Workout Tips!

Yeah, that's right, here I am to share with you a workout tip that I have been running with since the beginning of the year. It's really simple, but it's a tip that I've used to build an exercise habit that I actually feel the NEED to continue with.

Too often we take on exercise routines as a New Year's Resolution and it's too much to do all at once. We get sore, we take a day off, and then we lose the habit of exercise. This tip removes a lot of that.

What I did: on January 1st I did one pushup. I kid you not.

On January 2nd? 2 pushups.

January 3rd? You guessed it: 3 pushups.

And every day, I've added a pushup. So here it is, March 14, and last night before going to bed I did 73 pushups. I don't do them all at once, but I try to do them in no more than four sets. Usually I do them in three, right now.

If I miss a day? Yep, you guessed it. Make them up at some point. I missed a couple days somewhere in the 60s and did 100 a day for a few days to catch up. It wasn't easy, but I did it.

What are the benefits of this? Well, obviously, pushups are good for you. That's one. The gradual progression helped me not get sore and demoralized early on. That's two. And the consensus I've heard from many self-improvement experts is that it takes 21 days to make something a real habit. So without the soreness and need to rest a day early on to remove the habit, I've kept going almost nonstop for 2 1/2 months. It helped me create a habit, and now I get antsy if I don't do my pushups before going to bed.

It's worked so well that at the beginning of March I started doing Hindu Squats (adding two a day) and Situps (adding one a day) as well. That means that by the beginning of March, 2009, I'll be doing 730 Hindu Squats a day and 365 situps, as well as whatever number of pushups I'm up to by that point. My goal is to get to 500 pushups per day before I stop adding so much.

Next month I want to add pullups to the mix as well. As they're a little harder, my goal will be to add a pullup every week - doing one a day for the first week, two a day for the second week, etc. till I'm doing 52 a week.

And I mix up the types of pushups I do from day to day. Some days I do all Hindu Pushups. Some days I do a set of 20 narrow armed pushups, 20 wide-armed pushups, 20 diamond pushups, etc. Some days I just do regular drop-and-give-me-20 pushups! The variety is endless.

I've put together a spreadsheet for myself to keep track, too - keeping records of your workouts is another great motivational tool.

I list:

• the day
• the number of exercises I'm supposed to do that day
• the number that I should have done thus far for the year
• the number I've actually done per day
• the number I HAVE done thus far for the year
• the number I am behind (to remind me to keep going)
• Any notes I want to make (# of sets, how many per set, what kinds of pushups I've done, etc.)
  

It's a pretty easy spreadsheet to put together, but if you'd like a copy I've published it to Google Documents and you should be able to download a copy.

Let me know how this works for you! It's working great for me so far...