If youโre tired of enthusiastically starting a new workout routine only to fall off the wagon a few weeks later? Well, youโre not alone. In fact, consistency is the number one challenge most people face in their fitness journey. Iโm going to give you 4 simple strategies Iโve used with hundreds of my online personal training clients to solve your challenges with consistency once and for all.
When I first started working with clients, I thought that fitness challenges were going to be solved at the level of exercise knowledge. Basically, I believe that if guesswork could be solved and everyone knew what exercises to do they would be all set, probably because solving my own fitness frustrations and then showing others what Iโd learned was the reason I became a trainer in the first place.
Why is it so hard to work out consistently?
Over time I realised that the real challenge isnโt necessarily in knowing what to doโit’s sticking with it consistently. The truth is, in the internet age most people have access to great workout information, in fact, I have my own beginner’s guide to exercise to help you if you’re starting out and a way to tell if your existing fitness program is effective.
But without consistency, even the best workout plan in the world wonโt get you results.
Think about that. You could have a perfect workout plan. But unless you actually follow it, itโs of no utility to you. Itโs not going to change your body or your fitness levels at all.
Yet, so many of us seek answers in new training plans, new diet programs, supplements or influencer-inspired trends, but these are all details, they are nuances to be added to an existing consistent exercise practice.
So what does this mean for you and your fitness results? Well as counterintuitive as it sounds, youโll never benefit from optimising a workout program unless you can see any workout plan through to the point that it no longer works for you because youโre so used to it that it no longer asks anything new of your body to complete. That is when you are primed for optimisation because you can introduce contrast and force adaptation and that’s how the process of getting predictable results in fitness works.
But if you have repeated start/stop attempts at making fitness stick, then essentially almost anything is going to work for you. Because your exercise habits are so inconsistent almost anything is a novel enough stimulus to force that change. This is a good thing if you’re making a return to exercise after a lay-off as you have a lot of opportunity ahead of you, but it’s not a place you want to repeatedly find yourself.
I actually had a client join my online personal training program who mentioned that they joined me because they had read my article on building personalised workouts and felt that on previous programs they had been given cookie-cutter plans, but as we went through the onboarding process it came to light that unfortunately, they had never made it to the three-week mark on any of the programs, so in defence of the other coaches I told them respectfully that they liked felt that way about previous plans because each time they were joining a program as a rank beginner and the previous coach was likely seeking not to overwhelm them with complexity. Make no mistake, the real challenge at hand lies in execution. Many people suffer from the same trap, itโs shiny object syndrome looking for fitness secrets in complex training programs or a new exercise or method that may offer a panacea. When in 99% of cases, sustainable progress is achieved only through persistent implementation of the fundamentals.
We were able to successfully complete my initial 8-week online personal training program. Creating a much longer streak of success than he had previously enjoyed, which can be attributed to the combination of starting out with a well-calibrated training program and enough accountability coaching to gain the momentum necessary to make exercise a habit.
Getting consistent with exercise requires a shift in mindset
This brings us to another big mindset shift in fitness, and it can be a difficult one to take. And that is that fitness, and physical conditioning is always going to be a moving target. So once youโve started, to stand any chance of getting what youโve achieved you have to keep going.
You donโt have to become obsessed and live in the gym, but you will have to align with how the human body works and the laws of nature that act on it.
Iโm not getting esoteric, itโs just a reflection that we live in a world where entropy which means that over time all systems trend toward decline, and exercise is our way to slow or reverse that decline.
Whilst It would be nice to think that fitness works like other areas of life, like a computer game for example where you reach a certain level or skillset in the game and you can put it down and reprise the character later with that same skillset, or a classic car that you could buy and store away, then when you come back to it, itโs appreciated because itโs remained in great condition, actually we humans tend to work in the opposite way, in whats known as an โanti-fragileโ system, where we get stronger preciously by being exposed to well-calibrated stress. Itโs called hormesis, and itโs why exercise, hot and cold exposure and fasting can all be good for you, they are hormetic stressors, so by encountering them you grow stronger.
This is just how fitness works. There’s no way around it.
I pressed that point because the difference is really like living in two different realities, in the first one you can simply put a pin in your fitness regime and expect to pick back where you left off, which is the assumption many of us start out with. But the second, and base reality dictates that youโre going to have to keep signalling to the body that you still require your physical conditioning in order to keep it. You do this through consistent exercise.
Now I understand that could feel intimidating, demotivating even, like a lifelong sentence. But unless you know the rules of the game, youโre not in a position to win it.
In fact, One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is after achieving excellent results on a fitness program, theyโll say something like. โIโm really happy with my results, I think Iโll take the summer off of fitness now as Iโll be travelling a lotโ Itโs a well-intentioned decision, they want to draw a line under their achievement and pick things back up later.
