12. You Don’t Need Motivation; You Need A Plan That Builds It - HOW TO START AND STICK TO A WORKOUT ROUTINE

If you’ve ever told yourself “I’ll start on Monday” while your gym clothes collect dust, this conversation is the reset you’ve been waiting for. We return from a chaotic season and get honest about what it really takes to begin again without burning out: lowering the barrier to entry, putting workouts on the calendar like a meeting you can’t skip, and celebrating small wins that build momentum.

We break down the three big blockers (motivation, time, and burnout) and flip them on their head. Motivation is unreliable at the start; action creates it. Time isn’t the true issue; priority is. Burnout comes from going too hard, too fast, then quitting when fatigue and soreness pile up. Instead, we lean on habit science: use context cues to trigger movement (coffee then clothes, log off then walk), repeat short sessions to teach your brain “this is who I am,” and lock it in with tiny rewards like a green check mark on your tracker. The goal is a relationship with movement that survives real life, not a perfect week that collapses under pressure.

You’ll hear practical takeaways from research on exercise habit formation, including a target that feels doable: four short bouts per week for six weeks can set the habit. We show you how to keep complexity low, choose environments that prime you (home or gym - pick what works), and deploy a three‑step starter plan: start small, schedule it, track progress. On hard days, negotiate down instead of opting out so the streak, and your identity as a consistent mover, stays intact.

Ready to trade perfection for consistency? Hit follow, share this with a friend who needs a gentle nudge, and leave a quick review telling us the one tiny action you’ll take this week.

Paper discussed in this episode: Kaushal N, Rhodes RE. Exercise habit formation in new gym members: a longitudinal study. J Behav Med. 2015 Aug;38(4):652-63. doi: 10.1007/s10865-015-9640-7. Epub 2015 Apr 8. PMID: 25851609.

I am happy we can share this journey of levelling up, together. See you next week!

- Alita <3

https://vitawithalita.buzzsprout.com

Chapters

• 0:21 Welcome Back & New Focus
• 2:27 Why Routines Fail: Key Barriers
• 4:16 Motivation Is Overrated
• 6:08 Time Vs Priority
• 10:22 Avoiding Burnout From Overdoing It
• 14:24 The Habit Science: Context, Repetition, Reward
• 20:57 Keep It Simple: Environment & Fun

