7 Proven Habits for More Consistent Workouts

Are you someone who skips more workouts than you complete? Do you start new training plans filled with enthusiasm and excitement, only to lose your momentum after a few short weeks? Are you a habitual on-again/off-again exerciser?

If so, take comfort in the knowledge that you are not alone. Many people are sporadic exercisers who find it almost impossible to work out consistently.

Unfortunately, consistency is one of the most important factors determining your training success. The best workout won’t produce results if you don’t stick to it. In contrast, even a poorly designed training program will produce some results if you can commit to doing it regularly.

The good news is that you can train yourself to become a more consistent exerciser. Cracking workout consistency code will make achieving any fitness goal a whole lot easier.

In this article, we reveal the common causes of workout inconsistency and the seven strategies you can use to overcome this all-too-common problem.

Inconsistent Workouts? It May Not Be Your Fault!

While some people have no problem exercising consistently, others find stringing more than a couple of workouts together almost impossible. Sadly, inconsistency will make even the best workout plan less effective.

However, it may not be your fault that you keep breaking your training resolutions. In fact, your chosen plan could be the problem. Here are a few of the reasons that you may be unable to stick to your newest training plan.

Your workout plan requires too much time

Time is the most valuable commodity, and when time is short, exercise is often the first casualty. Unfortunately, a lot of workouts involve too many exercises and too many sets, often way beyond what you actually need to produce results. These so-called junk sets can make your workout not only less effective but prohibitively long.

If your workout takes too big a chunk out of your day, it will soon be relegated to later or even dropped altogether so you can meet your other commitments.

Yes, you CAN make more time by getting up earlier, spending less time with your friends, or just being better organized, but, ultimately, if your workouts start to encroach on your non-gym life, something’s gotta give, and it’s usually your workouts.

Your workouts are too intense or complicated

Many training program writers seem to pride themselves on designing workouts that are incredibly intense or extremely complex. They forget they’re writing plans for average Joes and Janes, not the next Mr. Olympia!

If you need a sports science degree to follow a training plan, invariably, it won’t be long until you start skipping workouts. Similarly, if a workout leaves you feeling exhausted and sore for days at a time, you’ve got a readymade excuse for giving it up. While exercise intensity is necessary, sustainability is even more so.

There is no point in training so hard one day that you are incapacitated with muscle soreness the next. Moderation is the key!

Your workouts are too inflexible

The best workout plans can be fine-tuned, so they match the needs of the individual. Everyone who lifts has particular needs and wants, and what works for one person may not work for another.

For example, many strength and bodybuilding training programs revolve around the squat. And while the squat IS an excellent exercise, it’s not suitable for everyone. Because of previous injuries, equipment limitations, or mobility issues, some people may not want or be able to squat.

Very rigid exercise programs all but encourage rebellion because they are so strict; it’s “our way or the highway.”

Faced with such a strict program, many of us will exercise our free will and choose to do something else instead, even if it’s to our detriment. If you dislike an exercise enough, you may even quit your workout altogether.

The good news is that there are several ways to make regular exercise much more sustainable, seven of which are laid out in detail in the following sections!

7 Habits for More Consistent Workouts

Consistency is the key to reaching your strength, muscle-building, and fat-loss goals. Develop these habits and make missing workouts a thing of the past!

1. Choose activities you enjoy

Enjoyment and exercise are words not often used together, but they should be. Habitual exercise is much easier if you enjoy what you do. If you look forward to your workouts, you have one less excuse for skipping them.

In contrast, if you dread your current workout, you are much less likely to do it consistently, even if it’s aligned with your goals. And of you DO manage to drag yourself through it, you probably won’t put that much effort into something you don’t enjoy.

Fitness experts love to argue about the merits of one type of exercise over another. They’ll debate the benefits of almost any workout method, including:

• Resistance machines are better than free weights
• Compound exercises are better than isolation exercises
• Bodybuilding is better than powerlifting
• High-intensity interval training is better than steady-paced cardio
• Pilates is better than yoga
• Running is better than walking

But, while there may be winners and losers in these kinds of discussions, the differences are very marginal, and almost any type of exercise will help you get fit, lose weight, and stay healthy.

When it comes to your next workout or diet, for that matter, choose the one you enjoy. We all have off days where we don’t feel like exercising, but if you like what you do, those days should be relatively few.

2. Set a schedule

Imagine a school where the students can turn up at whatever time they want or a job where you set your own work hours. In most cases, such an unstructured timetable would result in low or zero productivity.

And yet, this is how a lot of people treat their training. They show up at the gym at any old time and do whatever they feel like doing on that particular day.

This is NOT a recipe for success!

So, grab your diary or day planner app and plan your workouts for the coming few weeks. Try to train at the same time to create an even stronger habit. For example, mark down 5.30-7.00pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and set those times aside for training.

Once your workouts are in your diary, treat them as unbreakable appointments. Think of them as hot dates, work interviews, or medical appointments. Protect them from other commitments, and if someone asks you if you are free at those times, just say no, and that you have a prior engagement.

If you want serious results from your workouts, you need to take your workouts seriously. Set a training schedule and stick to it.