Sadly this is the cause of a lot of frustration and regression, owing to that same concept of entropy, or what we might call in fitness ‘de-conditioning’, so by the end of the summer much of what has been achieved has been lost due to inactivity.
As a quick aside, it can be easy to view exercise merely as a tool for getting weight loss or body composition results. This can lead a bit of a two-dimensional approach to fitness, thinking that when aesthetic fitness results have been achieved then how you feel at that moment will also be sustained, along with all of the supporting lifestyle factors that helped you get there.
The benefits of consistent exercise
But youโve got to think of exercise as an iceberg, with all sorts of hidden benefits lurking under the surface, that are rarely missed until they are gone.
There are the obvious ones like cardiovascular health, improvements to circulation, preventing muscle atrophy and bone density loss, improved immune function, better blood sugar regulation.
But many fail to factor in the additional benefit that when you exercise on a regular basis youโve actually built yourself a self-perpetuating positive loop. Exercise has been shown to lower the occurrence of feelings of depression and anxiety. It releases endorphins which help boost mood and overall feelings of well-being.
Itโs also a very underrated vehicle for building self-esteem. You see self-esteem isnโt really about the end result, the 6 pack abs, the muscle gain or the big milestone achievements in life. Itโs really about keeping the appointments you set with yourself and learning to trust that when you say youโll do something, you mean it. Itโs a sense of self-belief that cannot be earned any other way than through repetition over time.
So by relinquishing your exercise habits not only do you start the clock on the inevitable decline in your conditioning, but youโre also kicking away much of the scaffolding that was helping you feel good, and in tough times sometimes whether you know it or not, itโll be exercise or an active lifestyle that helps keep your head above water.
Couple that with the fact that many people pair exercise and healthy eating both positively and negatively, by which I mean that all too often all of the healthy eating habits and benefits that come along with them also go away when you take a break from exercise.
In my experience as a personal trainer, one of the biggest consistency-related challenges comes when you go through a particularly difficult time, which is often met by the decision to give up an exercise regime in response. It can sound logical, after all you have a lot going on, but itโs only because you still value exercise solely for itโs surface benefits. Youโre looking at it too literally, so youโre either ‘on a program’ or not, getting fitness is either a priority right now, or it isnโt, and when it isnโt, you drop it.
So the decision basically amounts to you saying, โYou know what, Iโm going through a stressful time in which time Iโll face negative circumstances outside of my control for an amount of time Iโm unable to predict, so I think the best move will be to remove all of the habits, healthy eating and psychological coping mechanisms Iโve developed so I can focus on being stressed and unhappy for a whileโ
So it’s no wonder you soon find yourself not only losing your physical conditioning but also alone without all of the previous infrastructure that was keeping you afloat. Itโs not only a bad decision, itโs the absolute worst decision you can make at the very time you need exercise and healthy eating the most.
Under this cycle, dark times tend to spiral and become worse and of greater duration than they needed to be, and when you finally do emerge from them you may find yourself back at square one.
Becoming the ‘type’ of person who exercises consistently
All of this hopefully drives home not just the importance of getting consistent with exercise. But that to achieve that itโs going to require a fundamental shift in how you perceive the role of exercise in your life. Youโll have to make a change philosophically, strategically and tactically if youโre going to make this work.
No longer can exercise be something you either do or donโt do, for a time.
You canโt look at it as being on a training program or not, you canโt even really look at it as having a fitness goal or not, itโs got to become a permanent fixture regardless of all of that. Ultimately it has to become a part of who you are.
Think of it like a volume dial, that you can lean into it and turn it up, or lean out of it and turn it down, but as soon as you press that mute button, thatโs where you start taking all of the heavy losses.
But ultimately, these are all appeals to logic. and itโs emotions that drive many of our decisions, particularly around exercise and healthy eating.
Following your emotions as your guiding star wonโt end well, because emotions are unreliable and fleeting. That isnโt to discount them, to deny your lived reality or to encourage you to numb what you feel. Simply a recommendation that in the context of consistent exercise, youโll need to build a system that’s going to overrule your feelings when itโs clear they arenโt going to serve you.
So letโs start looking at how we can go from a lack of consistency to getting consistent with exercise:
Here are 4 simple strategies you can use:
1. Discover your ‘why’
Youโve probably heard so much about finding your why by now that it almost feels trite. But having a clear definition of what drives you in the context of fitness is crucial because there is just no way youโre going to feel motivated to exercise every day, itโs not a realistic proposition for anyone.
Not to mention that not everyone actually enjoys exercise all that much, a fact that whilst true, isn’t going to change how necessary it is to do it anyway. Relying on feeling motivated to exercise just isnโt going to work, because your ability to stay consistent is going to rely on your ability to exercise reliably on the day you least want to, that’s when you know you are in the driving seat.
