8 habits that will keep you consistent with our 8 week challenge
For me and for a lot of other fitness professionals, we’re really lucky that movement fits in to our lives as part of our jobs. So getting up in the morning to workout is a non-negotiable rather than something that relies on self motivation. I get the added bonus that the first part of my working day allows me to spend some of my morning with a fab group of gals and move my body in a way that sets me up for the day ahead.
On the other hand, to wake up and workout while you could be lying in a cosy bed, takes a lot more self motivation! As we all know, some days we are full of motivation but some days we’re on the struggle bus so relying solely on motivation won’t help us stay consistent with our fitness routines. We’re here for a good time and a long time and we need to get some great habits in place to help us through the longevity of our fitness journeys.
With our 8 week consistency challenge just around the corner I wanted to share some ways in which some of our members are planning to set up some great habits to keep them as consistent as possible with the classes each week. Who better to share motivation tips than the very people that will be doing the classes alongside you!
Focus on why you’re doing it, who you’re doing it for and how it’s going to make you feel
There’s no denying that every time you move your body you feel happier, calmer, more energised and more confident. There are instantaneous mental benefits that you can get from each session which genuinely sets you up for a better day. The physical benefits are great but as they take longer to see, they won’t be the thing that motivates you to consistently get up and move your body.
So many of us are living life at a hundred miles an hour and sadly making time to do something for ourselves falls to the bottom of the pile. Looking after your mental and physical health in this way is one of the best things that you can be doing for you so keep coming back and asking yourself, why are you doing this? Who are you doing this for? And most importantly, how good is it going to make you feel?
2. Schedule your workouts
Take some time on a Sunday evening or each morning to slot your workouts into your diary. Having your sessions scheduled will stop you booking something else in over that time so you can prioritise a little bit of you time every day.
When that little notification pops up on your phone to remind you it’s time to workout, try and be conscious of any reasons / mental blocks to not do the session that comes up. I know first-hand that I can tell myself I could be doing XYZ instead and by the time I’ve had that conversation in my head, I’ve cut into 10 minutes of the allotted workout time and I quickly tell myself I don’t have enough time anymore. Try and get in front of those excuses before they eat in to the time that you do have available.
Try not to pick your phone up or open Instagram when that notification to workout comes up. You will lose days and weeks of precious time to move your body by ending up in a scroll hole so if you can avoid opening the app, you’ve won half the battle!
When it comes to scheduling your workouts, try and pick a time of the day with the least amount of barriers to being able to get it done. Waking up 30 minutes earlier might feel tough for the first week but you’ll quickly start to love how much energy it gives you for the rest of the day. Trying to get a workout done when you get back from a busy day in the office or when you are trying to navigate your way through feeding the kids etc will only add extra stress to your day so definitely best to avoid! If you love our live classes and rely on them for a bit of extra motivation then you could schedule your on demand sessions for the same times as the normal live class timetable to help you stick to your current routine.
3. Keep your workouts short so you don’t have to dedicate a big chunk of the day to your class
This challenge is all about consistency. It’s all about little and often. It’s all about taking small steps to build great habits. I’m all about helping you reduce the barriers to exercise and nine times out of ten, the big barrier that comes up is time. The 8 week challenge is full of shorter sessions (mostly 20-30 minutes long) to help you stay consistent with moving your body, even on the busiest days. Motivating yourself to do a 20/30 minute class will feel so much easier than trying to persuade yourself to get started on a 60 minute session.
4. Prioritise workouts to suit your mood.
At the TBC online studio, we’re all about moving our bodies in a way that feels good and what feels good could change from day to day. You might feel like you need an energy burst and a cardio-based session would be the perfect choice or you might be feeling totally exhausted and want a mat-based class where you can move your body through slower movements. Prioritise finding the joy in movement and choose a workout each day that suits how you’re feeling. You’ll always come back for more of what you enjoyed doing.
5. Keep your expectations low and let your confidence build
Our 8 week challenge is made up of 4 short workouts each week. If you’re just getting back into the swing of a workout routine, you might feel like 4 sessions a week is really unachievable so you could spend the first 2-3 weeks doing 2-3 weekly sessions instead and slowly build up to 4. Managing your expectations will help you start to build confidence as you become consistent with a routine.
6. Be kind to yourself if you fall off the wagon, tomorrow is another day to start again
Try not to get pulled into an ‘all or nothing’ mentality. If you put this kind of pressure on yourself you’re very likely to stop the sessions after skipping 1 or 2 due to a busy schedule. Everyday is a new day to start again so make peace with the sessions you’ve had to miss and know you’ll make more of an effort to make time for it the next day.
7. Let music be your motivator!
There’s nothing like the intro of your favourite song to lift your spirits and encourage you to move your body. I would try and get some music on while you get yourself dressed and your equipment prepped to help you stay motivated and then pop a great playlist on to take you through the workout. Although our on demand workouts don’t have background music, you can access all our latest playlists here which you can easily play alongside the sessions.
8. Share your weekly goals with the rest of the TBC community
We have a wonderful WhatsApp group for all members where we share daily motivation and encouragement. It’s such a lovely and supportive space and a great place to share your weekly goals with the rest of the members. Signing up to completing a set number of sessions each week by popping a message in the group will help you stay accountable and help motivate the rest of the gang at the same time. There’s a ‘like’ and ‘comment’ feature on each of the on demand classes so you can also share some thoughts on each of the sessions that you complete to let me know how you’re getting on and give our other members a little motivational boost to try out that session. If you haven’t joined the WhatsApp group yet then you can here.
So there we are, 8 great ideas from our lovely members on how they’ll be motivating themselves to stay consistent with our 8 week challenge. Although I’ll be in a newborn bubble, I’ll be dropping into your inboxes weekly and the WhatsApp group daily to see how you’re getting on and keep cheering you on from the sidelines.
If you’re not a member yet but would love to take part in this challenge then we’d love to have you on board. Discover all the details about TBC membership here.