A workout routine or schedule can help one remain consistent with exercising and have a clear path for reaching the set fitness goals. Having said this, things come up in life such as spontaneous plans with friends, family, or colleagues – whether grabbing dinner or drinks or hanging out.
Strictness Side Effects
Being strict can lead to stress and guilt about choosing other plans over working out, or ending up not making time for these plans when they come up so that you don’t skip a workout. However, plans like these are also an important part of life that contribute to our overall happiness and need to be prioritised alongside our workout routine.
Flexible Workouts
One way of working around this is to be flexible about your workout routines. For example, you can find ways to compensate for changing your workout schedule to do other activities. One can do this by fitting in some exercise at other points during the day such as :
- A quick walk during your lunch break,
- A shorter workout before going out – or a longer workout the next day.
- It’s also an option to have a rest day without trying to compensate in other ways, as a missed workout here isn’t likely to throw you completely off track in your fitness goals.
Workouts Should Fit into Your Schedule
The core concept of this idea is to schedule your workouts around your life and not the other way around. Although moving your body is important for your health, there is a lot more to life than exercise. Balance is important to avoid healthy habits turning into unhealthy ones. Exercise behaviour may also become problematic and in certain extreme cases, it can make you more vulnerable to exercise addiction.
This can be noted among other factors, as one would be devoting an excessive amount of time to exercise, excluding other activities, having a lack of control, and going overboard in their workouts. At times, one might even feel ‘withdrawal’ symptoms when not exercising such as anxiety, irritability, and sleep disturbance.
Stay Flexible
Being flexible in your workout routine also means listening to and being kind to your mind and body so that when you are lacking energy or have some pain or soreness you can adjust the type of exercises you do in your workout to better suit how you are feeling on that day. In this way, it is more likely that you genuinely enjoy your workout and have fun exercising.
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References:
Roy, B.A. (2015). Overreaching/overtraining. ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal 19(2):p 4-5. doi: 10.1249/FIT.0000000000000100
Hausenblas HA, Downs DS. How much is too much? The development and validation of the Exercise Addiction scale. Psychology and Health. 2002;17:387–404.