Having Trouble Sticking to an Exercise Program?
By: Amy J. Wall
Tags: Sports, Exercise, Health, Fitness, Lifestyle

Having Trouble Sticking to an Exercise Program?

Time to shift your thinking

Photo by John Arano on Unsplash

I’m sitting at my desk right now with a giant ice pack on my shin. Under the ice pack is a goose egg, with a bright-red, oozing cut going down the middle.

Just thirty minutes ago, I was riding downhill on my mountain bike and I took a spill into the dry Southern California brush. The pedal hit my leg as I landed in the bushes. When I looked down, I could see the bump rising on my shin.

While riding home, goose egg still growing, I suddenly remembered an incident that happened about twenty years ago.

I was on my first mountain biking outing with my husband. It was a regular trail, nothing too difficult, but at that point, I had not experienced trail riding with rocks, crevices, and the like.

Turning a corner, I hit a rock and fell off my bike. The pedal hit my leg and I ended up with a bump the size of a golf ball on my shin, much like today. That day, all those years back, I rode home, terrified to fall again and in pain from my injury.

From that day forward, I despised mountain biking. I couldn’t understand why anyone would participate in such a dangerous sport. That disdain lasted almost two decades.

Twenty-something years later, with two kids in tow, my husband suggested we go mountain biking. Finding activities for the kids is always a challenge, so I couldn’t say no. Plus, I knew we would be going on trails easy enough for kids, so I reluctantly agreed. I didn’t even have a mountain bike — it was a hybrid.

That first day back on the trail was a nail-biting experience. However, the one great thing about having kids is they force you to pretend everything is okay, even when it isn’t. That is what I did while I peddled in fear.

Of course, to start with we went on beginning trails. Listening to my husband explain to the kids how to ride over rocks and cracks in the dirt helped me. I learned alongside them without any of them knowing.

Watching my kids enjoying themselves mountain biking gave me a new perspective — that it could be fun to ride off-road with all the varied terrain and interesting landscapes. After five or six rides with them, my fear subsided, and I started enjoying myself.

As my daughters became more competent in the sport, I did as well.

Several years have gone by. I now have a proper mountain bike. We still ride as a family, but I also go out on my own, trying out new challenges, and achieving new skill levels. Sure, I’m here now with an ice pack on my leg. Will it stop me from going out again — no way.

So what is the difference between my experience today and twenty years ago? And what does this have to do with sticking to an exercise program?

This story is an example of one of the reasons it can be difficult to maintain an activity. To stick with it, the experience needs to be enjoyable — something you look forward to doing several times per week for years.

In my experience with mountain biking, it wasn’t fun because when I started, I was in over my head. I didn’t have the skills or knowledge to ride over rocks and down steep, scary hills. This was further complicated by having a negative experience (injuring myself).

Exercise adherence is a fickle thing. Getting our lifestyle programmed to continue an activity on a regular basis takes a strong desire to start, positive experiences, and consistency long enough to make it a long term habit.

Create Positive Experiences

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Sheltering in place has given us a rare opportunity to pursue new hobbies and activities. If you always hated going for walks or even running, it might be a great time to try it out again. I was never a fan of cooking, but since my life outside the home has been restricted, cooking has become the highlight of my day.

As I’ve become better at cooking more complicated meals, I get more satisfaction from it. The same applies to exercise. Now is a perfect time to jump off screens for a half-hour a day and pursue a new activity.

We know exercise enjoyment helps with long term adherence; however, developing a healthy relationship with exercise isn’t always romantic. It isn’t always that image we have in our heads of frolicking in the waves or hitting that zone in running that gives you a runner’s high. I like to think of it more like a happy marriage. There is romance at times, but also toothpaste blobs in the sink and toilet rolls that don’t get replaced.

Some forms of exercise are not always fun right away. Running is a good example of this. I hear many people claim to hate it. Personally, I didn’t like running until I stuck with it long enough to gain enough fitness that it felt good. I’ve been doing it now for 28 years and I can’t imagine living without it.

I didn’t particularly enjoy weightlifting when I started either. I had to give it a chance over several months until the fitness and competency kicked in before I really started to find it satisfying.

Get Rid of Negative Thoughts

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Sometimes our history and relationship with exercise can be influenced by holding on to negative thoughts. These thoughts are often about our ability, or even from having a bad experience that lingers in the back of our minds. That is what happened to me with mountain biking. I initially decided the sport was too scary and I hated it.

