Intended effective gym habits can begin in a new year and die before February 1. Don’t let that be YOU in the upcoming year. Make this year and better and different that it deserves as you’re a better, more resilient person.
The usual drill…
Welcoming in the first week of the year with effective gym habits is the intent, where many of us think of new personal, health, and fitness goals. In my mind, I think of the end goal that comes from 7 habits of highly effective people that can be applied to life. But not always effect in fitness areas…
Because most people don’t like to workout. That’s the first hurdle. Especially if you prefer to work or play instead of work out (I know the feeling!). At times, working out can add more stress if you don’t have a routine down.
But, if you prioritize, practice and adopt doing regular habits (great for Vata balancing)… and they are habits you enjoy, that could be a game changer to effective habits. Let that be the new year mantra or philosophy you breathe in…
OUT with ancient new year’s resolutions, and IN with inspiring habits for your betterment, progress, and self-improvement goals.
Simple steps like attending a Gold’s Gym (my fond memories) or similar, and doing at-home ab exercises regularly can help get you into healthy physical body habits with good results if you choose successful ways that help you, explained below…
Inspired by 7 habits of highly effective people who are proactive in their lives and begin with the end in mind, these are 7 effective habit traits (and what it boils down to), to embrace ideas that can turn into action and help set you up for success.
I think these ways make habits easier to adopt, and you can apply to any area you want to have continued success in.
So, applying these traits will help you with training to stay active and healthy fit for the year and keep effective gym habits for life.
Effective Habit Traits Inspired By 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
1. New – highly effective people consider and embrace new ideas, challenging the status quo or current norm. They keep everything fresh and have a learning and growth mindset. They think “today is a brand, new day” to do something better, remarkable, or impactful.
2. Variety – they spice up life with more than one way or choice. This can be from food to finding new inspiration or a new route. If they did it one way, they try another way to keep things exciting.
3. Fun or exciting – they have fun doing what they do. If you’re enjoying yourself, then you’re more likely to keep doing what you’re doing. Laughter is a good indicator that you’re engaged. Remember when you were a kid, and that’s what got you going?… just good, innocent fun.
4. Usefulness – they know how to be productive with their time, and highly effective people spend time working on activities that are useful and not a waste of time. There’s a next step, where there’s personal growth, observable impact, or serves others.
5. Practical – they turn ideas into action and use resources they have access to, and keep going. They don’t let excuses keep them from moving forward. Relevance guides them to their next steps and pivots.
6. Getting better – they look for progress. They know that if it’s not getting better, that it could be getting worse. They look for signs of growth, impact, and healthiness.
7. Easy – they keep it simple and uncomplicated. They know if it’s easy, then it’s doable. There won’t be delay and “easy” can be duplicable and scalable to perform in other ways.
So now here’s how can you embrace and select 1-2 of these 7 ideas into your personal fitness or exercise life and routine:
New – find new equipment, new exercises, or new routine to get better results for a newer you! This means finding new ways to make it interesting, as the world constantly innovates in better technology.
The Peloton (or latest technologically advanced bike) is one new idea that has caught on like wildfire, but you see proof there are many new fitness ideas being offered on infomercials and presented in CNBC’s Shark Tank.
Variety – mixing up your routine doing cardio, weight lifting, and class exercises. You can use steps, kettlebells, equipment, stability balls, straps. The possibilities are endless, and from day to day, as you can get a full-body workout one day or just work on specific ab exercises the next. Variety can keep you enthusiastic, which helps make your exercising habit sustainable.
You can change up your days of working out, so your fitness chore is turned into adventure and spontaneity. To know where you are, you could use a measuring device like an Apple Watch to accumulate and add up your weekly step counts, so you know how much more you need to do if you want to hit a goal.
Then, you creatively schedule in working out during the week. This keeps it exciting instead of a dreaded, have-to-do routine (that doesn’t get done). You may find you end up doing more letting up on self-imposed pressures.
Fun – selecting and doing activities that are enjoyable so you want to do them. You can find a fun way to get into your activity. You can ride the bicycle taking different trails or watching a television screen. You can do a mix of pilates and yoga, or follow a Zumba class.
You could go indoor ice skating or outdoor skiing. Remember when you were a kid and you had to walk your sled up the hill. That was a high-calorie workout and oh-so-fun going downhill! When it’s fun, you have automatic effective workout and built-in gym habits. Some class ways noted below.
Practical – even if you can’t do a full workout, they have access to do a shorter workout or an at-home workout with ab exercises. You have a practical way to get to work out. Not being able to access equipment or bad weather isn’t helpful for working out. You can have a Gold’s Gym or similar gym access, plus a home workout alternative.
Getting better – adding more weights, longer time, or adding difficulty levels. The more you do and increase effort, the more you can get better at your workouts and reaching any goals you’re aiming for. It becomes easier.
Easy – keep moves simple where you don’t get overwhelmed. If you think you’re not good at something, then you’re likely going to put it off and make achieving more difficult. As an example, I don’t like kettlebells. I really don’t think I’m meant for them.
