Copy-Paste Your Exercise Routine To Kickstart Your Lost Fitness Goals

Do what others around you do if you can't get motivated to move

Photo by Surface on Unsplash

1.4 billion adults (27.5% world’s adult population) don’t meet the recommended level of physical activity - 150 minutes moderate activity per week.

Numerous research studies state that physical activity protects us from preventable diseases like hypertension, and reduces risk of depression, dementia, and type-2 diabetes.

But if it’s so good for our wellbeing, short and long-term health, why do so many of us struggle to create a solid exercise routine?

As usual, knowing something is good or bad for us doesn’t necessarily translate into helpful behavioural change.

We all have baggage and a personal story to overcome when it no longer serves us.

I’ve had an up and down relationship with exercise across my life. Early on in my childhood, I was pretty active.

However, as an unstable family life and impact of traumatic experiences built up post-puberty, I went the other way and became sedentary, depressed, and overweight.

I didn’t think I’d be a ‘fit’ person again as I moved into my late teens and university, putting on more than the ‘Freshman 10’.

I hated how I felt and looked, but it was part of who I became.

I’d had back pain issues since my teens and I seemed destined to be stuck in a body I didn’t want or could use.

At Last, The First Shift Happened

After I graduated and worked for a year, I decided to travel solo around the world for 12 months - it was the early 2000s before the Internet had really kicked in, and we still lugged around Lonely Planet doorstop books for travel guidance.

It’s probably still the best year of my life in many ways. Such freedom.

When I arrived home after my wild adventures, my confidence had grown.

I’d met active people along the way and realised I could hike for hours, swim and scuba dive in the sea, and carry around a backpack that was 20% of my body weight.

I didn’t want to let go of this more active and less fearful part of me. I joined the local gym for classes and eventually got a personal trainer.

Within a few months, I’d lost over 3 stones (over 20kg or 40lbs), was eating more healthily and loved exercising.

Who was this person??

Weirdly, I’ve found that whatever trait you had in your teens almost becomes your life-long defining characteristic to some people. Family members still comment about the ‘old me’.

Since that transformational process in my early to mid 20s - just over 20 years ago (I’ve just realised that!!) - and life has sent many other challenges my way as it tends to do.

My exercise routine and fitness has ebbed and flowed as a result. I became over-obsessed with exercise, diet and weight - common for people who have seen the weight-loss shift as I had.

I also got ill with various chronic conditions ((thanks trauma) and had to stop exercising due to medication and recovery.

I’ve eventually created a sustainable routine that works for me, and now I’m in my mid-ish 40s, am possibly as fit as I was 20 years ago - not far off at least!

I know it’s not easy to keep going or restart after a break, but it is vital we do so.

Blockers To Exercising More

With chronic stress and burnout, it’s easy to ditch physical activity and exercise as we’re so rundown, exhausted and time-squeezed.

Missing the odd session here and there is fine - life happens.

But that odd one or two can quickly become one or two weeks, months, quarters or years.

Before we know it, we’re disconnected from our bodies, struggling with the impact of non-movement - stiffness, pain, discomfort, high-blood pressure, mental fogginess etc.

My burnout coaching clients often want to get back into an exercise routine as one of their goals or outcomes for coaching. They feel the negative impact of limited physical activity and sad about how detached they are.

These are the key areas I’ve noticed that block people exercising more:

1. Lack of confidence

2. Lack of motivation

3. Perceived lack of time

4. Perceived lack of resources

5. Don’t know where to start

6. Fear of injury/pain

7. Fear of being embarrassed/shamed

Some of these might resonate with you - they definitely do with me.

If we dig deeper, there are around 3 themes these blockers fit into:

1. Friction related to time/motivation

2. Limited knowledge of options

3. Mindset blockers - fear-based beliefs

Once we look at the issues from this perspective, we build appropriate strategies to address our specific blockers.