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:21

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to Vita with Alita. This is the show where we dive into the science of fitness, health, and everything that helps you build a stronger, more sustainable body and mind. Welcome. It's good to be back. Oh boy, it has been a while. And I have just gone through this like time in my life where everything was extremely chaotic. But that's okay because it is so fitting for today's episode. In today's episode, I wanted to talk about how to start and actually stick to a workout routine. And you might be thinking, well, why is this fitting? Well, because as I mentioned, I was in a very chaotic kind of season of my life. And because of that, my training had to take like a major backseat. Like major. I'm talking about the past maybe five months. And obviously, as you know, not just my training, even things like my like this podcast and other things that I was doing consistently had to kind of take a little back seat. But usually, um, as I mentioned, these seasons don't last forever, they're not permanent, and we're kind of getting back into the groove of things. So I thought a perfect way to come back into it would be to talk about starting and sticking to a workout routine. Because I basically after five months it feels like I'm right there where I'm starting all over again, and we gotta get back into it. So, you know, if you ever told yourself I'll start on Monday, maybe you bought new workout gear, now it's just kind of sitting in your closet collecting dust. Maybe you're like me where you kinda went through a phase where you're not training or keeping up with the habits that you've built, and it's time to get back into it. So let's dive right in. Obviously, first, before we get right to the nitty-gritty of how we're going to stick to a workout routine, we should probably try to understand some three of the most common barriers or obstacles that will probably get in your way of trying to stay consistent. So what are they? Motivation, and burnout. So motivation. Honestly, the truth is, and I said it before, motivation is completely unreliable. It's it's not like this thing that you turn on and suddenly you feel like doing all the things. It's it may build as a result of small wins that you kind of accumulate over time. So you might be sitting to yourself or saying to yourself, I'm not gonna start until I feel motivated too. And honest truth here is then you're never you're never going to. So it's the action that's going to kind of create the motivation. So once you start, and this is kind of where discipline comes in. You're you have to start, you have to set your mind to something, put motivation aside, and just do it. Because once you do it, and you are kind of creating that momentum, and you're you're performing the actions, you will eventually see results, and those results are then going to motivate the behavior. And as you can see, it becomes like a little cycle, but there had to be that initial push, that initial action, that initial creation of momentum. So if you're waiting for motivation, this is your sign to just uh do yourself a favor and don't. Second barrier is time. Oh, time, time, time. I just don't have the time. We've all said it. Every single one of us, and I get you, I'm right there with you. I literally just came from a five-month break. But there is some research on behavior change that shows that time is not the real problem here, it's it's priority. So, what do we mean by this? If you kind of list all the things that you are doing with your time, you will see that at the top of that list are things that you are prioritizing the most in your life. There's nothing wrong with your with whatever you are prioritizing. The idea here is that if you just kind of move exercise or working out a little bit higher up on the priority list, then you are more likely to do it, and that excuse of not having the time is no longer there. And I'm not saying it has to be like a three-hour workout, short bouts of exercise, even like a 20-minute walk or like a 10-minute circuit, um, can help to produce measurable benefits in your energy and in your mood. And honestly, that's a good place to start. So when I'm talking about the priority list, as I mentioned, I went through like this break, and it wasn't that um, yeah, I did say I didn't have the time, but it was honestly just that my workout and exercise was moving so far down my priority list that it was not even something I was thinking about. So keep that in mind if you want to make it a priority, which you should, it's something you should be doing for yourself and putting yourself first, and it's honestly so beneficial for you. There, like the words could not describe how beneficial it is for you to kind of get in a consistent word routine where you move your body, but you have to kind of reframe exercise as this non-negotiable appointment with yourself, not a task that's optional if you feel like it, because then it's never gonna happen. Put it in your calendar, non-negotiable, it has to get done. Alright, so the last barrier that usually prevents people from maybe sticking to a workout routine can be burnout. And this happens when you are probably super motivated and you're making the time, but then you're starting way too hard way too fast, and suddenly you're always sore, you don't know what to do, you're overwhelmed because you need to do all these different things all at once, and this is kind of like getting caught up in that new year, new me energy, and nothing wrong with new year's resolutions. My whole journey started off of a new year's resolution, but overtraining or being overwhelmed can lead to like your soreness and the fatigue, the mental load of it becomes too much, and then you just end up quitting. So the goal is not to like crush workouts in the sense of like you need to swim two hours and trust strength train three hours because you want to see results and you want to do all the things and then drink seven liters of water a day. It's the key here is building the relationship with movement, and you want to sustain that long term. So think of any relationship that you have with anyone, whether it's like a a partner or a family member or a friend, you you go