There is a pretty quick way to establish your why. Itโll take a few minutes of honest reflection. When you think about your fitness goals. Letโs say you were doing a gym induction, you might write on a consultation form ‘I want to lose 5lbs’, ‘I want to gain some muscle’ or ‘I want to improve my lower back mobility’. These are great goals. But they are also safe and surface level. They arenโt going to stand up under the pressure of your hardest moments.
You need to sit and think, and even feel through what itโs going to mean for you if you achieve your goals vs falling short of them. This is going to reveal more powerful statements like โI want to regain my self-confidenceโ โI want to feel safe walking around at night, capable of protecting my family because Iโm fit and strongโ or โI donโt want to ache for three days every time I go for a hike anymoreโ perhaps if youโre like many of those Iโve worked with on my online fitness programs. itโll be as simple as saying โI just want to feel like myself againโ
Whatever it is for you, I really do encourage you to think about life on either side of what you want to achieve and all of the implications for your life moving forward.
Consider questions like:
What would you have access to and for how long?
What could be taken away?
What would it mean for those around you?
And how might it influence the relationship you have with yourself?
I know it sounds strange, but donโt just think these scenarios through, feel them through too. Literally aim to Anchor how your body feels as you run through these scenarios, so that you can recall the same feelings later when you need to feel driven, not motivated. Then commit it to paper and revisit it often.
This way when itโs cold, when itโs raining, when youโve had a bad day and when you simply would rather do anything other than exercise, these feelings will help you follow through on your intention to take action and stay consistent.
2. Prioritise systems over goals
Sometimes pursuing a very specific fitness goal isnโt the best way to get consistent with exercise. In fact, if I wanted to bet on a stranger’s success, I would encourage them to make the process of exercise the goal, not a specific fitness outcome. For two reasons:
Firstly, creating a specific goal can create the wrong feedback loop. If youโre inexperienced with exercise, you may initially have a low-resolution view of what’s possible, especially within a specific time frame. So you may perceive steady results or a lack of perfection as demotivating, this is extremely common and alone is a cause of a lot of inconsistency with exercise.
Focusing on the process rather than the goal itself allows you to create a shorter positive feedback loop. Youโll be able to consider each day a success as long as you consider it โnet-positiveโ i.e. it took you further toward your goal than away from it. Nothing more, nothing less. That is ultimately the definition of success in this context, because if you’re able to do this and you trust the training program you’re following, on a long enough timeline you are guaranteed results, and they will have been built in a way that can be maintained.
This helps you create references for success on a daily basis. Focusing on aggregate progress in this way is how you build momentum and will be intrinsically motivating for you. Even if initially, you didnโt even like exercise there is something rewarding about having multiple references for success daily and youโll soon have very positive momentum.
The second reason a specific fitness goal might not be the best way to approach your training is because it could give you a very specific habit set and toolkit, that may not be very conducive to a broader, well-rounded consistent exercise practice.
A good example of this might be that you have a weight loss goal and decide that training to run a marathon might be a great way to achieve this. While running a marathon is a fantastic goal, if your real goal is to lose weight and keep it off, youโd be better not to approach it through the vehicle of a distance running goal.
Because by definition training for a marathon is going to require a very high exercise output, perhaps at peak meaning youโll be running 20 miles in a single sitting, just in preparation for the event and believe me you will need the calories needed to fuel and recover from it.
So to try to do both at the same time, youโd either be overclocking your caloric deficit which would make you feel awful, or under fueling your runs, which would also make you feel awful. So even if it technically worked on paper and you both lost weight and completed your marathon it would have been a very unpleasant series of weeks and months and youโd still be left with a highly specific habit set around exercise and food the day after the race. Which would be completely inappropriate for your long-term intention to be at a healthy weight. Ergo your results would be very short-lived.
Itโs a bit like investing in very expensive and specific tools to cut diamonds, but not having a basic enough toolbox in the house to hang a painting. Youโd be better of establishing an easy-to-maintain, well-rounded fitness program that included strength training, short bursts of high-intensity work a focus on mobility and try to include general activity in your lifestyle. This way you have an all-purpose process-driven habit structure, onto which you can bolt on the demands of any specific fitness challenges, and then return back to your effective baseline. Or in the context of the marathon example, first you would get to your desired weight in a healthy way. Then you could pursue a marathon running goal and actually be able to fuel it, then after the race you return to the established lifestyle that you already know you can use to keep your weight stable, not to mention the marathon raining going to be a whole lot more efficient if you lose the weight first.
