Consistency, or the lack thereof, is the biggest reason you may or may not be seeing the results and experiencing the emotional benefits of working out. That’s because without consistency, your body and mind have a more difficult time changing and then maintaining a new altered state.
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Why Does Consistency Matter?
A lot happens in your brain and body when you workout. Blood gets diverted from your liver and digestive system to your skeletal musicals; hormones in your brain release messages that signal it’s time to convert fat into glucose; capillaries in the muscles expand increasing blood flow by up to 20 times; and tiny tears form in the musicals, which help them grow bigger and stronger as they heal.
When you’re consistent with your workouts, your brain and body become more familiar with these changes. The more familiar they are, the easier it is for them to access this heightened state, or “turn on” the physiological and neurological processes that take place in the brain and body when you workout.
Exercising consistently also helps to build a strong foundation in the brain and body. A strong foundation allows you to keep building level by level, instead of needing to start from scratch each and every time. It’s kind of like building a house––if you don’t have a strong floor and foundation, you can’t build the walls.. and without walls you can’t build the roof. When you aren’t consistent with your workouts, you have to start by building the floor each and every time you workout again, which seriously slows your progress.
Creating More Consistency in Your Fitness
Now that you know why consistency in your workouts is so important, here are some things you can do to become more consistent and experience the emotional and physical benefits of mindful movement in your life.
Start by asking yourself the right questions.
How long does it take for results to show? When can I expect to lose weight? When will I see defined muscles and toned abs?
As fitness professionals, these are just some of the questions we often hear from beginners. While there’s nothing wrong with asking these questions, they don’t help you get clear about why your fitness goals are important to you.
Instead of asking “when” or “how long,” try asking yourself:
- What is driving my desire to workout more consistently?
- How do I want to feel when (and after) working out?
- What do I think will happen when I hit these fitness goals?
Taking a few minutes to get clear on your answers to these questions (we suggest grabbing a journal and setting a timer for 10 - 12 minutes to help you iron out that clarity) will reveal the deeper motivations behind your desires. That’s the information that will support you in articulating a clear why, or fitness purpose statement that feels connected to who you are, who you want to become, and the life you want to create for yourself.
There will be bumps and hills along every journey, and your fitness journey is no different. Having a clear purpose statement will help you move through those moments with groundendes and resolve, helping you create the consistency that’s key to your long-term fitness success.
Incorporate at-home workouts.
How many times have you had grand plans to head to the gym or catch a workout class only to bail at the last minute because the idea of getting there felt like too much of a hassle? Yup, we’ve been there too, and that’s one of the reasons we created the FRAME Reformer. Even as fitness professionals who intimately understand the immense value of consistent, mindful movement, sometimes we struggle to make it to the gym too.
And that’s just one of the reasons why incorporating at-home workouts into your fitness routine is key to consistency. It can also save you time and money and give you a judgment-free zone to experiment and build new skills.
Create accountability and lovingly recognize your progress.
Announcing your fitness goals––and the specific plans you have to reach them––can help motivate and inspire you to stay on track and build consistency. That’s because there’s immense power in our words! One strategy is to share your goals with your coworkers and then schedule your workouts into your calendar. That way it will feel like your work community is holding you accountable and has a vested interest in your success.
If you don’t feel comfortable sharing the news at work, reach out to a trusted friend and ask them to be your accountability buddy. Give them one to two specific things they can do to support you (like text you every Friday at 4pm and ask you if you worked out that week).
In addition to creating accountability for yourself, it’s important to lovingly recognize your progress and acknowledge the ways in which you are showing up for yourself. Some people like to do this with progress photos, but we prefer a slightly more mindful approach: Every night before you go to sleep, write down one way you showed up for yourself and your fitness goals. Then make note of how doing so made you feel.
