This post presents tips for getting back into working out when you’ve gone off track. Life happens, things get in the way, and we can’t always keep on our fitness routine. If we know how to make it easier to start up again, we can shorten the time off and reduce gaps in our training and issues associated with them
It Takes Work to Build What We Want, Including Us
When we really want something, we have to put in the work to make it happen. There are always obstacles, but hard work and determination can help us achieve most goals. This is especially true of working out and fitness.
Everyone knows the feeling. You’ve been working hard on your diet, keeping yourself moving, and feel like you’re in a good place with your health. All of a sudden, life mixes in a little changeup and knocks you off your fitness path.
Maybe you have a busy school semester and work is piling up, stressing you out and occupying a lot of free time.
Maybe you’re switching jobs, and the changing schedule knocks you off your routine. There
Maybe you had a workout that made you question whether you even like the gym, or ran into someone at your gym who made it a negative experience.
Whatever your situation may be, sometimes we get knocked off of our routine. It’s ok, it happens to everyone, and there are always new barriers to fitness. The trick is to learn how to get back on track.
Problems Arise When We’re Off Track
When we’re in the habit of doing something, the next time we do it comes naturally. However, momentum fades we deviate from routine.
When I was a young wrestler, my coach spoke to the team after a(nother) tough practice. We had been working hard, and every weeknight and weekend came with a several-hour fitness session. Understandably, we were exhausted and didn’t feel like our opponents trained fitness like us.
He said:
We’re training hard so that we can be the fittest and most disciplined team out there. To do that, we must be consistent.
Consistency means working hard and often so that we’re ready for whatever happens.
You can miss one day, that’s ok. We all need a break sometimes. But, never miss two days of practice. Missing two days is when the problems start.
The speech was quick, but its effect lingered.
Momentum Makes Tough Things Easier
Why is it that losing a routine or rhythm makes it harder to keep doing what you want? Simply put, it’s hard to get everything we want done, and there’s always an excuse to do something else.
Getting out of a routine forces us to stop re-load all of our feelings toward a particular task or action, changing it from an automatic job to one that requires thought and planning.
Momentum is key to accomplishing tasks (especially those we don’t want to do) because it lets us transfer energy from one success into the next project. When we have momentum, we can push from one task right into another, allowing us to complete it with less resistance. Momentum is created both from the completion of an individual task and also from using a system to regularly complete a task.
For example, if we’ve gotten ourselves in a cleaning mood and sweep the house, we get sense of accomplishment from completing the individual task, creating momentum that will help with our next task. By taking tasks, completing them, and compounding the successes, we keep ourselves moving and pushing from one task to the next.
In terms of building momentum from a structured system, let’s consider it in terms of building a weekly workout system:
When we condition ourselves to work out when we wake up, the first few may be tough.
After a bit of time, we start to spring up a little more naturally. This pep in our step comes as our body gets used to the morning workouts, and progresses each time we reinforce the routine. Over time, we will start waking up with the idea already in our head that it’s time to exercise, making it easier to anchor ourselves that routine and the morning workouts as our standard.
There will always be a tough day or two, but we tasks run more smoothly we’re in the routine and have built up momentum to do them.
Once we’re off our routine, that anchor is gone.
What Happens When We’re Off-Track
When we have a habit, momentum, or routine, we have an idea of what comes next already in our mind. When the routine is gone, our next actions are open.
Even though we had previously made a successful routine and enjoyed the effects, that routine is no longer there. What fills the space is an open slot waiting for us to determine a course of action.
We remember what we were doing before, and we may recognize that it had positive effects. However, we also know that we can do just about anything else. Instead of completing the task as an impulse, we now have to think about what we did and why we did it.
Humans tend to weigh the negative more than the positive. When we’re reconsidering the task that was once a habit, we go back and remember all of the hard parts of it.
Working out was tiring and painful. Studying was intense and stressful. Meal prepping was exhausting and frustrating.
Negative ideas flow into our mind, and, like a wall of water, flush us away when we try rolling back into the routine. We are no longer anchored firmly in our system, and we are prone to seeing the challenges as insurmountable.
If we want to get back on top of our routines, we have to make steps that provide easy access to the top.
