Working out is hard! But try 20 min rule in everyday!!
This articles will be mainly focused on covering two of most important points of your personal development.
- How you start to working out
- How to keep the consistency of your workout and develop a life habit
I will answer above questions based on my personal experience, which I think will be more relevant to you than pulling out all the theories 😊
How many times did you think of going to the gym, but you couldn’t start? or How many times you went to the gym once or twice and then you couldn’t keep up?
“The hardest part is starting. Once you get that out of the way, you’ll find the rest of the journey much easier.”
— Simon Sinek —
But, as we all know, it’s not that easy as “Simon” says . But, let me tell you how you can start and keep the consistency of your workout, so that you can reach to the fitness goal you put into your new year resolution (Yeah I did that too 😁)
First of all, I’m not your fitness guru to tell you how to do your workouts or nor I’m not a bodybuilder either myself. But, I do my workouts on regular basis to burn my calories and get in to the fitness level I want to be, so that I can be healthy and keep my energy level up (Consider building muscle as a by-product of this )
As per the fitness experts, to build muscles or loose the weight, it is very important to maintain the consistency of working out. You have to keep on hitting those body muscles to build it and get rid of that unnecessary body fat. Therefore, to get the results you want to achieve, consistency is the key.
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come”.
— Dwayne Johnson —
Yes Rock. Absolutely !! During the days of starting up on my fitness journey, even though how bad I wanted to get into the shape and the fitness level I wished to have, it was so hard for me to go the gym and keep the consistency of following my workout 🏋️ But, eventually I was able to hack my mind and train it to make my workout as a life habit, so that I get to enjoy what I’m doing everyday (most of the days 🙈). So, this is my two cents on what I learned 😁
Start small !
This is an obvious thing when you start to working out in a gym. Your trainer will definitely tell you to go with the light weight and go with a full body exercise for at least one or two months before you start on your compound exercises and isolations. But, this all will only become true if you made it to your second day at gym and then the day after that and so on. Literally, only if you make it as a habit to go to the gym every day ( Yes! Even in weekends)
That was my main problem. I never could keep up with that consistency of going to gym after my very first day. Because I was too tired and my mind was resisting to wake up at the same time in the morning to go to the gym. For me, the problem was never about going with light weight and do light exercises. It was always about doing too much of it in my very first couple of days for continuous 2 hours, so that the decision of going to the gym in the very next day become so hard to make. With the enthusiastic feeling of starting the gym, I was trying to workout my ass off, looking for six pack in the very next day. This made me so tired for next couple of days which my brain refused to take the decision of making this a life habit.
Therefore, I believe, it is very important to work towards in building the habit of going to gym on your early days rather than focusing on results you are getting out of that. Once you start to working out every day, it helps you to hack your brain and convince it to become a life habit.
Follow Matt D’Avella. One of my favourite YouTuber right now 😉 He will teach you more on developing a habit on anything you do and personal development as well.
With all of above explanations, next question is HOW ?
Try 20 min rule everyday
Yes. Out 1440 minutes ( which you have for one day), you just have to spend 20 minutes in everyday to reach to the health goal you want to achieve in this year. Easy right 😃 Okay, let me explain!🤓
Like I have mentioned earlier, it is very important you focus on developing this as a habit rather than punishing yourself. Because, that’s how we all feel after our first day at the gym. So, we don’t go the gym or workout in the very next day or day after that, it’s very hard for you to build a habit out of it.
So, try 20 minute rule instead. It’s very simple! Workout everyday for 20 min. Yeah! that’s about it. Let’s check how it works. As you all know, the hardest part of working out is keeping up with the constancy. And if you build your consistency, it will automatically become a habit. In order to keep your workout consistency, you should not feel like not going to the your workout after the previous day workout. For that, you should stop overdoing it. Even though you are feeling like you have do more ( it’s natural in your first few days with the dopamine rush ), you should not have. Instead, you starting with 20 minute. In and out, maximum 20 minutes. You will definitely feel like it’s not enough, but trust me, it will in the long run.
It doesn’t really matter what are the exercises you do in your first few days. What really matters is that you commit your exercises (even though it just one) and do it everyday. So, when you complete your 20 min workout in very first day, you will have enough energy through out the day with less tiredness. With that, you will definitely feel like going in the very next day. And day after that. Because, now your brain is loving it. Because it’s too easy and you complete it in just 20 min. And very importantly, you have to do this every single day (except when you are sick 🤕 ). Even though you are out of the city for a work thing, you still can do 20 min workout at your hotel room. So, you don’t break your consistency. That will eventually become a habit of yours.
So, there you go. that’s my 20 minutes rule for you. But, I know, as easy it’s sound like, this is not always possible to do so with our excuses mindset. For me, there were days I didn’t even want to get out my bed and felt like sleeping the whole day without going to the gym. But then again, I tell my brain “Hey, you just have to do the workout for 20 minutes” and it helps me to change my negativity into positivity ( still there are days 😁) and go to the gym. Most of the time I ended up doing my one hour full workout and come back with full of energy to start my day.
That’s about it! This might work for you or might not. But hey, what you have to loose anyway than gaining your health back 🤗 (if it works). And this 20 minutes rule is only for people who are like me, who are struggling to keep up with the consistency of the workout and turning it to a habit. This worked for me and I’m sure it will work for you too (At least for most of you). If you are a fitness junky already or a person who can really keep up with your daily exercises, please ignore all this and keep doing what you are doing already ( You rock 🤟🏼).
Hint : Want know how to reverse age by working out? Then read this !
Oh I almost forgot! Having a very convincing girlfriend will be added as an advantage 😁
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Thanks for reading! If you want to collaborate, talk about Business Analysis and Product Designing, give some suggestions or just want to say hello, hit me up at shashikamanoj@gmail.com or connect via LinkedIn or Twitter
So, start today. Do your 20 min 😃
