You’ve done it. You’ve made the decision that you are going to start an exercise habit. That’s amazing, well done! It is a huge and important step.
It all starts off well, you start with 4 times a week. But soon enough 4 times drops to 2, then once a week, and before you know it you’re back to spending every evening watching Netflix wondering what went wrong.
So what did go wrong? More often than not it is simply a case of not allowing enough time for the routine of exercise to become a habit. Which begs the question: just how long does it take to form an exercise habit?
21 days – myth or truth?
We’ve all heard it. The Holy Grail statement that “it only takes 21 days to form a habit”. Is that true in real life though, or just a myth?
21 days sounds great, doesn’t it? Very achievable and not too scary. Just exercise regularly for 3 weeks and then, hey presto, it won’t feel like a chore anymore and you’ll be one of those smug people trotting off to the gym before work every morning.
Unfortunately it’s a big fat myth.
Research published in the European Journal of Social Psychology by Phillippa Lally showed that in real life it takes on average 66 days to form a new habit. Hmmm, 9 and a half weeks, that’s not quite as appetising as just 3 weeks.
This is just the average though, the study participants actually took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for their new chosen habit to stick.
What this means is that if you are determined to form a habit; be it exercise; healthy eating; stopping smoking; or anything else, you should allow a minimum of 2 months before that behaviour becomes an ingrained habit. More realistic is 3 months , and be aware that it could take up to 8 months.
Don’t let this dishearten you though! There is a tried and tested process for forming habits, it is pretty simple and can be used for anything you would like to start doing.
The loop
One of my favourite books, Charles Duhigg’s “The Power of Habit” was a bit of a game changer for me. It really helped me to understand the nuts and bolts of habits and why they are so key in our lives.
He has developed a system called “the loop”, which breaks habits down into a simple three action system:
- A CUE – a trigger which reminds you to perform the habit
- A ROUTINE – the action you do automatically
- A REWARD – the payoff you get once you have performed the action
Our brain likes to make things as simple as possible. It likes shortcuts and habits are a great shortcut as it makes things easy for the brain. It doesn’t need to think and decide what to do, it just does it.
Cleaning your pearly whites – a simple example
Let’s take an easy example of cleaning our teeth every morning.
We don’t think long and hard about it and then have to convince ourselves to clean our teeth. We just do it.
We get up, we eat breakfast, we go and clean our teeth. End of story.
No dilemmas or in-brain arguments about “should I or shouldn’t I”, “what is the best way to do it”, or “should I do it now or later”.
We just eat our breakfast then go into the bathroom. This is the cue.
We pick up the toothbrush and clean our teeth. This is the routine.
Afterwards our mouth feels nice and clean again and our teeth feel smooth when we run our tongue over them. This is the reward.
This is a perfect example of a very ingrained habit where our brain doesn’t have to think much.
Breaking down the loop
Let’s break it down step by step
The Cue
The cue is the trigger which reminds you to perform the action you want to do.
It could be all sorts of different things, from an emotion, a time of day, a particular person or a general pattern of behaviours which triggers the routine.
The routine
The routine is the actual action you perform. For our case of building an exercise habit, the routine would be to do some exercise.
The reward
The reward is the benefit you get from completing the routine
According to an article by Deborah Halber on Brainfacts.org, “Neurons that release dopamine are activated when we expect to receive a reward.”
Dopamine is that wonderful “happy hormone” that makes us feel good. In other words, rewards make our brains happy and make us crave that feeling again.
Rewards
Finding a fitting reward – intrinsic vs extrinsic
The right reward is absolutely key in developing a habit, so you need to experiment a little to see what works for you.
It might be tempting to focus on extrinsic rewards, in other words something external such as fitting into a pair of jeans you haven’t been able to squeeze into for 2 years, or losing your baby belly.
But, as Alison Phillips of Iowa State University found, the reward must come directly from the activity. If you’re exercising to lose weight or for other extrinsic reasons, you’ll still have to make a decision when you encounter your cue.
This means you need to find what is known as an intrinsic reward.
In their book, Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions & New Directions, Dr. Richard Ryan and Edward Deci define intrinsic motivation as “the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence.”
Or in real life words: you do something because it makes you feel good inside, not because it’ll make you look good outside.
Intrinsic rewards are totally personal to you and it will take a bit of time to work out your own unique reward system that actually works.
The key is to experiment. Next time you exercise, stop for a moment afterwards and focus on how you are feeling. Try to find a feeling or thought which made the workout worthwhile. Some common examples are:
- I felt so tired before the workout, but now I am full of energy and bouncing off the walls
- A work problem was going round and round in my head, but now I have clarity and have a good idea how to solve it
- I had nasty period pains before I started, but now they’re gone
- I felt really low before the class, but the energy from the instructor and the other participants has lifted me up and made me feel connected and a part of something
- I feel like I really achieved something by completing my workout
These are just examples. It MUST be something that you genuinely experience for it to work as an intrinsic reward.
