How to Never Miss A Workout Again: Schedule Your Workouts

If you are like most people, staying consistent with your workouts when life gets hectic can be a big challenge. Between your family, friends, job, hobbies, and traveling, it can be very hard to balance your life and exercise multiple times per week.

So how can you stick to your workout routine?

The Problem – Inconsistent Workouts

If you have a fitness goal like losing weight or building muscle, this yoyo process is very inefficient. It takes time to build momentum around a workout routine. When you stop, you lose all the progress you made and then waste so much energy trying to start up again.

If this sounds like you, you’re not alone. Many people who exercise fluctuate between periods of consistently working out, and then losing motivation. You might notice that when you work out consistently, you feel great and wonder how you could ever stop.

So why do you stop?

Oftentimes, when your career and personal life get hectic and stressful, you’re more likely to stop working out. Then, it may be a week, or even months before you start exercising again.

During the most stressful times in your life is when you need to exercise the most.

When you are facing pressure and adversity, it’s incredibly important to keep exercising. That’s because exercise alleviates stress and helps keep your mind sharp and strong.

Think about this – the mind and body are integrally connected. By maintaining a fit & flexible body, our minds become more fit and flexible during difficult times.

How can you end the cycle of yoyo exercising?

The Solution – Schedule Your Workouts

The solution to yoyo exercise is simple & effective: schedule your workouts.

When should you schedule your workouts? For how long? What workouts should you do?

Let’s start at the top.

When to Schedule Your Workouts

I schedule my workouts every Sunday when I plan my week because my week “starts” on Monday. You can choose whatever day you want for your week to start depending on your workout schedule.

I spend about 30-minutes planning my week each Sunday by reviewing the action items & projects I had from the previous week, then creating the key action items & outcomes I want to accomplish during the next week.

How to Schedule Your Workouts

After planning my week, I schedule my workouts as unbreakable commitments, just like an important meeting. I may schedule 2 or 3 running outdoor, 3 1 hour strength training sessions (muscle building). I always have specific health and fitness goals to guide my training. How I schedule my workouts and which workouts I do help me fulfill these goals.

I like to workout around 4pm because it’s a nice break in my day. Of course, I understand if you have a corporate job, you may have less flexibility. Consider which days and times work best for you and when you have the least distractions.

I strongly recommend committing to a minimum workout schedule. For example, maybe you are willing to dedicate yourself to 30-minutes workouts 3x each week, or 10-minutes a day, or maybe 60-minutes 3 times a week. The idea is to be 100% confident you can consistently hit that number of weekly workouts.

Commit to Your Workout Schedule

I understand that it can be VERY tempting to skip a workout when your schedule gets busy, but you must 100% COMMIT to your workouts.

Can you clearly articulate the reasons why you exercise? I recommend writing down at least 5 reasons. These reasons, combined with scheduling your workouts, will change your mindset and approach.

Your workouts are no longer a chore, but a time to infuse your body with energy & strength. There are so many benefits of exercise and too many possible downsides of not exercising.