The Secret To Getting To The Gym
/You know the feeling, you just cannot bring yourself to get to the gym or start your workout when the 5 a.m. alarm goes off. We talked about a recent study that showed 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.
The ONLY factor that predicted how often a person exercised over the long-term was the strength of their instigation habit. Exercise shouldn’t be something to deliberate over, or constantly consider the pros and cons of going to the gym after work.
Moderate exercise tends to win. There's a place for low and high intensity workouts but keeping a consistent moderate workout routine helps to keep the routine.
It's really mental! Here are some tips for ensuring you get to the gym:
- Be aware of your emotions and how they trigger you. Instead of judging them, shift back into focusing on your goal despite your feelings.
- Make it your identity to be the person who goes to the gym even when you don’t want to.
- Decide that fitness and health are two of your core values.
- Make specific goals to get you out of bed and exercising (so you have a step-by-step roadmap to follow).
Moderate Exercise Tips:
1. Change it up: Variation yields great results. It's good to embrace high-intensity workouts, just not every single day. By changing it up, you'll confuse your body and that's a good thing.
2. Burn more fat. Slower cardio workouts train your body to use fat as fuel, hence burning it.
3. Increased energy: Easier paced workouts develop cardiovascular strength, making the heart, lungs and respiratory system more powerful. It also increases the number and size of mitochondria, which are tiny power plants in your cells. The more you have the more energetic you'll feel.
4. Moderate exercise equals no post-workout hunger: When you go all-in, 100% intensity in a workout, there's a tendency to compensate for those extra calories burned. Eating unhealthy foods after a workout will completely negate all of the benefits. Some studies show that moderate exercise leaves you feeling less hungry afterwards and less likely to consume a fatty meal.
We already know exercise can promote deeper sleep, which allows you to wake up rested and refreshed, giving you more energy for the following day’s work and workout. We understand you are tired, but if you are still tossing and turning at night – your body may not be tired enough. Expending more energy throughout your day, through whatever type of exercise that works best for you can help put an end to this. Here are some ways to use exercise to get better sleep.
1. Increase your cardio:
Cardio, or aerobic exercise, is the kind of exercise that gets your heart going and increases your breathing rate. Cardio includes, running, biking, and swimming. Cardio has been shown to clear stress hormones, relieve anxiety and positively affect sleep. The body compensates for the physical exertion of a cardio workout by spending more time in deeper, and sounder sleep to recover.
2. Exercise after work:
Clearly this is the most difficult time of the day to get motivated, after an early rise and a whole day at work. Exercising at this time however, can give you a surge of energy during a time you would typically be most lazy and use up unspent energy to get you prepped for a deeper sleep later at night. Research has also shown that exercise after work increases the body temperature, allowing it to regulate down to the perfect temperature to make you sleepy before bed. Just make sure that you exercise at least 3-4 hours before you try to get to sleep in order to allow yourself enough time to relax and come down off the energy boost before bed.
3. Increase your daily activity:
If you have trouble getting to sleep at night, you may not be getting enough activity or using enough energy throughout the day. Most nine to five desk jobs force us to stay sedentary for most of the day, so this comes to no surprise. Increasing activity doesn’t necessarily mean hitting the gym. There are easy ways to get more active in your daily routine, and use up excess energy that could be keeping you awake in bed at night. Stretching during the day, walking to or from work, or using the stairs instead of the elevator might be all you need to see some positive changes in your sleep patterns.
4. Try some yoga before bed:
Certain resting or inversion yoga poses can relieve muscle tension throughout the body and release stress for better sleep. These soothing exercises are especially conducive to relaxation and sleep when done at night or in bed before checking out for the night. Focusing on deep breathing, trying some seated or standing forward bends, or a simple corpse pose can combat restlessness and ease you into better sleep.