3. Under-commit, over-deliver

It’s all too easy to over-commit to training when you are feeling energetic and enthusiastic. For example, you might plan on hitting the gym for two hours per day, six days a week. And while such motivation and enthusiasm are to be applauded, it’s probably unsustainable.

Unfortunately, it won’t take much to derail your ambitious plan, and one missed workout will soon turn into a few missed workouts in a row. Progress will grind to a halt, you’ll become disillusioned, and you may even give up training altogether.

So, it’s better to under-commit and then do more if you can.

For example, plan on hitting the gym three times a week for an hour per session. That should be manageable and sustainable. If you can do more, then, by all means, do so. But by committing to only three modest workouts, you avoid setting yourself up for failure.

4. Embrace simplicity

Many fitness experts are guilty of making training more complicated than it needs to be. For example, workouts often involve complex (and usually expensive) exercise equipment, hard-to-master movements, detailed set and rep schemes, and other things that mean you spend more time thinking about training than doing it.

All this complexity could even put you off starting in the first place and certainly make sticking to a program harder than it needs to be.

Remember that humankind has been exercising for centuries, long before exercise science even became a thing. Ironically, the more we know about the science of exercise, the fewer people seem to be doing it.

Don’t get hung up on the science of training or feel that your workout needs to be complex to deliver results. Ultimately, something as simple as the deadlift can help you build muscle and get stronger, and that means just picking up a heavy barbell and putting back down again. Exercises don’t come much more straightforward!

The thing is, despite its apparent complexity and biomechanical brilliance, your body is actually kind of dumb. It cannot differentiate between a state-of-the-art chest press machine worth $30,000 and the humble push-up. Both exercises work the same muscles, but one is complicated, while the other is simple.

Simple workouts, such as going out for a jog around your neighborhood or doing a bodyweight circuit in your home, can be every bit as productive as more complicated or expensive forms of exercise. They are also more accessible.

The easier training is to slot into your schedule, the more likely you are to do it. Successful exercisers know that, with fewer obstacles between you and your workout, you are much more likely to do it regularly.

5. Have a plan B

Even the best-laid plans can go awry. For example, you might have planned to do a chest workout on Monday only for your car to break down, so you can’t get to the gym. Unfortunately, life sometimes gets in the way despite our best intentions.

However, you don’t need to turn a drama into a crisis. Instead, make sure you have a back-up plan so you can still score your workout, even if you can’t stick to your training program exactly.

For example, instead of doing your usual chest workout at the gym, do a push-up workout at home. While this won’t be quite as effective as what you had planned, it’s 1000% better than doing nothing.

Alternatively, keep a set of adjustable dumbbells or resistance bands at home so you can stay on top of your training and won’t miss out even if you can’t hit the gym for your regular workout.

The military has a saying: no plan survives first contact with the enemy. However, having a back-up plan means you can still meet your training objectives, even if it requires a slightly different workout approach from what you’re used to.

In almost every case, any workout is better than no workout.

6. Get a training partner

When you exercise alone, the only person you are answerable to is yourself. If you skip your workout, no one needs to know, and you’ll get away with this heinous crime unpunished. Sure, you may feel guilty, but it’s the sort of guilt that’s easy enough to cover with a beer, some hot wings, and a night at home watching Netflix!

However, if you have a partner to train with, they’ll miss you if you are a gym no-show and will probably call you out if you keep skipping workouts.

Knowing that someone is waiting for you at the gym means you are much more likely to turn up to train. You might be okay with letting yourself down, but you are much less likely to let someone else down. And remember, your training partner is relying on you as much as you are relying on them.

Seek out training partners with the same exercise goals as you and roughly the same fitness level. Also, make sure it’s someone who will be reliable, as a flaky training partner can be just as bad as no training partner at all. 

7. Never miss two workouts in a row

Even if you adopt these habits, at some point, you will be forced to miss a workout. Unfortunately, life sometimes throws you unavoidable curveballs that mess with even the best-laid plans.

If this happens to you, the first thing to remember is one missed workout isn’t the end of the world. In the grand scheme of things, the occasional missed workout won’t hurt your progress.

That said, you should get into the habit of never missing two workouts in a row. That way, you’ll stay on track even if you do experience the occasional slip-up.

So, by hook or by crook, if you are forced to miss a workout, make it a singular incident and do everything in your power to hit your next scheduled training session. This may mean working out on a rest day or rejigging the rest of that week’s program. Do whatever it takes to get back on track pronto.

The only exceptions to this rule are illness and injury. Sometimes, you’ll need to take time off to let your body heal. Although, it’s sometimes possible to train around injuries.

FAQs

Got a question about how to make your workouts more consistent? Here are our answers to the most common consistency FAQs!

1. How many workouts do I need to do per week?

The number of workouts you need per week depends on your training goal, experience level, and how much time you can commit to training. Still, most habitual exercisers work out 3-6 times per week.

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter how often you work out so long as your efforts are consistent. As such, you need to choose a workout frequency you can stick to. There is no point doing five workouts one week and just one the next.

That’s why we suggest you aim for three workouts per week and do more only if you are able. Think of three workouts per week as a minimum, and anything more than that is a bonus.

