Need to Develop an Exercise Habit?
Right Start Fitness Program Can Help
By Christy Weaver, Sagewell Fitness Manager
No one begins their fitness journey with bad intentions or poor motivation. While it may seem that these are the most important things to making exercise a regular occurrence, it isn’t necessarily the case. The key is a behavior change to create an exercise habit.
A habit is a behavioral pattern that is repeated and consistent. There are essentially three elements to creating a habit: a cue, a behavior or action, and a reward.
A Cue
There are positive and negative cues. A positive cue could be setting your workout clothes next to the bed, so you put them on when you get up. A negative cue that needs to be eliminated could be hitting the snooze alarm causing you to miss the opportunity to exercise before you start the day.
The Action and A Reward
The action is doing and completing the exercise and the reward can be support from a workout partner or trainer or something tangible you work toward achieving.
Here are some steps to developing a habit of exercise:
- Develop a routine by exercising at the same time each workout day.
- Schedule this time as an appointment.
- Start with exercises that are small, simple, and easy to finish.
- Focus on just showing up.
- Focus on developing the habit first, not on the results.
Sagewell Health & Fitness offers a program to assist both members and potential members to develop healthy behavioral habits. The Right Start Fitness Program is structured to introduce exercise gradually and progressively over 9 weeks. Adherence to an exercise program improves because of the gradual introduction of new exercises.
With the Right Start Fitness Program, Sagewell Fitness Specialists will be available to monitor progress, introduce progressions, and supervise exercise sessions. You commit to exercising a minimum of twice per week for approximately 20-40 minutes each session.
You can join the 9-week Right Start Fitness Program at any time as space allows. Registration is limited but is offered at various times to make it convenient. Cost for potential members of Sagewell is only $99 and financial assistance is available. You can register online here or call (336) 890-3199 for more information.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christy Weaver, BS, CPT, has more than 27 years of experience in managing and supervising fitness teams, delivering personal training and group exercise classes, and teaching health education to all ages. Christy is originally from Greensboro and attended UNC-G where she majored in public health education and minored in psychology.