Building your own habit loop
Now you know the process, you can understand why it is very easy to give up if you approach it in the way most people do:
You decide you want to fit into your skinny jeans and will start exercising.
You make a start and the first week goes well. The sessions are really hard, but you are motivated – “YES I CAN DO THIS!”
The second week comes along and you skip the first session, you’re just too tired today, but that’s OK as you have the rest of the week to catch up.
You weigh yourself. Hmmph no change on the scales.
Your second session is due, but you’re soooo busy at work that you drop that one too. You feel so guilty that you have a bar of chocolate to make yourself feel better (and then feel even guiltier because you ate that chocolate bar).
OK, back to it. You do what should have been your third session that week (but is actually your first). It feels good, “YES I’m back on it.”
The weekend comes along, when you promised you would catch up on a session. Uh oh, Friday night was a heavy one and you have the Mother of all hangovers for the whole weekend – you couldn’t possibly exercise
….and so it continues until after a few weeks the workouts have dropped off the radar completely.
‘Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.’ – Jim Rohn
It is SUCH a common story, so don’t beat yourself up if it sounds familiar. Instead, let’s focus on what we can do to make it work this time. The “Triple D approach”: Determine, Develop, Discover.
Determine your cues
Choosing your trigger is a key part of building your habit loop.
Some common examples are:
- Pack your gym bag before going to bed and leave it by the front door, that way if you are exercising in the morning everything is all ready for you to just get up and go (this is what I used to do)
- Go to sleep with your training shoes and clothes at the end of your bed (a friend of a friend mine would even sleep in her gym clothes!!)
- On Sunday, schedule your workouts for the week in the calendar and set reminders on your phone
- Build a mini-healthy-routine as your cue. Drink a glass of water, close your eyes and take 10 deep breaths and get “into the zone”
Develop your routine
Forget what you think you know about exercise or what a workout should look like.
Start small.
I mean start really small.
Go for a 5 minute walk each day. Do a 10 minute online workout. Go to the gym, but only do one exercise.
Find something small and achievable. Schedule it into your calendar. Maybe it is so small that you can do it every day.
Once you have made this small simple routine into a habit, then you can start to build up your workouts.
Discover your rewards
As mentioned above, focus on discovering your intrinsic rewards. Those positive inner feelings which eventually your brain will start to crave.
A great and very simple little hack to start to get your brain to crave exercise is this:
- Draw up a simple workout plan for the month
- Decide on something you will reward yourself with if you complete every workout (for ideas see here)
- Cross each workout that you complete with a big red pen
- Once you have completed the month, make sure you treat yourself to that reward you promised yourself
Reward Ideas:
- Treat yourself to an evening of “me time”
- Buy yourself a new workout mat / exercise shoes / water bottle
- Go out dancing
- Enjoy your favourite healthy meal at a local restaurant
Tip: Don’t make the rewards something really counter-productive, like giving yourself a week off exercise or eating a whole chocolate cake. It should be something which reinforces the positive changes you are making in your life.
Dos and don’ts of habit building:
To finish, here are a few dos and don’ts to keep in mind when you are trying to from an exercise habit (or any habit for that matter)
Don’t give up if you slip up
Missing one exercise session doesn’t mean you are a failure and doesn’t mean that the habit won’t stick.
In fact, the research published by Phillippa Lally from the University College London found that “missing one opportunity to perform the behaviour did not materially affect the habit formation process.”
So don’t give up if you slip up!
Don’t get impatient if it´s not a habit within 3 weeks
As we’ve already seen, forming habits is a delicate process and can take months before something truly becomes habitual.
Do think carefully about the reward
The reward needs to be strong enough to make your brain crave it. Experiment with different rewards and find something which works for you.
During this process, ticking of your workouts as you complete them is a really great way to keep up your motivation.
Do build allies
Use friends or family to help – join a gym, attend a group fitness session or go jogging with a friend.
You are much more likely to go if you know they are relying on you to also turn up.
Or if you cannot actually attend together, message each other to “check-in” for your workout and send each other sweaty selfies once you’ve finished.
Don’t pick habits you hate
If you HATE running, why would you try to build a habit to go running 5 times a week? I mean, that’s just being cruel to yourself.
Choose something you actually enjoy (or at least think you could enjoy) and the habit building will be sooo much easier!
Conclusion
Most of the time our thinking is a bit backwards when it comes to forming an exercise habit.
We focus on a goal and expect that to be enough of a driver to push us through to obtain the objective.
The problem is our brains are wired to avoid pain and many people have deep-rooted negative feelings about exercise, so for their brain exercise = pain.
We therefore need to re-wire the brain. This is where the habit loop comes in and our Triple D approach of Determining your Cues, Developing your Routine and Discovering your Rewards.
It takes time to form an exercise habit. As we have seen, it can be anywhere from less than a month to 8 months or more. But it is totally worth the time and effort, as once you make the habit stick it is so much easier to keep it going for a healthier life and therefore healthier you.
What is your experience of forming an exercise habit? How long do you think it took and do you have any tips you’d like to share?