Then, when your habit of hitting three workouts per week is set in stone, you can consider moving up to four and should have no problem maintaining this new, higher frequency.

Remember, it’s always better to under-commit and over-deliver than over-commit and fail to deliver.

2. How long should my workouts be?

There is no set time that a workout must last for it to be effective. For example, you can have a great workout in 30 minutes or less or train for an hour or more and have an utterly ineffective workout.

So, don’t get too hung up on how long your workouts are. Instead, focus more on the quality of your training session. Select exercises that provide plenty of bang for your buck. Don’t fall into the trap of doing lots of junk sets above and beyond what you need to achieve your training goal.

For example, it’s rare to need more than 2-4 sets of a couple of different exercises per body part, even for bodybuilding purposes.

Think of your time and energy as valuable resources and spend them wisely. Don’t waste them on a whole lot of unnecessary exercises or sets.

This strategy will shorten your workouts, which should mean you can do them more consistently, as they’ll fit into your weekly schedule more easily.

3. I try to do five hours of cardio per week, but I often only manage 2-3. What should I do?

If you cannot consistently meet the demands of your workout schedule, you already know you are trying to do too much. If the volume was right, you’d be able to do it, right?

Plus, why do you want to do five hours of cardio per week? If it’s for weight management, there is a good chance you are trying to out-train a bad diet and would do better if you ate a little less. You could certainly cut down on the cardio if your diet was a little more on-point.

That said, long and frequent cardio workouts are unavoidable when training for an endurance sport, such as triathlon. Still, if you can’t fit your workouts into your schedule, then maybe it’s not the right sport for you.

4. If elite bodybuilders train two hours per day, six times a week, then why can’t I?

Elite bodybuilders are a special breed of human with perfect genes for training and bodybuilding. They’re the best because they can thrive and grow on extreme workouts. Unfortunately, the rest of us are not that lucky!

Some bodybuilders also use steroids which increase muscle protein synthesis so they can train even harder, longer, and more often.

Trying to emulate a genetically gifted bodybuilder, especially one using performance-enhancing drugs, is training suicide for the average lifter. And yet, a lot of so-called fitness experts design programs that are not suitable for natural trainees.

Because of this, most lifters should follow more conservative training programs that leave plenty of gas in the tank for muscle growth and recovery. Leave pro workouts to the pros!

5. What is the best training split?

Your split serves one purpose – dividing your workout volume over your training week. There are lots of ways to do this, from push-pull-leg splits to so-called bro splits to full-body workouts.

They all work, providing you pick something that you can stick to.

So, rather than looking for the best split, choose the one that works best for you. For example, if you can only realistically hit the gym three times a week, pick a split that allows that to happen.

Check out our guide to the best workout splits and pick the one you know you can do consistently.

6. Got any good workout plans for people who can only train at weekends?

Sure do! This popular program is perfect for anyone who can only find the time to train twice per week. While this may not be the best plan for building muscle, it’s still better than a workout you cannot fit into your schedule. Best and optimal are not always the same thing, and the workout you do will always be better than the one you skip!

7. I’m constantly breaking my diet, so got any similar tips and habits for eating healthy?

You can apply several of the habits outlined above to diet AND training. That said, here are a few more that’ll help keep your diet on the straight and narrow.

Remove all junk food from your house – that way, if you have a lapse in willpower, it’ll be harder to cheat on your diet.

Fill up on protein and veggies – high-protein foods and fibrous veggies are very filling. They also tend to be relatively low in calories. Build your meals around these foods to feel fuller for longer.

Eat until you are no longer hungry rather than full – many people eat way more than they should and continue eating until they can’t eat anymore. Instead, eat more mindfully and stop when you are satisfied. This will probably mean there is still food left on your plate. That’s okay – just save it for later.

Avoid elimination diets – any diet that bans a particular food or food group is a recipe for cravings and binges. For example, a diet that eliminates carbs will probably make you crave bread, rice, pasta, cereal, etc., simply because it’s off the menu.

You’ll find it much easier to stick to any diet if you are allowed to eat a wide range of foods and nothing is banned. Moderation is much more effective than banning so-called “bad” foods, and certainly more sustainable.

Don’t starve yourself – many diets are too aggressive and cut your calorie intake to way below what you need to function from one day to the next. These are often called starvation diets.

Starvation diets invariably lead to severe hunger and cravings. While you may be able to resist hunger for a day or even a week, eventually, your willpower will crack, and you’ll break your diet and overeat, undoing all your hard work.

A more moderate and sustainable diet that you can stick to for weeks at a time will produce far better results. So, don’t even start any kind of very low-calorie diet. They never work, and most people quickly regain any weight they’ve lost.

Find out more about sensible dieting for health and weight loss here.

Closing Thoughts

It takes years of consistent training to build muscle, get strong, or get fit. You need to be in it for the long haul. So, the next time you look at a new program, ask yourself if you can see yourself doing it several months from now.

If you have any doubts about being able to stick with the program, or a new diet for that matter, it is not the right plan for you.

Remember, the best workout is always the one you can follow, even if it’s not entirely perfect.

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