As with many hurdles in life, it is helpful to reflect on our negative belief systems — things like, “it’s too hard,” or “I can’t do this.” These beliefs prevent us from fully embracing and enjoying what we are doing. Negative thoughts also impact our competency. Those belief systems will need to be replaced with, “I can do this,” or “I am getting stronger.”

When you notice negative thoughts arise, it is also helpful to remind yourself of the positive aspects of what you are doing, like listening to the sounds of birds, the fresh air, and the feeling of movement. Over time, by addressing and changing these thoughts, your relationship with activity will take on a more positive spin.

The great thing about movement is it naturally produces happy hormones (endorphins) that can assist you in feeling more positive about what you are doing. These endorphins will also help with rough times in our overall lives — like the many difficulties we are currently facing with COVID-19.

Create a Habit

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The only way to achieve results from an exercise program is to be consistent. Our bodies operate on the principle of adaptation. When we stress parts of the body, like muscles or the heart, it temporarily weakens it. When it repairs, it is done in a way to make it stronger.

Building muscle is expensive from an adaptation perspective. Your body doesn’t want to shift resources (energy) to build a muscle that needs to be maintained with more energy if it only happens once in a while. This is why it is important to exercise regularly.

Making exercise a habit is important for long term success.

If I go about my day without a plan to exercise, it is easy for the day to get away from me. The best way to prevent that from happening is to make a ritual for the activities I want to do daily, like doing it at the same time every day.

Since I know I am going to work out at 2:00, I try to get the largest chunk of work done before that time. I’ve noticed having that daily break makes me more productive before 2:00. When I finish exercising, more blood has been moving around my body and it helps me feel more alert and more productive when I get back to work.

Doing it at the same time every day or even creating a sort of ritual that includes exercise means our bodies and minds have to think less about making a decision, instead it works on autopilot.

When exercise becomes a habit, and it becomes a long-term commitment, it leads to better results. Seeing results leads to more motivation. And so starts the positive feedback loop.

Gauge Intensity

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My first mountain biking experience was on a trail above my level. This led to frustration and discouragement, and ultimately me quitting the sport.

When I took several steps back, doing trails easy enough for kids, I was confident about my ability, which made the experience positive. Over time I stuck with it.

It is common to start an exercise program that is too advanced. When starting a program, enthusiasm is at a high peak. It is easy to allow that enthusiasm to dive into a program above your current fitness level. We often don’t want to accept where we are in our fitness journeys, believing we are more advanced than we really are. Starting off slow, even when excited to jump in, is imperative. Patience is an important exercise virtue.

Avoiding making this mistake is crucial to long term success. It is better to walk every day for 10 years than start a running program that only lasts a few months.

Get Social Support

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Having other friends or family members participate in an activity can make it easier to stick to a program. Being accountable to another person means you are more likely to schedule exercise sessions and actually do them. It helps on the days where you don’t feel motivated, but don’t want to let another person down.

Our current environment is making this challenging for many people since meeting up with others isn’t advised. If you don’t have anyone in your inner circle who can join you in an activity, there are other options. Sending texts or calling friends can have the same accountability. One of my close friends and I plan walks at the same time, and talk on the phone while we hit the trails. There are also apps, like Strava in the running world, that tap into the social side of running.

If you do have a friend who can meet with you in person, beware of being pushed too hard. If your friend is more advanced than you, outline your expectations. My husband, who is more advanced in mountain biking, only goes with me when he wants to ride easy, or just wants to go out and have fun with me, but not for an intense workout.

Closing Thoughts

Mountain biking is a new sport for me. I love other sports as well and have been doing many of them for decades. It may sound like I’m one of those workout-freaks, but I don’t think I am different than most people. I’ve merely been able to tap into something I think many of us have inside of us — the love of movement. We are born to move. Somehow, we train ourselves out of it. The key is to push past the inertia of inactivity and get that ball rolling again.

When enjoyment becomes your main reason for exercising, your focus changes from making it a “have-to” to a “want-to.” Learning to love it comes with many positive side effects — like a strong heart, lean muscles, lower cholesterol, better mental health, improved coping skills, and many others.

We all know exercise is something we should do. Starting a program can be a challenge, but sticking with it can be even more challenging, especially if it isn’t enjoyable.

Making it fun and easy to achieve is one of the best ways to keep motivation strong over a long time period.