Execution Intent and Lockdown Plan: Making Exercise Inescapable
Some of the strategies used to make healthy eating a habit can be employed. To form a habit, we need to repeatedly associate the healthy behavior with a situation or cue, which is helpful when it comes to regular daily activities. You might develop a habit of taking the stairs instead of the elevator in a particular building, or walking to a specific location instead of driving. With planned exercise sessions, the problem is generally not with associating exercise with a situation. The problem is going to one of these scenarios in the first place. Once you get there, you might not want to go home.
One way to get yourself to the gym is to create an "if-then" plan (what we previously called the i-intention) for situations where you anticipate being tempted to interrupt your workout. So, for example, you could say, "If I'm too tired and tempted not to work out, then I'll work out at a lower intensity that day." This plan works because once you start exercising, you're likely to maintain your usual intensity (and even if you don't, a lower intensity workout is better than no workout at all). The trick is to trick yourself into starting.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that creating an "i-intention" for exercise helps people stick to their exercise plans. In one study, some participants were asked to create an "i-intention" about when and where they planned to exercise that week, some were asked to read a brochure about the importance of exercise for health, and some were asked to do nothing. Reading the brochure was not much more effective than doing nothing. Only 35% of participants in both groups exercised that week. In contrast, 90% of participants in the group that created the "i-intention" exercised. The results are reasonable because the issue is not whether people believe in the importance of exercise, but rather getting people to act according to their exercise intention.
In my opinion, the ideal way to overcome exercise barriers is to lock yourself into a plan. This is harder than you might think, after all, we are all adults with self-awareness. People invest large sums of money to become members of health clubs, generally thinking that this investment will force them to exercise. But unfortunately, the results are obvious: a large portion of those who join gyms either never go, or go very infrequently; the method is ineffective or its effects are short-lived. The idea of financial investment fades from our minds, or we resentfully accept the thought that the money has been wasted.
The problem here is that the cost is paid in the past, so it doesn't incentivize us in the future. A more effective approach is to commit to the future penalty while the motivation is still strong, so that if the resolve weakens later and the plan is broken, the penalty is automatically deducted. Theoretically, this is a great idea, and it works for eating, but when it comes to exercise, finding a way to put it into practice isn't easy.
One of the most effective ways to lock myself into a future workout plan was to become a member of a rowing team. All eight crew members had to be present, otherwise no one could row, so everyone had full responsibility for the team. Sign the workout plan while the future was still uncertain and everyone was positive about exercising. When the alarm rang before dawn, turning over and going back to sleep wouldn't be an option, because the other seven people dragging you out of bed would kill you. There couldn't be a better way to lock in the plan.
The social nature of punishment makes its potential particularly large. You don't want to ruin other people's plans, and you genuinely don't want so many people to be angry because of you. This is another reason why workout partners can be helpful. With a partner, you're more likely to show up, and the intensity will be higher than exercising alone. To get an extra reward from the feeling of being locked into a workout plan, you might want to choose a form of exercise that can't be done without everyone being there, such as playing tennis. Or your partner could only get to the gym if you were driving. This also helps lock you into the plan.
The benefits of exercise are undeniable. Regular exercise can increase your lifespan, prevent disease, reduce pain, make you less sensitive to stress, improve your mood, enhance creativity, improve sleep quality, and make aging more graceful. These benefits are easier to achieve than drastically losing weight, and you can achieve them even if you don't lose a single pound. So find an exercise you enjoy and choose one or two strategies that work for you. It's definitely worth a try.
**Conclusion**
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To hell with dieting!
I'm certain that one day soon, the weight-loss industry will announce that they've finally found the "ultimate diet"-it might be a diet plan, a pill, or a drink that's easy and pleasant to take. It can make you lose weight pound by pound, and most importantly, the results will last forever. When that day comes, I hope you can calmly watch this farce while keeping a tight grip on your wallet. Such an explanation is impossible, at least given the current evolutionary state of the human body, our fragile willpower, and the pervasive temptations in our culture.