As many of you know, for the past month 2FNs members have been taking part in a Frequency Challenge. The goal is to have everyone participating in the challenge complete a minimum of three days of workouts for two consecutive weeks. The type of workout doesn't matter, nor does the duration as long as it is around thirty minutes or more. The goal is to get people on a consistent schedule and to form good habits.
I can honestly say that I expected it to be a pretty difficult challenge. Creating a consistent routine is tough and, more important, breaking bad habits is even more difficult. Your body is extremely well versed in remembering behavior, making them routine and more efficient. If your routine is to plop on the couch when you get home from work, no matter how good you feel that day or how badly you wanted to go workout all day, as soon as you walk in the door your brain will fire off signals saying, "Wait, wait, wait, it is couch time. Lay your ass down!"
There is a special area of the brain known as the Basal ganglia that is thought to heavily influence motor skills and behavior. In addition, it is thought to influence a person's motivation and will. It is thought that the Basal ganglia is capable of remembering habits as well as the triggers that cause these habits. When it recognizes a familiar trigger, it will send signals saying that this is what you are supposed to do next, which can perpetuate the bad habit you've been trying to break. Then again, this can work in your favor. If you finally train your body to form a strong, new, positive habit, such as consistently working out, your body will crave it. Instead of walking in the door when you get home and sending signals to plop on the couch, it will say "Hey, grab your shoes and let's head out!" This takes time and, more important, consistency. Looking at our top weekly performers, Amy and Mark, it is clear that they have established their routines. Rain or shine, heatwave or holiday, they are out doing what their bodies want them to do.
Really, the habit cycle can be broken down into a three-step process, and if we are going to succeed in this Frequency Challenge, we will need to retrain our bodies.
The Habit Loop
- Trigger : The event or indicator that tells the brain to kick into automatic mode.
- Behavior: The actual behavior, such as plopping on the couch, taking a nap, or going for a run.
- Reward: The reward the body is seeking, such as vegging out, feeling rested, or feeling awesome after a run.
This is a pretty powerful feedback loop that is tough to get out of. I think it is possible though, and here is how I think you can do it.
Forming New Habits
- Identify Old Triggers: Figure out what is stopping you from working out. Is it the commute home? Taking a nap after work? I want everyone to post a comment identifying their negative triggers!
- Change your Routine: Once you've identified what is stopping you, change it. Instead of going right home, go to the gym. Change your routine to break out of the bad-habit loop.
- Reward: This part is tough because a consciously chosen reward may not really be enough to set the habit. You are looking for more of an automatic-feedback response, like feeling great after a run or noticing the first few pounds fall off. At first this is the hardest part, and it's why many new habits fail. Give it time, and let your body find its own reward.
I really hope we as a team can beat this challenge and be more consistent as a whole. I myself have taken the past two weeks pretty lightly, resting up and avoiding the heatwave. At the end of the day though, I know it is time to get moving again in order to reinforce the good habits that I've gotten myself into. I really want to see this next week be a success. Post the comments; I'm really curious to know what people are trying to break out of.
I have trouble keeping a consistent routine because I always plan to go for a run right after work, but what usually keeps me from doing so is not talking myself out of it, but I tend to make alternate plans (like grabbing coffee with a friend, or catching a movie). Social plans usually/always go head-to-head with my plans to work out. I’ve had more success going to the gym right after work. My gym is in my office park, so as long as I don’t leave the office park, I have no problem going. It’s the urge to get on the 5:10 shuttle and go directly home, or directly to a friend’s house that I have to fight. I’ve been working on making my workouts a priority in my day, and reminding myself that I can still make plans to see friends, it just has to be a couple hours later.
Sounds like you need to make Gracie run with you more! Social, while working out!
WOO HOO FRAND WORK OUTS 🙂
I think my trap is coming home and finally getting to not think and not being accountable to anyone else for a few hours, heh. That and I never want to run when it’s hot out because I don’t do well in the heat. But I think I might benefit from trying to acclimate my body to the different temperatures, especially if Jono and I ever move somewhere slightly less tundra-y six months out of the year. So yeah, basically I just have to come home and get moving immediately or Jono has to pry my butt off the couch, chair, or bed (wherever I happen to have landed) at, like, 11:00 p.m. to go run.
This. with the “finally I have control, I’m not going to do some 7$#% I don’t absolutely feel like doing”.
I can definitely understand that
I have two easily identifiable triggers. The first is heat. Heat kills me- I actually moved north from where I grew up to Buffalo because everyone said it was colder. Getting out of work between 4 and 5 with a wall of heat slamming me in the face makes me think “WOAH BUDDY. THIS IS GROSS!”
To avoid the heat, I’ve been attempting to do runs in the morning because my Taekwondo classes are at night and I don’t want to overdo things with a class and a run. Additionally, mornings before work are easier to clear space because no one is going to ask me to do something in that time. Mind you, high seventy/low eighty mornings are not exactly what I would call “not hot”.
To help with the heat, I just invested in some technical running apparel- notably some less wind-resistant and more moisture-wicking clothes- on my work break today. I’ll be testing those bad boys on my next run.
