How to start exercising when you can't make yourself do it
Most workouts are lost before they begin: in the gap between deciding to exercise and actually moving. Shrink that gap and the rest gets easier.
Your first step
Put on your sneakers. That's it. You can take them off again in two minutes if you want.
Do only this, for two minutes. When the timer ends you can stop, and it still counts. If even this feels like too much, do half.
Why exercising is so hard to start
Exercise has a startup cost: change clothes, find shoes, go somewhere, warm up. Each of those is a moment where it's easy to stop.
It also tends to be all-or-nothing in our heads. If you can't do a proper hour, it doesn't feel worth doing at all, so you do nothing.
After the first two minutes
- Keep the minimum tiny. Decide on a version so small you'd do it on your worst day, like one walk round the block. Doing the tiny version still counts and keeps the habit alive.
- Attach it to something you already do. 'After I drop the kids off, I walk for ten minutes.' A fixed trigger beats remembering.
- Make it easy to start again. Leave the gym bag by the door and the yoga mat rolled out. Fewer steps before you begin means fewer chances to stop.
If you're still stuck
- Promise yourself five minutes only, and mean it. Stopping at five is allowed.
- Exercise with someone. It's harder to cancel on a person than on yourself.
- Pick the type of movement you dislike least, not the one you think is best.