through these different um seasons. I have to find a different word than seasons, you kind of go through these different periods where you know everything's super great, loving, happy, you're always laughing all the time, and then suddenly you have maybe a little bit of a fight and you don't talk to each other for a few hours a day, and then there's like this period where you know, maybe you don't check in in on each other every single day, but then you go back to calling each other every day, and then you know, it's it's a relationship, it's not the exact same thing every single day, but it's there, and you put little efforts towards maintaining it in the long run, and that's sort of what we want to do with working out. It's building a relationship that you want to sustain long term. So starting off way too strong, way too fast is not the key here. That's just going to lead to burnout and be totally counterproductive and do the complete opposite of what you want to accomplish by by starting this new habit. Okay, so now that we understand motivation, time, and burnout, let's get into the science of habit formation. And this is where today's paper kind of comes in. So this was a 2017 study by Kushal, Koshal. I'm so sorry, I probably butchered that name. Koshal and colleagues, koshal and roads, and they looked at how people form exercise habits over time. And uh, surprise, they found that habits don't actually depend on willpower, but they depend on things um or they're built through context, repetition, and reward. So, what does that exactly mean? So, when we say context, we're talking about maybe pairing your workout with like a specific cue. So, whether that's finishing your morning coffee, uh, if that's if you're working out in the morning, logging off after work, and the more specific your cue, the faster you'll your brain is gonna link it to exercise. So if you can try to do something um every time before you want to work out, that kind of primes your brain to be like, okay, now is workout mode. Like for me, um, it used it was always like when I get in the car and I drive to the gym, like I'm ready to work out. That's not really the priming cue, but maybe something even before that, like putting on my gym clothes, or when I used to wake up in the morning to work out, like I knew that as soon as I woke up, my gym clothes were out. I'm putting them on, I'm getting in the car. All these are priming me to go and and complete that workout. So context here is super important. All right, next is the repetition aspect. The repetition aspect is you know, we've kind of all heard that like on average it takes 66 days to form a habit, yada yada, but this can this can obviously vary from person to person. And as we mentioned, consistency matters way more than intensity. So if you are just showing up, even 10 minutes of that time you dedicated for working out, and you're doing that over and over, those small wins add up, so it's an exponential growth, like it's it's gonna add up and add up and add up and add up, and eventually you're going to see the benefits of all of those little decisions that you made to move your body. So repetition here is key. And then there is the little reward aspect. So our brains are a beautiful thing, and we have a wonderful reward system up there, and your brain kind of needs a why. Like, why are you gonna torture me and make my muscles struggle and make me go through all this pain? This is where you know you can use your biology in your favor, so celebrate progress, even something as tiny as like checking the workout box in your tracker. It doesn't have to be like go out and do all these things, checking off that box off your to-do list. That even that kind of releases a little bit of dopamine and may reinforce the behavior. So, you're the point of these rewards is you want the behavior to kind of happen again and again and again. So you're giving your brain a little bit of dopamine, it's a little treat saying, There you go, we did it, let's let's do it again. Now, the cool thing about this study is that they also looked at some sort of like predictors of exercise behavior, and they kind of saw that things like um low behavioral complexity. So if the behavior you're trying to engage in is not very complicated, so this kind of goes hand in hand with like the intensity or being overwhelmed. If you're like bombarding yourself with like the most complicated workout split and routine and all these things, you're less likely to stick to it. If you just keep it super simple from the beginning, you will eventually get to a point where it's complicated and optimized and whatever your goals are. But to start, keeping it super low complexity is key. Also, environment that kind of goes with context and like the cues, but I also think environment in terms of I love working out in a gym because it puts me in the mindset, like some people love working out at home, good for you, but for me, my body just does not comprehend that like home is workout time. Once I step into the gym, I kind of get into the zone and I'm just ready. So for me, that works, find what works for you, but environment is obviously important. And the main takeaway from the study here was that people should try to keep the exercises fun and simple, especially for beginners who are trying to get back into it. Or sorry, especially for beginners who are trying to begin, even for myself trying to get back into it. I'm not gonna go full intensity like I was training um before the break. So keeping it fun and simple, and in about six weeks, you should be able to start having that habit formed, and hopefully it becomes something that you just consistently do and that becomes a daily part of your routine and that you're able to stick to. Another, I think, motivating thing here is that it was just having at least four bouts um per week for six weeks was the minimum required to establish an exercise habit. Four bouts is not that man as is like not crazy. So there are seven days in a week, four bouts bouts is literally like a 15 to 30 minute period. So four of those within the week for six weeks is all you kind of need to build and to form that habit. I personally think that's super motivating. It's it doesn't seem very overwhelming, and it's something that can be