Ready For a Fitness Routine You Can Stick With?
At this time of year, I have twice as many excuses not to exercise as I have jog bras. I want to linger in my warm bed a little longer on chilly mornings. The darkness comes too early at the end of each day. Plus, that looongholiday break seriously upended my daily routine. Got a few you’d like to add?
The struggle is real, agrees fitness trainer Kayla Itsines, creator of the BBG high-intensity circuit workout program, who hears it from her nearly 12 million Instagram followers and workout devotees. “Falling out of routine and losing motivation can be especially easy in winter,” she says. To stick with exercise, make it a habit instead of relying on motivation. The distinction, as Itsines sees it, is that motivation changes over time, but a habit will never let you down. “Habits help you push forward even when you have low motivation,” she says.
Getting to a point where working out is as mindless as combing your hair can take about two months, says Sandy Joy Weston, MEd, an exercise physiologist and the author of My 30-Day Reset Journal ($13; amazon.com). The secret is repetition plus consistent timing and cues, she says. Here’s why: The brain creates neuronal connections when you do something, and with each repetition, the connections get stronger and the action takes less effort.
Excerpted from Real Simple
