5 Tips to Maintain a Regular Exercise Schedule

If you ever found it hard to keep a regular workout schedule, here are some tips that will help.

1. Make a contract with yourself. If you’re really serious about making a change, doing something good for yourself, and taking charge of your health, then make a commitment.

There’s always time to do the things that are really important to us-so your first step is to decide that your health is important to you. In order to be a success at your fitness program, you need to challenge yourself to make an active, ironclad commitment to it. Once you’ve made this commitment, you’ll be surprised at how much time suddenly becomes available. In fact, we suggest making a formal promise to yourself, in writing.

2. Turn off the phone. There’s nothing that disrupts our lives more consistently and insistently than the telephone. Don’t let Ma Bell interfere with your workout! Turn off your home phone. Turn down the volume on your answering machine. And leave your cell phone at home if you go out for a walk. This is your time, and you have to make that clear both to yourself and the other people in your life.

3. Be good to yourself. Honestly, if you haven’t been exercising regularly, you haven’t been very good to yourself. Now is your chance to turn all that around. One way to get started is to stop considering your workout a punishment and start making it a treat. Challenge yourself to find ways that you can make your workout more fun.

How about adding music? Would you enjoy rebounding more if you could watch TV or a rebounding DVD/video while you bounced? What if you started each workout by rubbing a little scented lotion over your arms and legs, to remind yourself of how much you love your body and how grateful you are to your muscles for exerting themselves?

Have you chosen an exercise outfit whose colors and textures make you happy? Maybe you’d get a little pleasure out of some extra soft socks. Think of something-or a variety of things-you could do to associate pleasure with your workout time.

4. Encourage yourself. Become your own best friend-and your own toughest coach. Buy products that will motivate you to work out, such as a heart rate monitor to see how fast your heart is beating when you start a fitness plan-and then to track how your heart rate falls as you get into shape. Monitoring your improvement with a heart rate monitor can be a kind of instant gratification that keeps you motivated. Keeping a workout journal is also helpful.

Something about recording your day’s workout reminds you that you’ve accomplished something, simply by showing up and doing what you’ve promised yourself to do. Looking back over your journal can also be an exciting way of tracking your progress.

5. Respect your own rhythms. For this program to work, you need to know what works for you-and then be 100 percent committed to making sure you’ve got it. Finding the right times and rhythms for exercise means that you’ve got a no-excuse zero-tolerance exercise program in place that you will definitely fulfill. Some people prefer to exercise first thing in the morning. Others do much better in the late afternoon or early evening, when vigorous exercise can be a terrific way to release all the accumulated stress of the day.

Likewise, some people love a set routine while other people thrive on variety of different routines. Buy the top exercise videos out there and don't be afraid to experiment. Perhaps you already know the approach that works for you, or maybe you’ll need to experiment a little as you start this new regimen. Either way, start from a place of respect for your own rhythms and preferences, and craft your exercise plan accordingly.

Following these tips, you'll be able to easily maintain a regular workout schedule and be well on your way to excellent health!