Getting Back Into Working Out
Like most things we want, fitness is a demanding pursuit, requiring hard work and consistency to achieve and maintain. We are can knocked off of our fitness track, but getting back into working out does not need to be unbearable.
All it takes is a little movement.
Getting back into working out after losing track of a routine requires a deliberate effort to get my body moving. I find that I can get myself back into exercise more easily by mixing in light movement designed to make my body feel exertion and see the effects of movement without fearing a whole impending workout.
By adding light movement without a full exercise, I find that I can build positive associations with exercise and leave my body asking for more. I refer to these light, deliberate movement efforts as “Running the System,” which I will describe more below.
Running The System
Running the System is the practice of introducing light, regular movement activities that get your body used to the idea of fitness.
The idea behind Running the System is that it’s easier to get back into a routine once you’ve done something. Running the System provides an opportunity to both reduce the gap between workouts and incrementally reintroduce movement to the body. I find that Running the System makes it much easier when getting back into working out because I have reduced the gap between being sedentary and exercising.
Movement requires effort, and it’s a lot of pressure to have to go from a sedentary period right into a full-scale workout. Running the System lets the practitioner build activity into their day so it’s less of a jump to go from work to a workout.
Additionally, running the system incorporates activity into otherwise sedentary periods, helping build momentum and increase overall activity (similar to my recommended study of movement through Micro Assessments, but Running the System focuses on keeping moving while Micro Assessments focus on developing body awareness).
Running the System is not limited to one type of fitness activity. Rather, it is a practice designed to get your heart rate up, introduce more activity into your day, and make for less of a jump when you want to get back into a full-scale workout.
What Running the System Looks Like
You may read that and think “well neat, but what does that actually mean?” I don’t blame you.
Running the System is something many of us already do, but we don’t often give it the credit or deliberate effort it deserves.
Running the System can be anything from doing a few push ups after spending a lot of time sitting at your desk, to hoping in place, to squats, to even a good walk around the block.
The key to Running the System is giving yourself a low-stakes chance to move around.
Why We Should Be Running the System
Our bodies are meant to move. We operate under the assumption that we will move around, and this movement helps us build better and understand how we are designed to move.
When we don’t move, we are forced to recognize the effort it takes to move. Longer gaps make it harder for us to want to move or exercise, and our muscles begin to weaken and lose their fine-tuning.
Running the System allows us to regularly engage with our bodies, promoting continued growth and opportunities to learn. We give ourselves more chances to burn calories, recognize how our body parts work, and recognize which areas are in need of training. Most importantly, we teach our bodies that they are meant to move.
How Running the System Can Get Us Back On Track
Running the System helps us introduce frequent light movement activities into our days. These movements are low-stakes and come with limited time demands, no weight or rep counting requirements, and no expectation of subsequent exercises. Running the System acts as a spark to reignite our engines and get some movement into our days.
Once we’ve moved, we have an opportunity to recognize how it feels. I find that Running the System takes the bite out of my first workout after a break by taking care of the rusty warm-up period before I actually start a workout. Put another way, Running the System gives us pre-workout warm up activities that just ask us to do something.
Running the System has helped me get back into working out dozens of times, simply by making it one bit easier to get back moving. Sometimes, the last thing in the universe I want to do is a workout. Once I run my system, I find that taking that next step to a workout isn’t so bad. If Running the System goes well, I can find myself even looking forward to what I might be able to do in my next workout.
Conclusion
When we stop doing something, we sometimes feel the walls of life surround us, making getting back into action a Herculean feat. Getting back into working out can be tough, but it doesn’t have to hold us back. I find that Running the System helps me take some of the barriers away from my progress so that I can find a smooth path back up to the top.
EfficientlyELITE serves to help us all look for these smaller steps to keep us going. Life asks a lot, and I am grateful whenever someone gives me the chance to handle it with a little more grace.
I hope this advice serves you well. I consider running the system to be an essential action for keeping my days moving, and I hope you find what helps you get back on track and keep moving toward where you seek to be.
Questions? Suggestions? I’m here for it!
-G
Did you enjoy this post? Consider learning more about EfficientlyELITE with The Pitch!