When I was young, I hated brushing my teeth. Every night was a struggle to get myself to do it. I had to force myself to consciously make the decision to brush my teeth every night. It didn’t always work out, and I would inevitably end up skipping a few days before getting back on track. At some point, brushing my teeth just became one of my habits and a part of my routine. I didn’t have to consciously decide on it, I just did it. So what changed?
Many people have the same relationship with training. Every day is a new struggle to get yourself to the gym. When you don’t feel like working out, it takes a tremendous amount of effort to force yourself to do it. In the moment, that decision is difficult and mentally taxing. It’s easy to rationalize skipping just a single day or ignore what needs to be done for the sake of convenience.
But there’s good news: just like brushing my teeth finally became easy, the same can be true for your workouts. The key lies in your habits.
Forming just one good habit can cause a snowball effect in an athlete’s entire approach to training. The time and dedication it takes to build one, however, causes many people to taper off of their commitment.
5 reasons why you should focus on developing training habits
1. When self-control fails, habits persist
When you’re stressed, tired and exhausted, self-control disappears. It’s just a fact of human nature. That’s why students often binge eat unhealthy food during final exams. But research shows that during times of low self-control, we fall back onto our deeply ingrained habits.
Let’s say you’ve developed a habit where you lift weights for an hour on a Mon/Wed/Fri schedule. When exams roll around, and you’re stressed out and busy, you’re actually more likely to continue to workout on that schedule. You don’t have the energy to do something new, so you fall back onto the normal pattern that you’ve established.
Consider forming a habit as programming yourself to unconsciously make decisions that move you closer to your goals.
2. Conserve mental energy
Habits, by nature, are below the level of consciousness. When you’re in the habit of brushing your teeth, you don’t consciously decide to do it, it’s simply a part of your routine. It doesn’t drain any of your finite amount of willpower.
With your full willpower at your disposal, you can funnel energy into more important things. Things like giving 100-percent effort during your workouts and maximizing your potential become more attainable prospects.
3. You’re more likely to reach your dreams
Often times, athletes change their workouts for a few days or a week before they revert back to their old patterns. Habits, on the other hand, create long-term behavior change. Habits make it easy to maintain those desired changes for long periods of time. And when you can keep training at a high-level for years and years, those faraway dreams become much more attainable.
4. Develop discipline
As powerful as they are, habits do not form easily. It takes many repetitions to imprint behaviors in your brain. Focusing your efforts on developing habits is an exercise in self-discipline. There will be times when you start rationalizing bad behavior and want to quit. But you have to fight through that feeling. Doing so will not only formalize your habits, but develop mental strength as well.
5. The possibilities for change are limitless
If you want to become a better ball handler, there’s a habit for that. Spend the first 20 minutes of your workout doing pure ball handling drills.
If you want to dunk, there’s a habit for that. 3x week after your skills training, spend 30 minutes doing explosive and plyometric exercises.
Whatever change you want to make, there’s a habit that you can create to reach that goal. What habits do you want to build?
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