New Study: Here’s how to really make exercise a habit
/New study shows the best way to instill exercise as a real habit in your life · Study published in journal, Health Psychology. Researchers found most consistent exercisers made exercise into a specific type of habit. Usually one triggered by a cue like hearing the morning alarm, going to the gym without even thinking about it or getting stressed and immediately deciding to exercise · Scientists wanted to see whether this type of habit known as instigation habit was better than another type of habit, when it comes to predicting who stuck with a month of exercise ·
Study:
- Month-long study
- 123 university students
- Faculty questions assessed how often they exercised and how strong their exercise habits were and whether they did it without thinking
From the results of these questions, scientists decided whether a person had a strong instigation habit —one where a cue triggers the instantaneous decision to exercise and whether a person has a strong execution habit.
Execution habit: Knowing what kind of exercise they’ll do once at the gym or being able to go through the motions of an exercise routine while being mentally checked out
The ONLY factor that predicted how often a person exercised over the long-term was the strength of their instigation habit. Study author said “Exercise shouldn’t be something to deliberate over, or constantly consider the pros and cons of going to the gym after work.