achievable if you are putting it up there on your priority list. Oh, I also completely forgot the name of the study, which was published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, again by Koshal and Rhodes, is Exercise Habit Formation in New Gym members, and this was a longitudinal study. So let's kind of get practical. We went through the theory, we went through the barriers, what we have to say about habit formation, all the all the jazz. So now what? Well, I'm gonna give you three very simple steps for you so you can start your beginner workout routine, and hopefully it can fit all types of schedules. I know we're all busy and we all have different things going on in our lives, but these three simple steps will hopefully get you right into it and start tomorrow. Don't wait till Monday, don't wait till New Year's, start tomorrow. Cool. So step number uno, you're just gonna start small. You're gonna pick a goal that feels a little bit too easy, you know, like a like a 10-minute walk after lunch, five push-ups before bed, one yoga video in a single week, one video in a whole week, okay? And the point here is that when you lower that barrier to entry, you you kind of build consistency faster. So you'll be able hopefully to achieve this goal, which will make you feel good, which will make you want to do it again, and will make you more likely become more likely to become consistent. Alright, step number two, you have to schedule it. I want you to open your calendar like right now and make an appointment with yourself. It's gonna go in there, whatever allotted time that you decided in step one, and you're gonna put it in there so that when you're done, you can check it off. If you share a calendar, let everybody know you're working out. It's going in there as an appointment. It's a non-negotiable. Whether it's a morning, lunch break, evening, I don't care. As long as you're consistent and it's in your calendar to help, you can even link it to some sort of habit that you're already doing that maybe you don't really think about. You may have heard of this concept of like linking habits, you know, like if as you're brewing your coffee, do 10 push-ups. The idea here is you're already gonna brew the coffee. So if you are linking your workout or movement to that, then you're more likely to do it because you're already gonna do the first habit. So your brain's gonna say, Oh, right, okay, might as well do the second one. You know, as your coffee's brewing, do five push-ups. That's not too bad, right? But anyway, schedule it, and if you need further motivation or further priming, link it to an existing habit. And lastly, lastly, we are going to track our progress because visual progress keeps you motivated. Remember, we talked about the initial action that might be kind of sucky, but then as you build momentum and you kind of see results, you're more likely to be motivated to go back. Yeah, so visual progress is part of that. It could be visual progress, like pictures, if you want of yourself. I know folks do that, like they take pictures to see their progress, but I'm just talking about like progress, visual progress in like a calendar. So, for example, um, I have this app called Habit Share, and it's free. You don't really need to share your habits if you don't want to, unless you're doing this with like friends or family and you want to keep each other accountable. But yeah, you can keep your habits private. I I use it to track when I'm working out and when I'm not, and for other habits that I kind of want to build. And for each day, you can write, you can literally select a check mark, which is in green, an X in red, or like a neutral gray. I don't really know what the neutrals for, but you know, you can kind of use it. Maybe the neutrals like if you have an intentional activity that you did that you didn't plan, and then the greens for like the planned activity. The whole point here is that by the end of like the week or the month, you can see the calendar and you can see all the beautiful colors, and hopefully you're sticking to your goal because you made it super easy and you scheduled it, and now you're tracking it. And next month it's gonna be even more motivating to go back and make more green check marks on your calendar. So, yeah, it's nice because of the visual, and it helps because you can it the app gives you the option to even set reminders to complete the habit if that's something that helps you. But the point here is that every single check mark is a win, and hopefully that fuels the motivation or the discipline to go back, to do it again, and to build that that wonderful habit that I think every single person should get into. Okay, so important topic starting and sticking to a workout routine. These are tips I kind of wish I knew back in the day when I was trying to get into the gym and I didn't really know what I was doing. But what I do know is that I went to the gym every single day, even if I had no idea what I was doing, even if it was for five minutes, I just built that habit of going into the physical building every day. And that definitely contributed to my momentum, definitely contributed to my motivation, and contributed to where I am today where I'm still um where I still consider training a priority in my life. Yes, I had a break. That's just life, man. There's not much you can do, and now I am so ready to get back into it, and I hope that we can get back into it together. You can start. I know you can. Remember, starting small does not mean thinking small. Every rep, every walk, every single check mark. That's casting a vote for the kind of person that you are becoming, that you want to be. So do this for you, do this for your future self. You can look back even a week and say, whoa, look what I did. Awesome. I'm just becoming better and better, and I'm gonna become even better. The idea here, don't chase perfection. We're going after consistency. Consistency will always, always win. That's all I have for today, everybody. Thank you so so much for listening. And I am very excited that we all get to to start and stick to our workout routines together. And I'll see you next time. And until then, stay strong, stay curious, and take care, everybody. You only have one. Alright, everybody, take care. Bye-bye.