You know those days when you just couldn’t be bothered. You feel lethargic, unmotivated and like exercising is the last thing on your mind. Well, I hate to point it out but those days are the most important when it comes to building long-term habits. So the days you don’t feel like exercising are really the days you shouldn’t miss.

That little voice in your head is always going to try and convince you to take the easy road and it will continue to do that until it knows that your routine is rock solid, then it shuts up (hopefully). So it’s important that we don’t cave and take the easy option.

In addition to this though you might find yourself being one of those ‘All or Nothing’ types of people. If you are you’ll find yourself either exercising and doing what you would usually do or absolutely nothing. You’ll either go for that 10km run, do that full-body weights session, that group fitness class, or nothing at all.

The problem with this train of thought which I appreciate is hard for people to get past is that you don’t end up developing strong habits and routines, and in the occurrence that you can’t do your ‘FULL’ workout you end up doing nothing at all.

So today I plead with you to try a different angle. No more ‘All or Nothing’ approach. From now it’s ‘All or Something’. If you usually train for 60min but only have 20min instead; then do anything you can for the 20min, no matter how insignificant it may seem. This way you keep the habit and routine of exercising and you also get some sort of training done, even if it’s not what you would usually do it is much better than nothing!

Trust me, you’ll feel much better if you do.

Nathan Spring