14. Three Powerful Techniques to Make Exercise a Habit
For most people, being consistent with an exercise program is challenging. Even though you know you should exercise and you need exercise, it’s not always easy to get yourself to do it. Common complaints I hear from older adults are “I don’t like to exercise because it doesn’t feel comfortable” or “I feel too tired to exercise.” Getting fit and staying fit is not a comfortable endeavor—remember that “good pain” we talked about?—and it can be difficult to be consistent with a program when you’re feeling tired.
So how do we get ourselves to exercise consistently even when we’re feeling tired and would rather relax than break a sweat? The answer is to make exercise a habit—a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur without much thinking. In other words, something that you do almost automatically.
Research shows that it takes on average two months to form a habit. 40 The fact that it takes this length of time makes forming a habit more easily said than done because we’re now dealing with the chicken-and-egg problem: you have to exercise consistently for two months to make it a habit, but it’s difficult to exercise consistently unless it’s already a habit. Which comes first?
Luckily, you don’t have to solve this problem because the three techniques I’m about to show you will make exercise a habit in a snap.
Technique 1: Habit Stacking
One of the easiest ways to build a new habit is with a technique called habit stacking, which is the idea of attaching a habit you want to acquire to a habit you already have. 41
This works because the old habit is already built into your brain. By mentally linking the old habit with the new habit of exercise, the old habit becomes a trigger that reminds you it’s time to exercise.
The formula for habit stacking is simple: before/after <existing habit>, I will <new habit> . Print this statement out in big letters and post it in prominent places throughout your house. For example, you can make signs using the statement “Before breakfast and lunch, I will exercise,” and place it in obvious spots in the bedroom, restroom, living room, and kitchen. The trick to making habit stacking work is to have these multiple reminders in places where you can easily see them.
While you can stack your new habit of exercise with any current habit that you perform daily, I’ve found that stacking exercise with meals works great; you’ll be exercising twice daily and most people have at least two meals a day. It can be before breakfast and lunch, before lunch and dinner, or before breakfast and dinner. It doesn’t matter which meals you combine with exercise, so choose what works best for you.
The purpose of habit stacking is to remind you to exercise. But if we stopped here, few people would actually take action and start exercising when they’re supposed to. The second technique is designed to help you overcome this obstacle.
Technique 2: Conditioned Cues
While habit stacking will remind you when to exercise, conditioned cues will help you take action. Conditioned cues are triggers that flip a switch in your head to “go”—in this case, to begin your workout. 42
The cues are unique to each person; experiment to discover what works best for you. It could be a specific song, the smell of fresh ground coffee beans, the sensation of cold water splashing on your face, or anything else you can think of that gets you pumped up and energized to exercise. Personally, I’ve found that the trick to making conditioned cues work, besides being something that gets you psyched up, is to use something that you have to physically do when it’s time for exercise. For example, it’s better to push a button on an electronic device to turn on a song that gets you pumped up than to set an alarm that turns the song on automatically. It’s even better if you have to get up from your chair, go to the kitchen sink, and splash cold water on your face because now you’re taking even more action. Remember, conditioned cues are triggers that flip a switch in your head to “go” and begin your workout. The idea is that the more action you take as part of your conditioned cue, the more likely you’ll begin to exercise. To remind yourself to perform your conditioned cue, write down the action you will take below your habit stacking statement on the signs you’ve made.
Even after you’ve taken action and launched your conditioned cue, you may still feel a lack of motivation to exercise. The third technique is designed to get you over this final hurdle.
Technique 3: Intrinsic Reward Statements
Psychologists have found that intrinsic rewards, such as the sense of accomplishment we feel from achieving a personal goal, are more powerful motivators than external rewards like money, power, fame, or avoiding consequences. 43
Thus, reminding yourself of the intrinsic rewards you get from exercise will boost your motivation when it’s time to work out. The key to intrinsic rewards is to notice what is internally rewarding when you have great workouts and create a “reward statement” that makes the connection between these two things. For example, you might notice that you feel really tired and sluggish before exercise but energized and clear-headed afterward, or that you tend to feel unmotivated when it’s time to exercise but pumped up once you get started. These positive changes are the building blocks of your reward statement.
It may take a bit of experimentation to pinpoint exactly what makes exercise an agreeable experience for you and to create a positive statement based on it. Here are some examples of intrinsic reward statements:
After you’ve crafted your intrinsic reward statement, use it to motivate yourself to work out when the time comes. Do this by repeating the statement to yourself, out loud, a few times right after you’ve launched your conditioned cue.
You may find that simply saying these words out loud does not provide the boost needed to get you fully fired up for exercise. To get the full effect, you need to put a ton of passion into saying your statement while also getting your body involved. For example, you would stand with your chest open, chin lifted, and hands up and opened in front of you, and say with passion, “My mind feels energized and my body feels relaxed after exercise.” Research shows that changing your posture in such a way boosts the testosterone level in your body, just like exercise does. 44 By putting a ton of passion into saying your intrinsic reward statement while also getting your body involved, you can actually alter your body chemistry to more closely match your state during exercise. As a result, you will be mentally, emotionally, and physically primed for exercise. To remind yourself to perform your intrinsic reward statement, write it down below your conditioned cue on the signs you’ve made.
You’ve seen in this chapter that habit stacking, conditioned cues, and intrinsic reward statements give you a powerful set of tools to form good exercise habits. In the next chapter, I’ll show you how to get in the zone with exercise by setting “micro-goals.”
Key Takeaways
Action Steps