By: Chris Gates

If you can find a way to be more consistent with working out, it can truly unlock massive amounts of progress.

Consistency is the ultimate key to every form of progress there is with fitness — whether it be getting stronger, building muscle, burning body fat, improving your endurance, or any other workout goal.

But how can you be more consistent? Are there tips and tricks that make showing up for each workout easier and easier?

Is there a secret sauce to working out, and you’re missing an ingredient or two?

Let’s talk about how to be more consistent with working out!

By the end of this article, you’ll have a clear understanding of what it takes to be more consistent with your workouts, and how you can build healthy habits into your daily routine that will have you feeling excited to train every day.

The stuff you’re about to dive into works. Plain and simple. I use these tips with my clients, and it always results in better adherence to their workouts.

If you’re committed to putting the work in, you WILL become more consistent with working out.

I promise.

We can break things down into two categories of tips. Both are equally important, but focus on slightly different things.

• The Big Picture: How to focus on your larger goals and make working out a priority.
• The Details: The little details and habits you can build into your routine to promote consistency.

Let’s start with the details, and work your way up!

How to Be More Consistent With Working Out: The Details

Consistency is often best achieved by finding joy in the process.

You’re not going to make dramatic progress in a day, or a week, or even a month. So you can’t constantly focus on your end goal, or routinely tear yourself apart for not making enough progress.

This shit takes time.

When you’re consistent over long periods of time — I’m talking months and potentially even years — is when the REALLY good stuff happens.

So let’s talk about ways you can focus on the process, and find joy in checking workouts off your list each day and each week…

How to Be More Consistent With Working Out: Start Each Day With A Healthy Habit

Sometimes success starts when you wake up. A great way to promote consistency with your workouts is to start your day with a healthy, productive habit.

And I want you to try and make the healthy habit as easy to accomplish as possible.

Here are some options:

• Drink a tall glass of water
• Stretch
• Stay off your phone
• Eat a high-protein breakfast

I’ve seen this work a lot with my clients. When you start the day by making a conscious healthy decision, your decision making improves throughout the rest of the day.

When that healthy habit is too easy to skip, it becomes contagious.

And when that happens, you’re probably going to be more consistent with your workouts and make sure you show up and put in the work.

How to Be More Consistent With Working Out: Track Your Progress

Oftentimes, it’s easy to lose sight of all the progress you’ve actually made.

Unfortunately, most folks think they’re not making progress when they actually are. You may have fallen into this trap as well.

The scale isn’t moving, or you aren’t seeing as much change as you think you should be, so you convince yourself you can’t make progress… and you quit.

But if you were tracking your progress, you would have noticed how much progress you ARE making.

For instance, if you track your waist measurements and take progress photos along with stepping on the scale, you’d see that you can burn body fat without seeing your bodyweight weight go down.

Or if you’re documenting the amount of sets, reps, and weight you lift each time you go to the gym, you’d see that you’ve gotten much stronger over time.

But if you’re not doing any of that, you’re putting yourself in a position where your mind may get the best of you.

It’s too easy to convince yourself that you’re not seeing progress.

So make sure you’re tracking the different aspects of your journey.

Find A Partner To Hold You Accountable

Nothing will make you more consistent than a healthy dose of judgement from a friend…

HAHA I’m kidding, of course.

But having a partner to work out with can absolutely help you be more consistent.

You’ll know that they’re relying on you to show up. And they’ll know that you’re relying on them. And if you’re both in this together, and you both truly want to be consistent and make real, meaningful change, you’ll both keep each other on track.

One of the most fun parts of exercising is the community you’re able to build around something that positively impacts your life and your health.

So if you can find a friend who’s committed to the process as well, it will make being consistent with working out much easier!

Intentionally Set Aside Time For Working Out

It’s one thing to say, “I’m going to work out three times this week.”

It’s another thing to say, “I’m going to work out on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week.”

But what will take your plans to the next level and actually promote consistency is to build your workouts into your calendar.

So when you make plans for the week, actually build those plans into the calendar on your phone, Gmail, Outlook, or whatever you use to manage your schedule.

Because if it’s in that calendar — and to be clear, I’m talking about the calendar you also use to block out meetings for work — you’ll reserve that time.

If you don’t, working out will be out of sight and out of mind.

When your workouts are in that calendar, and you’ve blocked out time where nobody else can interrupt you, you’ll be set up for success to actually complete those workouts.

Otherwise, you’ll get a request or meeting invitation on the day and time you intended to workout, and you’ll forego that workout for whatever is being requested of you.

You may forget that you planned on working out. Or, you’ll feel guilty about pushing a meeting back because you want to lift weights, or go for a run, or do some yoga.

Put it in your calendar. Block off time. Other people won’t think twice about it.

They’ll see you’re busy and look for an alternate time.

Be intentional, and block your calendar out NOW.

Don’t Allow Yourself To Make Excuses

This tip is on the border of “The Details” and “The Big Picture,” and I’ll elaborate more on this in the next five tips below, but understand this…

You’re going to have times where you literally need to force yourself to work out.

Everything will line up perfectly sometimes, and you’ll still try and convince yourself why you shouldn’t or can’t work out.

• You’re busy with work
• You’re tired
• It’s cold outside
• The gym is 20 minutes away
• You just don’t want to

The laundry list of excuses goes on and on, and all of them end with you staying on that comfy couch and watching TV.

But that’s not going to help you with your goal of being consistent.

So you have to keep that top of mind.

No matter how perfectly you set up all of the little details, if you give yourself a pass anytime you damn well please, you’re not going to be consistent.

You have to put in the work. And you have to mentally commit.

How to Be More Consistent With Working Out: The Big Picture

Now let’s move on to the big picture. Because while those details matter and can make a huge impact, you need to make sure your mindset, vision, and approach are structured properly in order to be more consistent with working out.

