Want to learn how to exercise more? Fed up with feeling guilty about the workouts you said you’d do but didn’t? Those are the only workouts you regret, aren’t they? How do I know? Because it’s the only workout we all regret.
That’s why today, I’m sharing 5 simple tips to help you learn how to exercise more so you can:
- Stop feeling guilty about the workouts you skip.
- Become the person you want to be.
- Finally feel healthy, strong and positive.
- Feel proud of yourself.
- Learn how easy it is to make exercise part of your routine.
How To Exercise More
Move Your Body
No one can argue with the fact when you look at your body it’s designed to move. And the more you look after your body and take care of it through exercise and nutrition, the less sluggish and negative you feel and the stronger and more capable you are.
The Consequence of Not Exercising Enough
Did you know that 1 in 6 deaths in the UK are linked to a lack of exercise or physical movement? And that only half of women are exercising enough to ensure good health. And that people usually exercise less as they get older?
It’s important to learn these things, not to scare you, but to realise you need to do things differently if you want to start to exercise more.
Knowing you want or need to exercise more isn’t enough. It’s learning how to exercise more that’s key. It’s learning how to exercise no matter how motivated you feel. No matter how disciplined you are. No matter how tired you are. No matter how good or bad your day’s been.
And that’s exactly what you’ll learn in this post.
The Benefits of Exercising
Daily exercise is important because it:
- Increases your energy and reduces fatigue.
- Reduces your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
- Improves your mental and emotional health.
- Boosts your mood and self-esteem.
- Relieves stress.
- Improves your sleep.
- Balances your perspective and boosts problem-solving.
- Boosts your metabolism.
- Increases your ability to burn fat.
- Boosts your immune system.
- Makes you stronger — mentally and physically.
- Gives you more overall zest for life.
- Makes you feel good about yourself.
Even though we know these benefits, why is it still so hard for us to exercise more? Why are so many of us Googling “How to exercise more?”
Teaching You How to Exercise More
In my opinion, it’s because we’re not taught the “how” part.
You’re told what you need to do but not how to do it. You’re not taught how to exercise despite your motivation being low or despite how you feel.
You’re not taught how to overcome your excuses. Such as — I’m too tired. Or, I don’t feel like it today. Or, I’ve had a busy and stressful day, so I’ll do it tomorrow instead.
Because here’s the truth — everyone’s brains come up with reasons not to exercise. Yep. ALL. THE. TIME. No matter who you are or how long you’ve been exercising for.
So, what you need to learn is how to create habits and routines that help you overcome those excuses.
Making Exercise a Daily Habit
The best place to start when you’re thinking about how to exercise more is by shifting your mindset to being more active each day — nothing major just keeping a small commitment to yourself to move your body each day.
So, at first, it’s not about doing 30 minutes or an hour a day. Rather, it’s learning ways to move your body a little more each day until it becomes part of your daily routine.
Then, once it’s part of your routine, you’ll find it much easier to overcome your excuses.
How Much Exercise Do You Need?
Whether your exercise of choice is walking, a HIIT class at the gym, joining a local boot camp or pilates at home — science tells us that we need to move our bodies for at least 30 minutes a day.
How to Exercise More
With that said, here are 5 ways to learn how to exercise more:
Tip #1
First things first, start small. When you want to do more of anything, including exercising more, the best place to start is by focusing on creating a habit.
So, to begin with, put your energy into creating a daily habit of moving your body — start with just 5 to 10 minutes each day at first. And, once you’re doing this regularly, building up from there.
For example, try:
- A 5-minute walk around your block.
- 5 minutes of stretching.
- 5 minutes of jumping jacks.
- 5 minutes of squats and push-ups.
- Or, a 5-minute pilates sequence.
Tip #2
Exercise should be enjoyable, so when you’re first looking to exercise more, make your focus finding exercises you enjoy and can look forward to. Give everything a go until you find the exercise you enjoy the most.
You could try:
- Walking
- Pilates
- Yoga
- Running
- Spinning
- Weights
- Kettlebells
- High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
- Bootcamps
- Dancing
- At home classes
- Gym classes
- Working with a personal trainer
Tip #3
Focus less on the physical result and more on how exercising makes you feel. Yes, we all want to look better — lose weight, tone up — but we also all want to FEEL better.
If you focus on exercising because of how it makes you feel, you’re less likely to come up with excuses to skip it.
So, exercise to boost your mood, clear your head, and feel more energised and strong. The physical results will take care of themselves.
Tip #4
Make exercise a priority for you and literally schedule it into your day.
Decide which time of day is best for you, and add it to your calendar. For you, is it a morning gym class or an evening YouTube video at home? Is it a morning walk before work or a lunchtime walk with colleagues?
Whatever it is for you (or, if you don’t know yet, experiment with different times of day until you find what works best for you), open the calendar on your phone and make an appointment with yourself to do it every day. Because simply writing down what exercise you’re going to do and when you’ll do it, nearly doubles your chances of success.
For me, I have an appointment scheduled in my calendar for every weekday morning. And through trial and error, I’ve learnt that the best time for me to exercise is at home before work.
I started a handful of years ago, getting up a little earlier and exercising first thing — and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made for my health.
Tip #5
Incorporate more incidental exercise into your day — this is making a conscious effort to move your body more in your everyday life — because any movement is better than none.
For example:
- Walk your dog morning and night for at least 10 minutes.
- Take the stairs instead of the lift.
- Park a further away from the supermarket and shopping centre.
- Walk and talk — whether that’s in person or on the phone.
- Go and talk to someone at work rather than calling or emailing them.
- Stretch your legs with a walk around your garden, house or office when you’re having a break.
- When you’re meeting a friend for lunch or a coffee, go for a walk first.
How Long Does It Take to Create a Habit?
Learning how to exercise more so it becomes a habit — an automatic part of your daily routine — will initially take some effort. But if you focus on it and nothing else for 66 days, it’ll become a habit for life.
A habit that, yes, while hard to do at first, will become something you’ll find hard not to do once it becomes part of your everyday life.
Why 66 days? Because science has shown us it takes an average of 66 days to build a habit.
Why focus on exercise and nothing else? Because research also shows when we focus on one goal at a time, we’re much more likely to stick with it.
Let It Be Easy
The most difficult thing about wanting to exercise more is that it’s hard to get started.
But, once you get into a regular routine — in other words, once it becomes a habit — you won’t want to stop. Because you’ll miss how good it makes you feel.
And as a result, you’ll find yourself living and working more effectively, efficiently and productively. You’ll have more energy and a more positive outlook and perspective. You’ll feel fit, healthy and strong. And maybe most important of all, you’ll feel good about yourself and proud of yourself for doing what you said you would.
How Will You Start Exercising More?
Now you’ve learnt more about the benefits of exercise and 5 tips to help you exercise more, which one will you try first? Which one will help you make exercise a daily habit? And a regular part of your routine?
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Here’s to you making exercise a regular part of your routine and feeling all the wonderful benefits it gives you.
With love,
Becky x