How to Build a Workout Routine You’ll Actually Keep

If you ever had a fitness goal, you know how it goes. You start excited, stick to your workouts, give your 150%, and then slowly get demotivated. Next thing you know, you skipped a workout or two, and you’re wondering if this whole thing even makes sense. 

For all the clients I had, probably 99% of them go through this process. 1% is made up of unicorns who, for some reason, enjoy being at the gym more than at their own home. (I offered them a job a few times.)

So, what can you do to stop, or at least minimise, this on-again-off-again cycle?

Why Do You Need a Workout Routine

Most people are aware that adherence to a routine is crucial for achieving significant results. Muscle strength and size develop over time, the heart gets stronger over time, and the body gets leaner over time. And to achieve any progress, you need regular improvements. 

Imagine building a house. You start with foundations – basic movement patterns – then you move on to walls, doors, windows – that’s your endurance and initial strength – and then you decorate – that’s your performance, and skill. You can’t show up randomly and build one wall here, another wall there, or start decorating a house that is not fully built yet. I hope I don’t have to explain why. 

But what if you don’t have a specific fitness or health goal?

There is nothing wrong with that. Simply wanting to be active can be a goal in itself. We do, however, tend to overestimate the amount of “good things”, like how much we move or how well we eat. So, keeping an eye on habits and routines can help us build longevity.

How to Build Consistency 

I’m going to start with the big picture, just as I plan my own routines and training sessions.

First of all, no matter how great your workouts are, if you never get them done. So, let’s start by planning your sessions. 

Key things to consider:

• Time blocking

If you’ve never tried time blocking, I highly recommend it. In simple words, you come up with a list of things you want to do every day. E.g. work, cook, exercise, spend time with family, etc. Then you place each of these blocks in your calendar. You can either plan your schedule around the workouts or your workouts around your schedule. That depends on how flexible your life is. 

• Habits stacking

Placing one habit after another is  – in simple words – called “habit stacking”. (For example, after I wake up, I go for a morning walk. Right after I’m back, I roll out my mat and grab a foam roller and do a short session of mobility.) Scheduling your workout after a habit you already do consistently can help maintain it for the long run.

• Creating an environment

Forgot to wash your workout clothes? Can’t find your running shoes? When it comes to showing up, excuses are everywhere. Try to minimise them. Prepare your gym clothes the day before, and keep them in a visible and accessible place. If you want to hit the gym after work, get your gym bag ready and put it in the seat of your car. If you want to go for a morning run, lay out your clothes next to your bed the night before. 

• Making it easy

If you plan a workout at 5 AM but never wake up earlier than 7 AM, how do you think that’s gonna go? Instead, have a look at your time-blocked calendar and find a time that is most feasible for regular exercise. And remember – things can change. 

As a fitness trainer, I used to work out in the evenings. If I do it now, I won’t be able to sleep. Being self-employed gives me the flexibility to find the best timing possible, and as it turned out, the middle of the day is the peak time for me. And I seem to stick to it the most.

• Making it fun

I am not a person who enjoys training with others. I treat it as my “me time” because I like to focus on what I need to do. But not everyone is like this. Having a community or a “gym buddy” can help many people stick to their routine. I saw it many times in fitness clubs. People who work out together tend to hang out together and hold each other accountable. It also makes workouts more fun for many. If that’s your thing, surrounding yourself with people who already embody the habit of working out can be beneficial. And fun.

• Making it satisfying 

There is no better feeling than crossing off tasks on your to-do list, am I right? To make your fitness habits more satisfying, you can usea similar strategy. Keep a workout log or a habit tracker. Every time you complete a workout, mark it in your tracker or tick off exercises you completed in your workout log. Maintaining visual proof of progress can help create instant gratification and reinforce healthy behaviours.

Important note: You don’t want your habit tracking to become a chore. Make it as easy as possible. For some people, an app will be the quickest; for others, pen and paper are more convenient. 

How to Create Your Workout Plan

Once you have your workouts scheduled and added to your calendar, it’s time to plan what you'll actually do during that time. There are many ways to do it, but I will share a few basic rules that I have used for years while programming for my clients. 

