Staying consistent with your fitness goals is not always easy, but it is essential for achieving long-term success. In this blog post, we’ll explore to how to be consistent working out, why it’s is important in fitness, the challenges of staying consistent, and practical tips for how to maintain consistency in your fitness routine.
Why Consistency is Important in Fitness
Consistency is defined as “the achievement of a level of performance that does not vary greatly in quality over time.”
In fitness, consistency means showing up regularly, even when it’s tough, and sticking to your plan. Here are some of the reasons why consistency is so important in fitness:
Building habits:
Consistency helps you form healthy habits that will stick with you long after you’ve achieved your fitness goals.
Having the right kind of habits is essential because we can only work on motivation and inspiration for so long.
Why is that? Because ruts are bound to happen. There will be points along the journey where we just go through the motions.
This is where the habits take over. Aiming for the right kinds of foods. Working out at a set time.
The less thinking we have to do helps us put our effort into the bigger projects and goals, getting to the next step.
Improving progress:
Consistent workouts lead to gradual improvement and increased strength, endurance, and flexibility over time.
Your body is only going to adapt to what it needs to.
If you want to look like a bodybuilder, train like one.
Be an athlete? Work like one.
Just get healthier? Make your body need change.
Getting there takes consistency, and progressing in what you do. One great session that left your sweating drained might feel good, but it is only one step. How often will you put the work in to do that?
You won’t lose 20 pounds in a day. But chipping away each day with intention could get you there in a couple of months.
The Challenges of Staying Consistent
Learning how to be consistent working out is not always easy. Here are some of the common challenges people face:
Time constraints:
Finding time to exercise regularly can be difficult with a busy schedule. If you work 8 hours a day, have a family to take care of, AND need to get 8 hours of sleep, how are you supposed to work out and eat right?
Make your routine work for you. You don’t need an hour. Maybe you work out twice a day for just 15 minutes.
Meal prep, so your meals are ready to go when you need them.
Meal prepping containers are cheap and convenient( Get some here)
Take away the decision-making, and make it easy for you to work out and eat right. You can fit healthy living into your life, you just need to prioritize it and work with what you have.
Plateaus:
Hitting a plateau can be discouraging, but it’s important to remember that progress takes time. Following a weight loss example, ideally, you’d want to see the scale continue to drop.
but at some point, it’s possible that your progress stops or goes in the opposite direction for weeks at a time
Be ready to adjust. A mistake would be quitting, or just continue pushing through.
If a plateau continues, let’s say for a couple of weeks. Look at what you’re doing.
Eating more? Moving less?
Plateaus stink, it’s best to understand what’s different that’s causing this stagnation to happen
How be Consistent with working out Tips to follow
The good news is that there are many practical tips for staying consistent with fitness goals:
Maintaining motivation
When you see progress and improvements, it can be incredibly motivating to keep going.
How do we stay consistent in the long run? Motivation.
You won’t be fired up and roaring on all cylinders for the rest of your life. It’s not sustainable. But you can encourage yourself to keep going and stay at even a minimal level of motivation.
Do this with small wins.
You will only maintain a habit long-term if it gives you something rewarding.
We reach for candy because it’s sweet and makes us feel good.
We could work out because it makes us feel accomplished and uplifted afterward. We might stick to our diet because we see the scale change the next morning.
Celebrate the wins and associate your fitness with happiness and feeling good.
Schedule workouts:
Make a plan and schedule your workouts in advance. Treat them like any other appointment or meeting and stick to them.
Set aside 15 minutes in your day to blast your muscles with some dumbbells, if you want to save even more time, grab a pair of weight adjustable dumbbells here.
Working out should be part of the routine, you get to where you need to be at the time you set.
If you spend time figuring out how you’ll make time, you’ll inevitably slip up.
These slip-ups cascade and maybe you eventually just quit.
Find a workout buddy:
Working out with a friend can help keep you accountable and motivated. Knowing someone else is counting on you to show up and give great effort, is a great commitment to have.
If the relationship is healthy, you both can call out each other’s mistakes or lack of full commitment when issues like those arise.
You guys can learn how to be consistent working out together, because having a second perspective in priceless.
Enjoyable activities:
Find activities that you enjoy and look forward to, such as dancing, hiking, or yoga.
Listen, many of us want to be marathon-level runners or have power-lifting strength. You can try to get good at those things. If you don’t enjoy the activity itself how committed will you really be to staying consistent?
So instead, find something you enjoy doing. There is various form of fitness. You could do a sport for example or even yoga.
Give a genuinely good effort at whatever you try. You might not like something the first time, so give it 2 weeks or so.
If you find something you’re passionate about? Well, then consistency is just going to happen.
Conclusion
Consistency is key to achieving your fitness goals, but it’s not always easy. By scheduling workouts, finding a workout buddy, prioritizing fitness, and making healthy nutrition choices, you can maintain consistency and achieve your goals. Remember, progress takes time, so start small, be patient, and celebrate your successes along the way. Learning how to be consistent working out is as much part of the journey as everything else