The first step is therefore to understand which theme is primarily getting in your way. Then you can develop solutions that will solve the problem so you move forward.

Make them low-entry and so easy that you’re excited to try them out.

Copy-Paste What Your Peers Are Doing

Beneath these themes is a sense of uncertainty and doubt that change is possible.

Whether it’s ‘how the heck do I find time to fit this into my hectic life (you always can btw)?’, or ‘I don’t know where to start’, a 2020 study gives a simple approach to reduce this anxiety.

Mehr et al., studied 1,028 people in 2020 to assess different techniques to get them to exercise more. They wanted to see if a copy-paste prompt or strategy would be more effective than other approaches to increase exercise.

Two groups were given slightly varied instructions over 2 days and told to use these strategies to exercise more the following week:

1. Non-control group: Find a copy-paste strategy from peers/others they observe do the activity they’re interested in for exercise motivation

2. Control group: Informed they will be given a strategy to help exercise motivation

Researchers found that the group that looked for copy-paste strategies from their peer or influence group exercised more and were more motivated in the following week than the group given a strategy to try out.

Even if the strategies ended up being the same for participants in different groups, choosing a copy-paste strategy from people you care about has a bigger, positive impact on what you actually do.

I wonder if this is why the internet influencer model is so successful. We’ve always been impacted by celebrity over the centuries, but social media allows us a more intimate relationship with people on an hourly basis.

We learn and connect with people in ways we never did even 15 years ago. Wild.

What else influences why the copy-paste strategy works better?

The researchers suggested that having autonomy of the copy-paste strategy chosen, and that it was personally applicable made it more engaging and relevant.

That plus being able to find a solution from their peer group influenced how motivated people felt about putting it into action.

The great thing about this strategy, is that it can be used in other domains outside exercise. Maybe you are struggling with writing, being an entrepreneur, parenthood or something else.

We naturally ask others for advice. But if you see it as a specific strategy you use from someone you know to boost motivation and getting stuff done, it becomes more legitimate to overcome the blockers above.

I love working out with my personal trainer now - she’s based in Greece (I really need to visit and sit by the sea!) and knows my strengths, weaknesses and development areas.

When I want to try something out myself, I know she’ll give me tips that are based on her expertise AND her knowledge of me.

That personalised and observational touch makes a difference.

Put Your Copy-Paste Strategy Into Action

If you’re struggling to get started with exercise or restarting a lost fitness routine, don’t lose heart.

From my own experiences over the decades, and working with tonnes of clients, it’s absolutely possible to bring exercise and physical activity back into your life so it fits where you are right now.

1. Start with what interests you - is it social connection, improving a key skill or capability, or stress reduction. Or it could be something else.

   1. Knowing why you want to achieve an outcome helps you focus on the end result and how it will improve your life.

   2. Hold onto that when you wobble or are unsure why you are up at 6.30am in the middle of winter doing kettle ball swings (this is my reality now!).

   3. It’ll help defeat those niggling gremlins who want to stay in bed a bit longer, or want to get that presentation done in the office because you can always catch the next class, right? Resist temptation.

2. Look at the people around you and what they can help you with.

   1. Ask them about their process, motivators, kit, recommendations etc.

   2. Copy-paste their strategy and incorporate it into your life based on what you’ve learned.

3. Try the copy-paste strategy and see how you feel afterwards.

   1. What would you keep, ditch and tweak?

   2. Don’t get distracted by perfection or efficiency yet - you don’t need an annual swimming pass if you’re still setting up the habit. Done is better than perfect.

I bang on and on about it but small, compound changes build up over time, and this is especially important with exercise or physical activity. You rarely see instant benefits.

Even a 15 minute walk has health improvements - both mental and physical - so keep it super simple if you’re really stuck.

You’ll create a stronger and more resilient version of yourself, and it’ll improve all aspects of your life if you give it a chance.🚀

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Which peer-inspired physical activity or exercise do you want to try?