Fitness is associated with intensive workouts, rigorous diets and total change of one's lifestyle. However, if you talk to people who managed to stay fit for many years, the story behind their success is quite different. It has nothing to do with intensity but is related to consistency: people develop habits that can go unnoticed.
It turns out that fitness requires less effort than it may seem.
Social networks always present transformation stories in a dramatic way. However, there are some parts of the process that are not worth being told: months of regular visits, low motivation and hard-to-see results. Those people who achieved some results did not do it because of the heroic effort. They managed to make lots of minor decisions that made their transformation possible.
A person who parks his/her car farther. A person who chooses stairs rather than a lift. A person who packs his/her gym clothes the night before. These actions are not noticeable individually but make routine work much easier.
Motivation has its limits. In fact, the process of making decisions and being stressed out and tired uses up all of your available willpower—which is why depending on the motivation only is doomed to failure by the third week. Habits don't need willpower at all because habits work in the background.
That's why the most successful fitness programs are based on eliminating frictions and not on adding discipline. When your equipment is ready, when your schedule is prepared, and when your gym is closed, then you've won the game without even having lifted the first dumbbell.
That's why the role of your environment is underestimated. If you're looking for the gym in Clyde North, proximity and convenience can't be overlooked—they can become either the way to create a new habit or just another excuse. Five minutes to your gym means that there's one less reason to skip the workout: "I didn't have time."
Motivation isn't a long-lasting driver when it comes to maintaining regular exercise, and the most effective routines don't rely upon motivation but rather follow an established system. Here's how that usually works:
1. Pick a time, not only a goal. "I will get fit" isn't very concrete. "I workout at 6:30 am, three days a week" is a system. By assigning a specific time for your routine, you eliminate having to negotiate with yourself on a daily basis.
2. Eliminate any space between you and the gym. It may be one of the most underestimated elements in consistency. An ideal Clyde North gym that is a part of your regular daily route—near your home, work or the kids' school run—will make you go there because you're already there, instead of waiting until later in the day.
3. Be flexible with your program. Life is rarely planned, and when an unexpected event arises, it tends to ruin whatever rigid schedule you had set out for yourself. For this reason, more and more people are opting for a 24/7 gym Clyde North solution, where exercise does not need to be planned to fit into scheduled times. An early bird, a late-night owl, or a person who fits in some exercise between picking up kids from school can all make use of such a gym.
4. Focus on effort, not perfection. Didn't get your exercise today? Not a problem; it is just Tuesday. Habit-based programming is less concerned about getting a perfect streak of days done than it is about consistent effort over a long period of time.
Not one of these behaviors is thrilling. There is no awe-inspiring before/after associated with "pack your bag the night before" or "pick a gym that’s only five minutes away." This is the beauty of it all. Fitness does not depend on intensity—it depends on repetition and consistency.
In a year, the person who exercises regularly three times a week and has not had a single "great" workout will surpass the person who chases after inspiration at random intervals.
Are you trying to create a long-term fitness regime? First things first, make the process simple rather than complex. Start out with the gym that is nearest and most accessible. Plan your workout routine in such a way that it takes into account your real life, not your ideal one. And if you value convenience, consider the 24-hour gym in Clyde North.
Habits might seem insignificant on any individual day, but when added up, they constitute the whole story of all those people who have remained fit in their lives without any major change at all.
