6 Tips for Exercising Every Day

Starting an exercising habit is tough. The biggest hurdle to overcome when trying to start any habit is consistency and daily repetition. When exercising, that difficulty is compounded because of the pain and soreness you go through. If you think you can fight through the challenges, here are a few tips to help you start your journey with daily exercise.

1. Make a routine

Make a note, write a to-do list, or just pin it to your fridge. By making a note of what you plan to do, you take the first steps in starting a routine. This will put it in the forefront of your mind. Plus, it’ll help keep you honest when it comes to sticking to the promise you’ve made to yourself and help you to keep that consistency going forward.

2. Focus on the positive

If you find yourself struggling with your exercises or find it tough to keep up with the daily grind, it is important to focus on the reason you are taking this habit on in the first place. Maybe you want to lose weight. Maybe you want to get stronger. Maybe you want to look your best. Whatever reason that’s driven you to start exercising, that is what you want to focus on to keep yourself engaged. 

Visualize what you are going to look like when you achieve your goals. Imagine how you will look in 6 months or a year of consistent exercise. Use this motivation when you are feeling your worst and it will help you to continue and progress. Keeping a positive and motivated mindset is key. One good way to keep track of how exercise makes you feel is with a motivational daily journal where you can write down how exercising has improved your mood.

3. Invest in yourself

Try to make your exercise as enjoyable as possible. If your exercise is to walk every day, why not invest in the best walking shoes for women you can buy? If you want to do cardio every day, why not get the best elliptical you can? Don’t make your experience worse because you have uncomfortable shoes or broken equipment. It will just add another mental block you will have to overcome.

4. Set an alarm

If you find that writing a note isn’t working, try setting a daily alarm on your phone. When it goes off, finish whatever you are doing and then start exercising. Eventually, you will train your mind and body to get used to exercising at this time. Exercising will no longer seem like a chore and will instead turn into just another part of your daily routine. Using a smart app to manage and track workouts can also help you stay on schedule. 

5. Bite the bullet

Some days will be harder than others to exercise. You might have gotten poor sleep the night before, or had a long and stressful day. Whatever the reason is, finding the willpower to exercise might be futile. This is when you just need to bite the bullet and do what you can anyways. Even if it’s just a light or short workout, by still choosing to exercise you are reinforcing that habit and overcoming your resistance. Eventually, no matter how bad the day was, exercising will become normalized and won’t be an issue anymore. It might even become a stress reliever or something that you start to look forward to instead.

6. Be kind to yourself

It’s ok to miss a day once or twice. Everyone does. And when that happens, make sure you let that mistake go and vow to try again the next day (and the day after that). Hold yourself accountable but don’t make yourself feel guilty. It will create bad feelings which you will begin to associate with that activity. By forgiving yourself, you set yourself up to move on which makes jumping back on that horse of daily exercise not as daunting.

If you follow these tips for daily exercise, I promise that you will eventually reach whatever goal you have set for yourself, and your life will be so much better for it.