Nobody’s perfect. But that’s not the point.
Establishing a fitness routine is hard enough.
What happens when the environment changes? When you are forced to reevaluate a couple things? Change your routine? Change parts of your lifestyle? Change when, where, and how you work out?
Enter the challenge.
The behavioral piece here is something called a behavior chain. Each link in the chain follows a specific order. When those steps consistently precede one another, reinforcement happens, and you reach your end goal.
The workout is complete. You successfully lose 20 pounds. You hit a 50-lb PR (personal record). You keep up a consistent gym routine.
See, I had a good routine going at my local CrossFit box. However, I had to readjust a couple things—mainly transition time spent commuting —to fit the changes in my new job. Getting there at a new time. Showing face. Maintaining that professional touch.
My old gym was in the opposite direction of my new office. Among other things, it was more expensive, there was only one shower, a small changing area, and I wasn’t getting the value out of the gym that I once did. Plus the hours weren’t the best for me.
What happened next?
I bought a membership at the University of Florida’s rec center. Mainly for the reasons I listed earlier: it was on my way to work (I work on UF campus), cost less, had better shower facilities and hours, and, plus I am at the point where I can “coach” myself.
But now, the fun begins…
How did I prepare myself for the new change?
I woke up earlier. Packed my bags, I’m the “crazy bag man” now…gym bag, lunch bag, shower bag, work bag…and a bag to put all my bags in.
I mean, what broke if I had my new chain all mapped out?
The behavior chain used to be:
- Wake up
- Get coffee
- Put gym clothes on
- Take ONE bag (gym)
- Workout
- Drive home
- Shower
- Continue the rest of my day
Now the chain is “broken” in the sense that some steps are removed or entirely different:
Now I:
- Wake up
- Get Coffee
- Put gym clothes on
- Pack 3+ bags
- Workout
- Shower AT the gym
- Drive to work
- Continue the day
Can you guess which step tripped me up?
(Step 4: Packing 3 or more bags)
Doesn’t sound like a big deal right? But think about all the fluency, skills, and preparation – or extra behavior – that has to go into that fourth step!
You learn by action (breaking your chains)
And here is how I learned about it…
To put a wrench in things, last Friday I had to cancel my old gym membership and buy one at the new gym of Day 1 (Monday) this week.
(Side note: buy the membership online ahead of time because buying a membership while babysitting your 3 bags when you are itching to work out and start your day is very frustrating.)
Back to the Day 1 pitfalls…
Broken links (or not established habits yet) gave me these issues:
- Day 1: delayed in working out to buy a membership, forgot my work belt. Consequence? I had to rock my polo untucked all day and felt like a bum.
- Day 2: forgot my work belt AGAIN! Consequence? Had to drive home and get belt after the workout because I had an important meeting that day. And I locked myself out of my locker while taking a shower. Consequence? I had to befriend a locker mate to wrangle a male undergraduate employee to unlock my jammed locker.
- Day 3: Didn’t forget my belt but forgot my underwear! Consequence? Had to drive home again. And I locked myself out of my locker AGAIN! Consequence? Met another new locker mate.
The lesson?
Be ready for things to “break” and not go right no matter if you change a fitness routine or any other routine in your life. You have to comprise—my workouts weren’t ideal but they happened nonetheless. Many people often call this resilience. I look at it as a skill set which allows you to adapt to change and problem solve.
That is, in any given moment things don’t go “as planned”. Nothing ever does. And we learn to bring our belts and underwear the next time we leave the house. Learning by our actions…
Oh, and others pick up on it to. My mistake helped my wife pack her gym bag that much more accurately when left later that day. Observational learning anyone?
The key to exercising and fitness is consistency.
The trouble here is that we work hard to build a routine, but then don’t know how to deal with constant change as life breaks our perfectly good gym schedule that we meticulously scheduled over the past 3 months.
Things break and that’s ok. Find new links, understand that it takes time and making new mistakes to make an even stronger chain.
Keep moving,
Nick
