You’ve now got your compelling reason for fitness. Mine is the desire to get through gardening season without becoming injured and to get stronger each year.
You’ve decided where you’ll workout and if it’ll be DIY or a commute, and if at home, you’ve prepared your space. I’ve chosen to work from home and prepared a corner in my garage room.
You’ve chosen a few different programs that interest you. Mine are, one that is an overall body workout put together by a physcial therapist who specializes in patients with arthritis, one that focuses on physical therapy exercises for my problem areas, and one that is full-body stretching.
You’ve established your baseline fitness so you can see your progress.
Now comes the key to execution of your plan. Steps 4, 5 and 6 all deal with your mind. These will be really short posts because the concepts are so simple, but in reality, this is the hardest part to execute! Make sure you follow through with these next three steps!
Step 4 – Work on your thinking
- Write down your pitfalls
- Make a committment
- Plan your answers when your brain says “No”
What pitfalls do you know you are likely to encounter? For me it is the old drill sergeant approach to everything. I know that I want to push myself as hard as possible. Then I wind up too injured to continue and am forced to quit. Remind yourself your goal is to increase the strength of all the supporting muscles around your degenerating joints in order to prevent pain and injury in the garden. You’re not entering an ironman competition. Where do you think you will have problems? Make a plan to overcome that pitfall.
Commit to your program. If you keep an agenda, or planning calendar, write in your time to workout daily. After my knee surgery, I had 8 weeks of physical therapy, twice a week. My agenda is color coded. Medical appointments are neon yellow so I’m unlikely to forget an important appointment. I decided to code my workout as medical also! Because honestly, it is. This is such an important appointment for you to keep every day, because it’s going to make a huge difference in your health and longevity. You wouldn’t stand up your doctor or your physical therapist and you should treat your exercise appointment with the same respect. When I see yellow on my calendar, I know it’s a priority item.
But good intentions aren’t always enough when you wake up in your warm bed and your brain immediately comes up with all the reasons you shouldn’t workout today.
To combat this, you will need some preplanned answers and action.
Lay out your exercise clothes ahead of time so they remind you of your commitment. Have a script ready that you say to your brain as it’s rolling out the excuses. Mine is “I hear your concerns and I get it, but this is what we are doing right now to achieve our strength goal”. I say this while I’m in action, lacing up the shoes to go workout. Let going through the motions become the habit that keeps you moving towards the goal.
Take a few minutes to brainstorm the objections you know you’re brain will come up with. Write them down and write down your responses.
Remember, the part of your brain that’s whining and complaining about the task is not the part that pre-planned what you need to do with your life. It’s the toddler. It’s the one who wants candy and to play all day. Don’t try to get in an argument with it by offering your response and waiting for it to agree. Because it won’t. It never will. It’ll always have another complaint and reason not to do it today. Combine your response with movement. The action of moving forward and the prepared response will get you up and at em!
So to recap:
Step 1 – Why – Find your compelling reason
Step 2 – Where – Make a place in your home or decide on a gym outside your home
Step 3 – What – Choose your program
Step 4 – When – Decide when you’ll work out and prepare your responses for your toddler brain
We’re almost done! Let’s move on to Step 5!
