Make Exercise a Habit With Cues, Routines and Rewards

Laying out your workout clothes tonight can make tomorrow’s first decision easier. The clothes are a cue; going to the gym is the routine; a smoothie afterward might be a reward. That simple example captures the cue, routine and reward framework Charles Duhigg calls the “habit loop.”

Making exercise familiar takes repetition, and people differ in what helps them continue. A sustainable routine gives you something concrete to repeat and adjust when life changes.

What regular exercisers reported

Tappe and colleagues’ 2013 exploratory study surveyed 174 exercisers at two private fitness clubs. Its questionnaire included the Self-Report Habit Inventory, or SRHI, alongside questions about exercise routines. The paper discussed several definitions of habit, including:

“The most simplistic and often-researched behavioral definition of habit is behavior that has occurred repeatedly and frequently in the past.”

Of the 167 people who answered the weekly-schedule question, 129, or 77%, said their schedule generally looked the same from week to week. For the time-of-day question, 75% of 155 respondents said they generally exercised at the same time on workout days. For location, 85% of 170 respondents said they exercised in the same place most of the time.

These were existing exercisers describing their routines in a cross-sectional survey. Their answers show how consistency appeared in this sample; they cannot predict the success of a new routine for every reader.

Give the routine a clear beginning

Duhigg’s 2014 paperback, The Power of Habit, describes how a sequence of actions can become an automatic routine, a process he calls chunking. People rely on familiar sequences throughout the day, from getting ready in the morning to preparing for bed.

In the habit-loop framework, the cue starts the sequence. Choose something easy to notice and connect it with the activity you want to repeat. A familiar time or place can give the routine a clear beginning.

An MIT research summary describes how basal-ganglia and cortical circuits help control habitual behavior in rats. That biological research and Duhigg’s framework offer different ways of thinking about repeated actions.

Choose a reward you care about

The reward gives you something to look forward to after the activity. It should suit the person and feel worth anticipating. In the workout-clothes example, seeing the clothes beside the bed prompts getting dressed and going to the gym. A smoothie afterward completes the planned sequence.

Thinking about that reward may help make the workout appealing. Then the sequence can be repeated on the next planned workout day. Familiar cues and rewards may make it easier to begin without debating the whole decision each time.

Habits can also be ignored, changed or replaced. If the routine is hard to sustain, reconsider its cue, the activity itself and the reward. The aim is an exercise routine you can keep returning to, with enough flexibility to fit your preferences and circumstances.

References

Tappe, K., Tarves, E., Oltarzewski, J., & Frum, D. (2013). Habit formation among regular exercisers at fitness centers: An exploratory study. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 10(4), 607–613. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.10.4.607

Duhigg, C. (2014). The power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks.

Trafton, A. (2012, October 29). How the brain controls our habits. MIT News. https://news.mit.edu/2012/understanding-how-brains-control-our-habits-1029