We’ve all got bad habits. They can be as simple as snacking, not racking or weights, or burping after out loud. But the thing with habits is they start off as a simple action. Maybe you forget to go the gym just this once, then all of a sudden you haven’t been in a month. Well you only meant to miss that one day how’d so much time pass by? That step from one day to a whole month is what I call “the snowball effect”. We have all seen it in the cartoons where a character rolls down a snow slope and gradually the snow piles together until all of a sudden its one massive snowball. But not all habits are bad. You can also get the ball rolling in a good direction. I make it a point to always do pushups and sit-ups before bed. Not because I necessarily expect to get a huge chest and ripped abs, but because I want to develop the habit of always giving more. By doing those exercises, once, then twice, then so on and so forth I begin to do it habitually. Sometimes I even sleepwalk through them. My point is that the snowball effect can be applied to numerous different actions. Before taking that shortcut in your workout, ask yourself is it really your first time doing so? Or has it become habitual? Don’t cheat yourself by compiling bad habits. Try this. Think of 3 different actions you can do to better your fitness level repeatedly each day. It can range from doing exercises to meditation. Once you have 3 benefits in mind write them down and place them in a place you have to look, such as a sticky note on a mirror, and commit yourself to making them into good habits. You want to get that ball rolling down a positive slope, remember that before skipping your workout in consecutive weeks.
~ Navaseon Norfork, NSCA-CPT, B.S.
