not lazy, you're just tired. There is a difference.

When does this not happen?

In the morning.

Imagine going on a hunt. People usually do so in the morning, and historically on an empty stomach. Your cortisol (stress hormone) levels peak, which is why you wake up in the first place. As long as you don't ruin your energy by scrolling, this is the peak time when your willpower battery is actually full.

There's a term called "eating the frog." The joke is that if you had to swallow a live frog (a small one so it's less gross) and eat yummy meal, you'd want to eat the frog first so that you get it out of the way. Then you're free to enjoy the meal without stressing out about the frog.

If you want to work out, which is your "frog" task AND you combine that with waking up in the morning, you'll start to be more consistent.

Journaling

Then we come to journaling…

"Huh?"

No, this isn't a "dear diary" type thing, although that will help.

Graham recommends 3 things:

• Write 10 things you're grateful for.

• Write what's bothering you.

• Write what you want from the future.

You don't need a notebook. You can just use the notes app, write those 3 things and delete it right after if you want.

But why do this in the first place?

I think people have a lot going through their heads that they don't make concrete with writing. Your ancestors had to write a lot (in cursive too!). They probably did that to write letters to people.

Writing things down allows you to see your thoughts in "physical" form. That way, your logical brain can see it and go "huh, I guess I do feel this way." Then you can use another part of your brain, the creative side, as a problem solver instead of a storage unit.

I've also found that your mind relaxes and you're more motivated when you have a plan around your workout.

Gratitude? Go for it. At the very least it puts you in a more positive state.

The other two points actual create your workout plan.

"Go to the gym" is great advice, but what do I do when I go there? What you don't like about yourself guides what you do want (the visualization of the future). If you keep doing this, you'll want to find better information to solve your problem and/or information that you'd normally ignore will stick out because it aligns to a goal you have.

3 Habits That Keep You Going

Adding in these 3 habits will start putting you on the path to more gym motivation and consistency.

But before we begin, entertainment is still a big trap. I'm not anti-entertainment. Go ahead and use it for an hour before bed. But the phone is worse (Do you scroll while watching TV? Stop doing that.)

I'll allow you to keep your entertainment in, as long as it's not keeping you up too late.

Now on to the main points.

Cut Down Social Media Time

• Go to your app limits and set an allowance of 30-60 minutes.

• To make this more practical, you need to intermittently "fast" from your phone. Don't use social media for as long as possible in the morning (maybe until lunch). Then don't use it again until work is over. Don't use it before bed (cut it off at 8pm, as an example). That way you won't have phone "leaks" through the day.

• You can get in all your social media time at night then be done with it when your time runs out. Go ahead and get some entertainment in before bed (cut it off at a decent hour). But if/when you get bored, you'll need a go-to alternative activity. We'll cover that later.

Wake Up and Work Out

• Get your clothes ready. Get your pre-workout nutrition ready. Get your workout plan ready. Set your alarm. Get out of bed and start before you talk yourself out of it. Then do your workout, no matter how short.

• Give yourself a good amount of time in the morning. Get up at least an hour before your regular responsibilities kick in. That way, if you have a slow time waking up one morning, you can still get a workout in and shower before the day starts.

• If you think you're too tired to workout or you "won't be as strong," that's fair. Are you already working out? No? Then don't worry about it.

• Besides, if you're wasting a lot of time at night, cut it out so you can invest it into the mornings instead.

Read, Journal, Plan

• Why reading? It calms your brain down before bed. It trains your attention span (the opposite of scrolling on your phone). If you have a goal, you can find books related to those goals. An alternative to this would be finding long-form educational YouTube videos, but books are more calm. You can read generic motivational books if you want. Anything is better than nothing, even fiction (this will help you fall asleep faster than any meds).

• Why journaling? You get to express some gratitude. You get to vomit out what's bothering you. You get to create a vision with the "what I want out of life" step. Then you can move on to step 3.

• Why planning? Because you don't want to go into the gym with randomness. If you go through the journaling step, you finally get to express what you really want out of life. That goal determines your plan. Then reading about different plans helps you form your own. The 3 steps merge into one wonderful cycle of self-education. Don't dismiss this.

The 5am Miracle

The time you wake up is subjective.

But it's not about the time.

It's about getting your habits in order to set you up to get back in the workout groove.

Early workouts force you to go to bed at a decent hour, be prepared for the next morning and finish the workout without wasting time.

Remember, if this message is resonating with you, you're not in a season of life where you can slowly stroll into your gym or workouts whenever you want. Your time is precious. If that's the case, cut off the nonsense activities you're doing at night and replace them with healthier ones.

If you do that, you've won the day before most people have even started theirs.

Go give these tips a try and thank me later.

Thanks for reading!

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