The details are great. Don’t get me wrong.

If you’re not doing things like prioritizing your workouts and tracking your progress, it will be a lot harder to find consistency.

But those details need to fit within a larger framework.

Here are five additional tips to help you create a plan and approach that promotes consistency with working out!

How to Be More Consistent With Working Out: Set Both Small and Large Goals

Oftentimes, goals sound like this…

• “I want to lose 20 pounds in a month.”
• “I wanna build as much muscle as possible.”
• “I’m going to exercise more.”
• “I want to eat healthier.”

While all of those are well-intentioned and are centered around you improving your health in some way, shape, or form, they lack a certain amount of specificity that could actually help you be more consistent.

Let me explain…

Let’s say you have a goal of losing quite a bit of weight. Perhaps it’s 20, or 30, of 40 pounds.

That’s great! It’s awesome that you want to burn off that unnecessary body fat and get to a healthier bodyweight.

That end goal is the ultimate prize, right? It’s where you want to be.

But if you focus only on that end goal, you might drive yourself a little bit crazy.

Hell, you might even convince yourself you’re not making enough progress. Or you’re not losing weight fast enough. Or that you’re doing a terrible job, “because I only lost one pound last week.”

When all you have is that end goal, and it’s staring you in the face every day, of every week, of every month, it can be stressful.

And it can actually derail your entire journey if you convince yourself you’re not doing enough, and you quit.

So set that large goal. That’s important.

But I also want you to set smaller goals along the way that help work you towards your large goal.

Here are a few examples:

• “I’d like to average 1 pound lost per week.”
• “I will be at least 80 percent consistent with my diet each week.”
• “I want to eat two pieces of fruit and one salad every day.”

Those types of goals will allow you to focus more on the process of chasing that larger goal. And when it comes to being consistent with working out, you kind of need to fall in love with the process.

Because that’s going to make you more consistent.

How to Be More Consistent With Working Out: Build A Workout Plan You Actually Enjoy

If you’re doing workouts you hate, you won’t be consistent with them.

Plain and simple.

If you are doing high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts, and you absolutely hate how HIIT makes your feel, then why the hell are you doing it?

Generally speaking, there are no exercises you HAVE to do.

So choose the ones you like.

This was a game changer for me years ago, because so often I let myself get convinced that specific types of workouts were “optimal” for building muscle, or burning fat.

And it’s all a bunch of BS.

If you hate lifting with barbells and prefer dumbbells, use the dumbbells. You can still do amazing work.

If you hate walking on the treadmill and prefer walking outside, then walk outside! They’re both amazing ways to do cardio.

The more you prioritize your own enjoyment with exercise, the more consistent you’ll be with working out.

Rethink How Long You’re Working Out

Time is a big barrier for most people.

You’re busy. I’m busy. Everyone’s busy.

And when you get busy, it’s easy to sacrifice your workouts to carve out more time to take care of other things that need to get done.

But I don’t want you to underestimate the power of a 15-20 minute workout.

Sure, you can get in more work when you’re at the gym for 1-2 hours. But if consistency is an issue for you, consider reducing the duration of your workouts.

If you’re able to squeeze in a compound exercise, followed by some supersets, you can get a high-quality workout completed in a very short period of time.

You can do the same with cardio — some quick sprints on the bike, or elliptical, or treadmill are really effective!

You’ll get all of the same health benefits as you do when you work out for 1-2 hours. But you’ll save a ton of time.

And if you go into the day knowing your workout is only going to take 15-20 minutes, you’re probably going to be WAY more likely to actually show up and put in the work.

Hard Truth: You Have To Force Yourself To Show Up

Even if you set up the most consistent plan in the world, you’re going to have days when you don’t want to show up.

That’s just a fact.

Nobody is motivated to train…

• Every day
• Of every week
• Of every month
• Every single year

Anybody who claims they’re that motivated is lying to you.

Part of being more consistent with working out is showing up and putting in the work, even when you don’t want to.

And here’s the catch…

When you show up and put in the work when you REALLY don’t want to? That’s when this stuff becomes engrained in you and starts to become a habit.

Because 99 percent of the time, if you show up when you really don’t want to work out, you’ll start to feel more energized once you get into your warm up. Once the blood gets flowing a little bit, you’ll begin to forget about your lack of motivation or energy.

And then when your workout is complete, you’ll be so damn proud of yourself for showing up! It will be contagious.

You’ll get addicted to that feeling of pride and accomplishment.

And then the next time you feel like you don’t want to work out, you’ll remember that pride and accomplishment, and you’ll show up anyway.

And eventually, you’ll just always show up. You won’t think twice about it.

It will be a habit. And consistency will be a non-issue.

Get On A Program. Not A Workout.

Having an actual program that works you towards your goals is really important, and it promotes consistency.

Let me explain…

It’s one thing to walk into the gym and hop on a piece of equipment because it’s open. It’s another thing to find some swipe workouts on Instagram and try a new one each time you work out.

But if you can get yourself on an actual program?

That’s a game changer.

A workout program is designed to walk you step by step from day one to your end goal. It has a built-in progression, which over time moves you in the direction you want to go.

A program will always ensure you’re making progress, and you’ll actually be able to see what your next work out looks like.

And the workout after that.

The one after that, too.

And what you’ll be working out three weeks from now.

Hiring a coach is a great way to find a program customized to you, and I work with folks all around the world who want to chase their fitness goals. So if you’re interested in getting a workout program that’s specific to your goals, and having a coach who holds you accountable and takes all of the guesswork out of your fitness and nutrition, head over to my coaching page and submit an application.

I’ll be taking on new clients starting May 2, 2022, and I’d love to help you get on a program and achieve your goals!

Thanks for reading 🙂

~ Chris