If you have struggled to sustain an exercise habit (or any habit), odds are you are biting off more than you can chew.
I am short on time today. I don’t have the luxury of an hour for exercise. I put on my 22 kg backpack and belt out sets of 3 chin-ups right after 20 single arm push ups (finished in 15 mins). It took me a total of 25 minutes. To make it easy to fill my backpack with a pliable weight, I keep two small bags filled with 11 kgs of 10 mm steel balls (about 2500-3000 steel balls is what it takes). This flexibility is a necessity.
Are you chunking off too much time to exercise? And refusing to do anything less. The inflexibility is hurting your odds of getting any work in. That makes it harder to make it a habit.
Probable solution: Have a plan for what you can do in 10 mins, 20 mins, 30 mins, 45 mins and 60 mins.
Is your training plan too complex?
Are there too many exercises? Are there too many repetitions and sets? Is the plan unclear about what it aims to achieve? Are the exercises too difficult to progress with? Or have you picked exercises that you cannot perform competently or safely?
Probable solution: Start by aiming to gain competence with 5-6 exercises appropriate for your starting point and goals. You should need no more to an 10-15 mins per exercise. This helps with the first problem too.
Takeaway
Pragmatic goals, plans and exercises trump idealistic goals and stretch targets. Habits are a function of successful execution.
