Read time: 4 minutes

Improving our health with exercise requires playing the long game.

But like many good 'investments', the benefits of exercise accumulate (or compound) over time.

This means we need to find ways to make regular exercise part of our lifestyle. A habit, if you will.

The good news?

There are strategies to help us start, and keep going, when building good habits like exercise.

Applying a habit-based framework can make it easier to start, and then maintain, a more active lifestyle.

There are many frameworks one could use to help build (or lose) habits.

In his best-selling book Atomic Habits, James Clear outlines the four stages of habits:

1. Cue
2. Craving
3. Response
4. Reward

All habits occur in the same order: cue, craving, response, and then reward:

The first step to habits is the cue. This triggers the desire to perform a behaviour.

Then comes the craving part - the motivational drive to perform the behaviour. This is usually linked to the reward associated the behaviour.

Next is the response - where we take action and perform the behaviour.

Finally we get a reward, which is the end goal of any habit. This reinforces the behaviour, and the cycle begins again.

Let's look at a practical example:

You may be able to reflect on many examples of your own habits - good or bad.

In Atomic Habits, the four stages of habits were transformed into a practical framework to build good habits or lose bad ones.

This framework was termed the “Four Laws of Behaviour Change”:

1. Make it obvious (”cue”)
2. Make it attractive (”craving”)
3. Make it easy (”response”)
4. Make it satisfying (”reward”)

So how could we apply this framework to build positive exercise habits?

The questions we need to ask are:

• How can I make exercise more obvious?
• How can I make exercise more attractive?
• How can I make exercise more easy?
• How can I make exercise more satisfying?

Let's unpack each one with some practical examples.

Making exercise more obvious

Ever found you ate more sweets if they were left on the bench instead of tucked away in the cupboard?

That's because the cue was right in front of you. It was more obvious.

We can use this to our advantage with exercise.

Making exercise more obvious largely comes down to planning.

Organising your clothes and bag the day before. Leaving your bag at the door if you plan to exercise later that day. Or if you plan to exercise in the morning, leaving your clothes out ready to go.

When you decide on when you will exercise, schedule this into your calendar (it doesn’t have to be long - see making exercise more 'easy' below).

That way, it will be more obvious when you plan to exercise (and you can set up a reminder in your calendar just to be sure).

Making exercise more attractive

It seems obvious, but we don't like doing things we don't enjoy.

If we want to build a habit, we have to find ways to crave the behaviour. To make it more attractive.

Trouble is, for many the word ‘exercise’ conjures negative feelings like fatigue and discomfort.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Exercise can have very positive effects on our mood and general feelings.

And it's possible to modify exercise to make it more pleasurable or enjoyable. This is one way to make exercise more attractive.

Some ways to increase pleasure or enjoyment during exercise include:

• Avoiding exercise at very high intensities (this is not pleasurable for most people)
• Lowering the intensity throughout an exercise session (ending at a lower intensity)
• Listening to music during exercise
• Exercising outdoors instead of indoors

Applying some of these strategies, and being more 'in-tune' with some of the more immediate benefits of exercise - such as its effects on our mood - may help make exercise more attractive.

Making exercise more easy

The hardest part about exercise is often getting started.

This suggests it can help to reduce the friction involved in taking action.

Breaking down exercise into smaller chunks is one way to make exercise easier.

As a subscriber of 'The Weekly Exerciser', you know even small ‘doses’ of exercise are beneficial.

So to make exercise more easier, it pays to set the bar low.

Define a form of exercise you could do most of the time, even if you didn't feel like it.

It could be a short walk around the block. Or to the letterbox and back. One set of squats or pushups.

There is your starting point. Before anything else, try to get good at ‘showing up’ to do this minimum dose of activity consistently.

If you can find a way to get started, more often than not you’ll do more. And if not, at least you’ve done something.

As the saying goes: “Get going, then get good”.

Making exercise more satisfying

The final piece of the habit 'loop' is the reward we get after performing the behaviour.

As we know, things that get rewarded, get repeated.

So how can we make exercise more satisfying?

In many ways, if we make exercise more attractive or more easy, exercise may also be more satisfying.

But another way is simply to reward yourself in some way after exercise.

Try keeping a habit journal and adding a tick each time you exercise. Or saving a dollar or two after each session to fund a reward later on. Treating yourself to a massage or new exercise clothes after some regular exercise. Or even something as simple as a relaxing bath after exercise.

Anything can work here providing it is compatible with what you are trying to achieve in the first place.

So treating yourself with chocolate or ice cream is unfortunately not a good option if the goal is to improve health and wellbeing with exercise.

But finding simple ways of rewarding yourself can help reinforce exercise as a regular habit.

The key to benefiting from exercise is finding ways to keep doing it regularly.

If exercise becomes a habit, it isn't something we 'need to' or 'should' do. It's just something we do.

Using a habit-based framework - such as that covered in Atomic Habits - can help make exercise, or any other habit, more consistent.

So - consider how you can make exercise more obvious, easy, attractive, or satisfying. I'd love to hear your thoughts on strategies that work for you!

Thanks for reading!

Until next week,

Jackson

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If you've got a moment, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this edition of The Weekly Exerciser.

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