The good news is that if you have a history of inconsistency with exercise there will be so much low-hanging fruit on the table, that if you are able to nail consistency you are one of the lucky ones who just might have a full portfolio of fitness benefits on the table all at once, like gaining muscle, losing fat, getting more mobile and fitter all from a pretty basic training program that won’t have to take over your life to perform. Of course, as you get more conditioned, youโll need to get a little more specific, and that is exactly the kind of problem we hope to face if we can get consistent enough to earn it.
If you can do all of this, youโll have a system that you can maintain year-round. And if anything goes wrong or you face a setback, there would be no need to fall into an all-or-nothing trap or let it deter you, because you arenโt pursuing some far-flung end outcome like a large weight loss goal or running a race some months away. You just simply execute a net positive day the very next day you can, and you’re right back in the groove and have restored your positive momentum.
To be clear, consistent exercise isnโt about rigidity. Itโs important to understand that there are times when an intuitive approach is necessary. For example, many women may find that during the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle, lighter exercise is more beneficial. And for all of us, there are days when youโre so exhausted that the best way to contribute to your overall progress is to take a rest day. But hereโs the key distinction: these decisions should be made in the context of the bigger pictureโsupported by eating well, staying hydrated, and investing in mindfulness that day.
Mastering this balance takes time. Itโs about learning when to listen to your bodyโs signals and when to push through temporary discomfort. Sometimes, this is where working with a personal trainer can help, allowing you to fast-track your progress and outsource some of the decisions that take time to become authentic with.
For instance, knowing the difference between taking a day off because your body genuinely needs it versus rationalising away a workout because emotionally you’re just not feeling it, is the kind of wisdom that comes from cultivating a strong mind-body connection, which is something youโll develop over time.
3. Prepare an ‘if this, then that’ strategy
Thatโs the strategy around staying consistent, but itโs also crucial to master the tactical side of things. For this, I suggest implementing an ‘if this, then that’ system. Which allows you to create contingencies for when things donโt quite go as planned. This is massively supported by our new focus on net-positive rather than perfect days.
Essentially, this works by developing a backup plan for anything that can go wrong that still allows you to take some positive action. Letโs take a look at some examples letโs say you have a work trip to an unfamiliar city.
Ifโฆthe gym you planned on is unavailable…Then Is there a second that sells day passes?
If…the hotel gym has unfamiliar equipment…Then can the exercise selection be switched to keep within the workout protocol and achieve the same end?
If…I canโt find an hour for my normal session…Then what is the best use of the 15 minutes I do have? – as a quick aside studies have found both strength training and HIIt work can be effective in as little as 10-15 minutes so time is rarely a justified reason one cannot achieve results.
Letโs go on...
Ifโฆyouโve missed all opportunities to work out on a given day…Then can you do a light stretch sequence before bed?
Ifโฆyou cannot plan your mealsโฆThen will you default to first principles and eat purely for nutrient value, not numbers
Even in the light of significant setbacks, this process can still apply.
Ifโฆyou twist an ankle carrying your suitcase up some stairs Thenโฆwill You wait for the acute phase to pass and re-tool your workouts for seated and lying exercises rather than allow activity to go to nil?
The aim is to always have a contingency plan and get into the practice of searching for a way that positive action can always be taken no matter the circumstances. I learned this way of thinking applied to more than just fitness when I started my podcast, as I quickly found out the hard way no one camera, microphone, memory card, or hard drive should ever be relied on. There has to be a level of redundancy to everything you rely on, and itโs the same in fitness. I also apply it to long hikes and travel.
This way you’re buttressed against rationalising away a lack of action due to circumstances or setbacks way ahead of time. Because youโve already planned for what could have gone wrong and built a way around it.
4. Decide one (and for all)
Finally, this one is more of a philosophical adjustment, which is to embrace the fact that staying consistent isnโt going to be easy, or aligned with your feelings at all times. Itโs going to take the deliberate cultivation of resilience and a detachment from your feelings, at least as far as youโve been allowing them to drive decisions that you know are taking you away from your highest-held ideals.
So decide once, now. Moving forward, you are going to be consistent with exercise. Not as a goal, a resolution or as part of starting a new training program but as part of your new identity. You donโt have to tell anyone about it, you just have to know about it yourself, others will notice the change in you when you start acting it out.
Ultimately, once exercise is an integral part of who you are, you simply wonโt experience challenges with consistency anymore. Because it would be harder not to exercise than it would to keep going. Or rather your habits, lifestyle, momentum, strategy, tactics and deeply held motivators and relationship with who you know you could be, will finally all be pulling in the same direction.
If you would like to plan your first 30 days of exercise, try my guide here. Or If you would like to discuss how having me as your online personal trainer might help you achieve your fitness goals, let’s schedule a consultation call.