Back to School Fitness Tips (Scheduling & Goal Setting)
Are you going back to school this month? This one’s for you!
Physical activity can actually help improve your learning! In addition to an increase in energy and motivation, regular physical activity can also help reduce stress and increase your sense of well-being, all super important things for students.
If you want to start a new activity this school year, here are some questions you might consider asking yourself:
What do I want from this activity?
Are my goals specific or general?
What are my barriers and/or what’s preventing me right now? How can I minimize these barriers?
Is there any equipment or are there any resources that I need?
What is the minimum required dose for learning, skill acquisition, or my desired outcome?
How much time do I have to dedicate to my new fitness goal?
Does my school offer this activity?
Next, I always recommend identifying and setting your goals. Think about the what, when, how, and why. Once you’ve got an overall goal, break it down into monthly goals, then weekly, then daily. Focus on what you can do each day to move the needle closer to your overall goals, and remember, the little things add up! At the end of each day, week, or month, reflect and identify what you’ve done to move yourself closer to your goal.
Set yourself up for success. Personally, I love to utilize habit stacking, which basically just means to choose a habit that you already have, and stack it with your desired habit. Ask yourself: where could this new habit fit in with a habit I already have?
In addition, try to identify barriers to your new desired habit and brainstorm ways you can remove these barriers. If one of your barriers is that you hit the snooze on your alarm and end up late because you don’t have breakfast or an outfit, try getting your outfit and an easy breakfast ready the night before. Now you can hit snooze still, but your stuff’s all ready to go.
For example, if you want to start taking creatine, find somewhere that this new habit can fit into your established habits. If you always drink a glass of water right when you wake up, this might be an excellent place to stack your new habit of drinking creatine. You could place your creatine bottle in the same cupboard as your glasses so that when you wake up in the morning, you see the creatine and you’re able to just plop a scoop right into your morning H2O. This example uses habit stacking and reduction of barriers.
Try using time blocking if you’ve got a busy schedule. If you’re a pen and paper kind of person, I really love using a planner that has time slots built into the days. The one I use is from Passion Planner and I love it! You could also use google calendar, or an app like Notion to help manage your time. Your success is widely dependent on the time you create for your goal, and you’ll be much more likely to exercise if you properly plan the time for it.
Well, those are my tips! Hope you have an awesome start to the term. Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions or if you’d like to chat!
Thanks again for reading, and I’ll see you next Friday.
-Jory