My problem now is sleep. I’m trying to get on an even sleep schedule for the first time in my life, and to do that I have to sleep that extra two hours because my friends want to do things until late at night (and sometimes into morning). I’m going to attempt to ameliorate this problem by running before an engagement or mandate that I’m home by some given time so that I can sleep earlier.
jono, your “reward” paragraph is crap. it basically says there is no reward, tough luck.
(I’m not disputing its truth)
Yeah, I thought a lot about it, but eating ice cream to reward yourself after a run won’t really reinforce good habits hehe
Dammit! No more cappuccino crunch for me.
Ironic…I actually, for the first time in ages, came home today from work, collapsed on the bed, and took a half hour nap before ordering Chinese Food and catching up on The Newsroom (fantastic show by the way). I skipped my workout. (I do however feel horrible about it right now).
Prior to developing a running obsession last year, I used everything I could think of to avoid working out: too hot/too cold/too rainy/too dehydrated/my stomach hurts/my muscles are sore/too close to bed time/I’ll wear myself out this early in the morning/I just ate/I didn’t eat enough/I have plans/I don’t have plans and I’m depressed about it/NEW EPISODE OF THE OC!/ no clean gym clothes/people will see me/I don’t have a workout buddy/etc. etc. etc. Fact of the matter is, I just didn’t want to do it. I could have easily made a change to make any of those excuses invalid. Like you said, change your routine! But I didn’t really want to.
I think it is easier to keep up the good habits when you truly want the end reward, whether it be to lower cholesterol, strut the beach with no shame, or to run a marathon. But it you don’t truly want it (or truly believe that you can do it), no matter what, you will find a reason not to, and no amount of counter-excusing will get you to change your mind. Exercise is hard work, not to mention time consuming. Most people will avoid working harder if they don’t see a reason why they should.
That being said, it is extraordinarily hard for me to work out on Fridays. For my entire life, Friday afternoons have been “rest” days and no work (homework, yard work, house cleaning) has ever been done on Fridays. So I will have to push myself extra hard to get out and do my run tomorrow morning!
Sorry for the obscenely long comment!
I think you hit it right on the head, and I think this is a great insight into what it really takes to get to the next level. You truly do have to want it, with everything you have
Working out on Fridays is tough, but in the end, it’s a great way to start off the weekend!
The real reason for this reply comment: The Newsroom is AMAZING.
It’s funny, whenever people ask me about motivation, they always walk away calling me crazy. I guess it’s because I have that (occasionally) useful form of OCD that lets me (more like forces me, really) get out there and push myself hard every day. I can’t even really describe what it is that motivates me, aside from a desire to “get better”. It started with just trying to improve my times or distance, and it’s been morphing into trying to improve myself in most any way I can. The running lead to eating healthy, which has lead to eating even healthier, which has led to better running, which has led to trying new ways of getting the rest of me in shape, which has led to more reading, which has led to new running techniques, etc., etc., etc. Running every day (or close enough) has just become part of this system that kind of governs my days.
Of course there’s a down side. Like I said, the way my mind works is a little OCD. I have a regular tendency to push myself way too hard. I’m super overtrained and fatigued right now, forcing me to take it easy this week. But there’s still that part of my brain trying to convince me to go run a half-marathon later today. It’s actually very hard to shut that part of my brain off long enough to keep me from hurting myself. Plus, taking the long view of my training, as I do, kind of negates the feelings of accomplishment that anything from a good day of running, to my first marathon should engender. I just remember crossing the finish line in May and thinking “okay, done that, what’s next on the list?”.
So what’s my point? Beats me. Just kind of wanted to put my two cents in. I guess if I had any advice for motivation problems, it’s stop thinking of your workout as something you “should” or “have” to do, and try thinking of it as something you’re just “going” to do. An automatic part of your day, like going to work, or eating. It’s easy to rebel against something that feels forced on you, harder when it’s something you’ve just accepted as part of the day. Anyway, I’ve babbled enough here. Just keep running, or something!
Mark, you’re crazy.
Juuuust kidding, our feuding days are over. I think your advice at the end there is really helpful. Just looking at running or working out as part of your normal day is a great way to look at it all, mentally.
I think one of the easier ways to success is to set a specific goal, by for example, registering for your first five k, or whatever you want to achieve. Once I did that, I found an organized plan that helped me reach that goal and I didn’t vary from that plan more than a day. Once I plop on the couch though, its all over. I agree with Amy – Fridays are for chill-axing!
OMG I LOVE this POST!! I know you think I fell off the face of the earth, but I just had Internet issues, as it turns out I was attacked by some DNS-destroyer trojan, took me almost 3 weels to get by it, what a pain in the neck, I think we should introduce legislation to impose the death penalty on computer criminals, and I have been against the death penalty my whole life, but I think this warrants it 🙂 That being said, I have been doing it!! But not tracking it, and at approximately the same time I lost Internet access I lost my pedometer 🙁 So when I pick this up again next week, since I pretty much do the same routes every day, I will use the km/times from before until I buy another one 🙂 As much as I love this post, it is nearly 1am, and I am DONE, so I will have to ponder the question and revisit tomorrow.
MIKE FOUND MY PEDOMETER!!!! I am back in the game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I knew I liked that kid!