Wao, what a ride it has been. As I write this blog post, I’m turning two years into being a full-time traveler! And even if I love this nomadic lifestyle, one of the most challenging things I have to face is maintaining consistency in my work-outs. But by experiencing so many trials and errors, I noticed three things I must follow to keep myself active in the long run. So, if you struggle to stay consistent with your exercise routine, regardless of your daily routine, following these three rules might help you!.
3 Rules to stay consistent with your exercise
Rule 1. Keep Moving
Never pass more than three days without some movement.
Movement is the antidote to laziness, so constant motion and energy are vital to staying motivated to work out regularly. Think about it: what happens when you are lazy AF and stay hours in bed just binging Netflix or your iPhone? (not judging here! Because I do it too, and I love it). But, notice:
- How are your levels of energy on those days?
- Does your laziness bring more laziness or the other way around?
It is easy to notice how laziness brings more laziness. So, given more days where you don’t move your body, it will be harder to start moving. To avoid entering into a lazy cloud of days and stay consistent with exercise, I like to put myself a rule for life: Never pass more than three days without some movement.
Ok, but why three days? After three days of not working out, your mind starts getting lazy, your body gets stiff, and you lose that bliss flowing through your body.
One important thing to mention here is that I’m talking about movement! (not necessarily training). Movement can be taking 30 minutes to walk, doing breath work, stretching, cleaning your space, going to your nearest playground, and allowing yourself to play a little there. Other options include dancing to your favorite songs, following an easy exercise video flow from youtube, or moving using resistance bands. Here, you are just making space to move your body as you please. With no pressure, no past guilt, and no seeking for perfection or the ideal. The idea is to enjoy the blessing of having a body to experience movement.
If you are having trouble starting, maybe because you are too tired or your mind is convincing you not to move, here are some tips that might work for you:
- Prepare yourself a mantra. Things like “don’t think about it, just start” or “just do it.” You might be surprised how simple words like these can help you begin.
- Shake your body for at least 30 seconds. Shaking relaxes the nervous system and the mind and helps get you out of the funk!
- Put on great music or podcast that motivates you to do something nice for yourself.
- Go out and sunbathe for some minutes. Take a couple of deep breaths under the sun. The sun and the oxygen will give you a boost of immediate energy and wellness feeling.
Movement brings more movement! I can assure you that almost (if not every) time your body engages with some action, it starts to produce happy hormones and a great feeling, wanting to move more! So keep moving, and soon enough, you will be on track again!.
One important thing to mention is that rest is equally necessary as movement! There are moments when your body and mind benefit more from laying still than moving. If you need to take those three days to rest entirely and you want to create more accessible activities for the following days, go ahead and do that. The important thing here is to create space for some movement and maintain a baseline.
Rule #2. Keep Listening
Your body is wiser than anything. And we all know this, but unfortunately, it is prevalent among humans to tend to ignore the body’s magical signals.
One of the most powerful tools I have been applying and helping to remain consistent with my exercise routine is listening to how my body feels and wants to move (without adding too much pressure).
There were days when I needed more aerobic exercise, so I ran or hiked. On other days I want to experience slow movements, so I do my yoga practice, stretching, or mobility work. Sometimes I want to play in the playground or with a ball. And also, there are moments when I like to lift heavy things!.
Listening to what your body needs at the moment makes keeping consistency easier. You don’t skip exercise because of the pressure of always performing well, which happens often. Also, I want to believe that this approach helps avoid overtraining (something I used to do in my years of practicing CrossFit) and reduce the risk of injuries. You also don’t get bored, you don’t have to struggle with your mind and body, and you enjoy every movement much more.
Of course, there are moments where the mind wants performance, which is fantastic too! But this article talks exclusively about those moments when we struggle to find the motivation or discipline to remain constant with an exercise routine.
My last piece of advice is to listen to how your body feels in the moment and start moving according to your vibe!.
Rule 3. Keep Learning
Learning new ways to move the body is critical to keep motivated to work out. We, humans, need to know we are learning and growing. That is the ultimate common goal, to know we are expanding our knowledge and getting better than we were before. That is the foremost common goal.
That’s why we learn new things; right now, we are living in a fantastic time for learning. We have so much access to classes, teachers, videos, ebooks, mentors, etc. Not taking advantage of these honestly doesn’t make sense to me.
Learning a new type of movement gives you goals and helps you focus on achieving them. It gives you purpose and meaning and enhances your creativity in tune with the body’s movement (which allows you not to get bored with an exercise routine). For example, I have been into running, CrossFit, yoga, the gym, hiking, isometrics, and mobility. Some of them are simultaneously, and others are in different stages. Some I did for a more extended period than others, and some I don’t do it anymore.
Keep your mind open and use your body to learn ways to express it through movement. Anything you haven’t tried before is a new opportunity to learn it!
Movement
It is a beautiful expression of love and expansion, so please open up to flow, love, and move! Besides these three rules, part of staying consistent with your exercise is to have fun, right?!.
Also, if you want new ways to move the body, I made some easy-home work-out routine videos. I link them below so you can get inspired to keep moving! I hope you like them :).
With love and gratitude,
Pia
Home Exercise Routines:
ONE SINGLE KETTLEBELL WORKOUT ROUTINE
FULL BODY WORKOUT USING ONLY ONE CHAIR
FULL BODY WORKOUT ROUTINE USING ONLY THE BODY WEIGHT