• Start with a goal

If you don’t know what you want to achieve, how will you know once you do? Make it specific, set a deadline, and keep it as a reminder. 

• Reverse-engineer your goal

Once your goal is crystal clear, plan how you’re going to achieve it by “walking” backwards. Let’s say you want to run a marathon. You can’t just go out for a run tomorrow and try to hit 42k. Plan when you want to complete the distance, then think about how your workouts would look in 10 months, 6 months, 3 months, and so on. Continue until you break it down into smaller steps, and figure out what you need to start with today.

• Test yourself & adjust 

Assuming you successfully outlined your path to a full marathon, you are now facing your first workout. It may be walking, it may be jogging, or it may be mixed. Go ahead and try it out. After the first workout, you will have more information, and you can adjust your plan accordingly.

• Retest

There is a saying in fitness, “if you’re not assessing, you’re guessing”.

Every once in a while, you want to reassess your progress. You can have a look at your workout log and your notes, or — if you didn’t make any – try a “test workout”, and see where you’re at.

My clients would often fail to notice significant results, so I had a “base workout” prepared for them. Simple exercises to assess the most important things we both agreed on. I would repeat that either monthly or every 3 months to show them how and if they are progressing.

• Adjust

After getting feedback from your workout logs or test workouts, you can further adjust your training program.

3 Ways to Make Your Workouts Doable and Addictive

1. Keep your plan flexible 
   

Adjusting your expectations and planning for breaks, holidays, or deloading weeks is important. Knowing that you may get ill or busy is important. Not letting that demotivate you and derail your routine is important.

You are not a professional athlete, and it is not your job to work out every day. And even professional athletes get injured or sick, and need to be ready to pivot. So, be aware that changes may occur, and that is okay if they do.

If you need to skip a workout, don’t feel bad about it and don’t try to make up for it. Just do your best to get back on track, and don’t let this become your habit. One skipped workout is not a tragedy. But two or more may become your new routine.

2. Repeat your workouts

Wait, what? You may think, “How will  I ever get better if I don’t change my workouts?” Well, here is the thing. Many trainers, unfortunately, keep tweaking their clients' workouts for no reason. They are afraid that their clients will get bored, so they try to entertain them. But how can you get better at something if you rarely repeat it? How can you get better at running if sometimes you do yoga, and other times go for a swim? How can you deadlift more if you keep swapping deadlift with push-ups or squats?

As long as you are progressing and exercises are suitable for your body and your goals, there is no need to change them. 

It reminds me of a time when I used to coach LesMills GRIT classes. LesMIlls would release a new workout once every quarter. At first, I thought, what? We do one workout every single day for 3 months? And people won’t get bored? To my surprise, people loved it! They got sort of addicted to it. Workouts were tough, but that is what kept them coming back for more. They would say “Next time I’ll go faster!”, “Next time, I’ll go heavier!” And then, when they did, they were satisfied, proud and happy.

3. Use the magic of supersets

Some workouts may seem daunting. Those 12 exercises you need to do in a circuit. Repeating the same exercise in 3 sets. Pushing yourself in some crazy HIIT workout that lasts 60 minutes (which is no longer HIIT by the way). I can’t do most of it. I get bored easily. 

So what is my magic trick for workout-related boredom? Supersets.

I don’t even know when I began to love them. But I truly do. Mixing body parts (upper with lower) keeps things interesting. Once I’m done with each superset, I immediately mark it in my workout log (a simple spreadsheet in Google Drive), which gives me immediate satisfaction. That instant “mini-reward” of accomplishing a step is like a small boost of energy.

Another perk? Ticking off each super set on the spot makes it easy to keep my workout log updated. Plus, having the visual proof of my progress keeps me motivated and on track each week.

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Building a workout routine can be fun, and following it can be rewarding. But getting substantial results and accomplishing meaningful goals requires more than just a wish. It requires a plan. A plan that works with our life, not against it. So next time, before you let your motivation take the reins – pause and think – does the new goal and the road to it really fit your lifestyle?

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Need more support and guidance in creating your workout routine? Here’s how my CORE systems can help:

→ Subscribe to CORE for weekly habit & lifestyle guidance

→ Join my self-paced HABIT program

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