They’re good for abs, strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination. Sounds like yoga results, but much more intense with a weight. If I look for ease, I find I can do kettlebell exercises with hand weights or other equipment. I can get creative and think with the end in mind (one of the original 7 habits of highly effective people).
Think: what is the result of the exercise that I’m looking to achieve?
Then think of how you can get the same effect without the dreaded piece of equipment where maybe you believe you could hurt myself with a strange shape heavy bell that kinda resembles a tea kettle, but much heavier.
Plus, the awkward handle takes getting used to holding like a bowling ball, and disjointed mid-section movements slow and unnatural. That’s a lot to get over to feel excited about a weighted kettlebell. You have to be a special fitness kind to like the kettlebell! 😁
A simple workaround is, use a smooth, weighted ball that you can easily hold in the palms of my hands (and kept rolled under your bed), and perform the same kettlebell exercise in one sweeping up motion. Now we’re talking. Problem solved! You get out of your own way.
So, now you can solve some of your reasons for not getting a specific workout in. Here are some ways to build good effective gym habits.
Baby Step Action For Making Good Fitness Habits
To have a better and healthier life, changing your habits is the simplest way to changing behaviors, as mentioned above.
Fighting your mind or willpower doesn’t work. Taking action works. Especially if fitness is the one area you need to balance in your life.
This applies also whether you want to improve your nutrition or meet body goals, such as you want to reduce sugar or carbs, lose weight or your tummy, or get heart fit.
Whatever your biggest health and fitness goals are, pick one action idea that excites you, and start implementing doing that one activity.
Gradually you can add other activities and ideas (traits of 7 habits of highly effective people above – new, variety, fun, useful, practical, better, easy).
You’ll know an idea is no longer serving you when you pause or stop taking action.
Instead of beating yourself up in guilt, simply find another activity and keep doing this until you find ones where you’re currently in a groove or in sync with, like feeling 20 minutes of riding a bike was a breeze. Keep revisiting inspiration if you get stuck. Maybe for starters, don’t call it “a routine.”
You may find you want to go back to the first activity you started with, as instinctively the one you like but couldn’t do or wrap your head around for a season. The point is to keep moving in any season. Any fitness is better than none to get your heart pumping and your feet moving.
On my journey, I found that joining a Gold’s Gym or similar (L.A. Fitness or Lifetime) that are all in the one dollar per day price range, can help a busy person get exercise without feeling guilty if you don’t go. You have everything equipment-wise that you need and maybe leave some of your mind at home. Or take a class to help you with that…
I found the variety and frequency of classes, the best at these gyms. And my favorite is yoga class. And that counts as effective gym habits. I’ve lost count of how many dozens or handfuls of yoga class locations I’ve been in, but enough to compare. And maybe for your it’s yoga, spinning, pilates, or kickboxing. Find you fitness passion — you have one. Maybe it’s pickleball?
You could add your own favorite live or virtual classes you’re inspired to attend. In this season you could make up your own exercises at home that work with your schedule to make up for any workout losses. You can do ab exercises anytime and anywhere you have a floor and get inspiration with a coach on video in front of you.
These are some classes to consider to help develop your effective gym habits… and get you to a gym or inspired to do your regular workouts:
Barre. No barre class is alike with a combination of ballet, yoga, and pilate moves. This appeals to balancing Vata that needs variety to stay productive.
Yoga is filled with variety. You can take power, Hatha (sun-moon or general yoga good for beginners to learn poses) and Vinyasa flow (more advanced). The yoga class name doesn’t determine the level of difficulty. This is great for Pitta to slow down and absorb moderation in life.
The difference between advanced yoga is that they usually add advanced poses like headstands and other similar balancing moves that beginners don’t know do off the bat. I’ve been practicing yoga for over a decade, and I still don’t do headstands for several reasons. I take that time to do shoulder stands or plow. If you’re intimidated, don’t be.
When you end your practice with namaste dei, you can still appreciate the relationship energy of others whether you’re six feet apart from a person or across a video screen.
Pilates. Some of the best exercises you can do are your stomach ones as they support your back, and keep you mindful of what you eat. You could take a Pilates class or do home ab exercises that will get you strong abs in no time.
Spin. Most gyms have a spinning class where you’re on a bicycle the entire time. It’s always more fun to do with others as spinning or cycling is one of those activities that uses very little mental activity, so distractions are good. You may like 3-d video bikes (that take you riding in different virtual scenery). Great for working off Pitta and for stimulating Kapha!
High-intensity kickboxing or Zumba are other great ways to get your cardio in without a treadmill or running if that’s not your sport.
If the low intensity is more your speed (ah-hem, Vatas!), and you want to get cardio fit or more energy, you want to find ways to get your heart rate up. This can happen intentionally walking up flights of stairs, skipping steps, or just practicing jumping rope. Go back to being a kid again! Do 10 jumping jacks during your break that you get to do (and don’t have to do).
I hope I’ve inspired you to get moving and live a healthier year! If you would like some body-balancing restorative tips that include fitness, then take the quick quiz.