As active women, we often hear about how important it is to be consistent in our fitness routines in order to see results.
Just by looking at our routines, we can see that it’s true. We make a weekly workout schedule and repeat those same workouts week after week after week!
We know that maintaining this consistent workout routine is crucial for our progress.
However, staying consistent is way easier said than done.
That’s why it’s critical to understand the role of consistency in your fitness routine as well as learn effective fitness strategies to keep yourself consistent.
In this post, I want to explore the importance of consistent workouts to achieve your long term fitness goals as an active women.
In This Post You’ll Find:
The Importance of Consistency in a Women’s Fitness Routine
As with tons of other things in life, consistency is key to seeing the results you want to see.
If you want to continue to progress in something, you have to consistently do that something.
And not just do it all at one time. But instead do it over days and days.
For example, you might’ve heard that doing an activity for one hour each day is far more effective than doing that same activity for five hours in just one day.
Well, this same principle can be applied to your workout routine.
When you start working out consistently, little by little each day, you continue progressing over the days.
Progressing both in your results and in your performance.
Going back to what I was saying before, that’s why it’s so much more common for people to workout one hour a day five days a week. As opposed to working out one day a week, for five hours that day.
The first way is so much more effective! Why? Because of the consistency and repetition of your training.
Think about it, you can’t progress the same in five hours as you can over an entire week.
So why does this make sense, even you’re still spending the same amount of time on your workouts?
It’s because it’s the consistency that matters. With the second way, you’d be giving your body no time to recover, progress, or practice muscle memory.
Versus with the first way, you consistently give your body all those things! You give your body the chance to build on it’s results, each day you allow it the chance for the results to come through.
Turning Your Workouts into Habits to Stay Consistent
To turn something into a habit, you need to do it everyday, little by little.
You then need to be consistent in doing this thing day by day, and this habit becomes part of your lifestyle.
The same applies to your fitness routine. You should have the goal to turn your workouts into a daily habit.
Eventually, your workouts will start to become a part of your lifestyle. Making their way into your regular routine and becoming something you don’t have to contemplate doing.
You’ll just start to complete your workouts out of habit!
The key here is that a habit is something that happens regularly. You stick to doing it on the days you say you’re going to do it.
Meaning you can’t just do something rarely, whenever you feel like it and expect it to become a habit.
In terms of your workouts, this means you’d need to consistently following your workout routine.
This means constantly skipping workouts or only going to the gym on the days you feel like it wouldn’t work.
Because it’s the repetition and consistency that we talked about earlier that make something into a habit.
And all this repetition and consistency and doing something over and over again is what makes your habits worthwhile!
That’s what’s going to give you the most life changing results.
How Consistent Workouts Improve Fitness Results
Like I was saying before, when you focus on doing something everyday, little by little, it becomes a habit.
Habits are what have the most impact on your life and produce the most life changing results.
Because you’re working on that habit regularly, almost every day!
This also applies to your fitness routine. When you make your fitness routine a habit, you set yourself up for the best results.
Working out consistently and sticking to your routine is how you’ll be able to maximize your workout results.
Every routine you’ll ever make for yourself will require consistency and repetition for you to achieve results.
Primarily because your workout results build on each other.
Meaning the results you get from this workout will add on to the results you got from your previous workout.
Which built on your results from the one before that, and the one before that.
Although this means are results come slower and require tons of time and consistency, there’s also a bright side.
It means that the more consistent you are with your workouts, the more your results you’ll continue to see.
You’re weightlifting results continue compounding and becoming better and better.
That’s one of the main reasons why weightlifting gets better the more you do it!
But it’s also one of the main reasons why seeing results from weightlifting can be such a slow process.
If you want to get the most out of your routine and continue seeing maximum results, then consistency in your routine is non-negotiable.
The Best Fitness Strategies for Women to Stay Consistent With Their Workouts
I’ve talked a lot about why it’s so important for women to be consistent in their workout routines.
However, staying consistent is often times easier said than done.
I want to give you some of the best tips to keep yourself consistent with your workouts. That way, you can continue seeing the results you want and deserve.
Create a Workout Routine to Make Consistent Workouts Easier
Creating a workout routine is one of the best ways to stay consistent with your workouts.
Most workout routines are created on a weekly basis.
You create a weekly gym split determining which muscles groups you’re going to train on which days and which days you’re going to rest.
You plan out when you’re going to train each muscle group, how often, and exactly what exercises you’re going to be doing.
As you can imagine, this is a huge help in keeping you consistent in your routine!
It eliminates any doubts or confusion about how often you should be working out and what you should be doing each day.
You’re workout routine gives you a plan for your entire week. Meaning that each week, and each workout within that week, is predetermined and structured.
Otherwise, it’s common to become overwhelmed, confused, and discouraged feeling a little lost in your workouts.
And a lot of times, this confusion is what discourages a lot of women from going to the gym!
But a workout routine eliminates all of that. It helps you feel confident that you do have a plan for the gym that day. And that you do know what you should be doing!
Create Your Workout Plan Based On Your Goals
On top of that, once you create a workout plan, you create it based on your individual, realistic gym goals.
You already know which workout you should be doing every day. And that each workout you complete gets you closer to achieving your goals.
After every workout, you’ll be closer to achieving your goals and making the progress you want to see.
Realizing this can be really motivational and help you stay consistent in your goal based routine.
Find Motivation Outside of Your Fitness Results
For many of us who get into fitness, we do it because we have certain goals we want to achieve.
These are the results that we hope to see from our routines.
Whether it be changes in our physiques, weight, confidence, health, or anything else.
These are all benefits and results that make all of your consistency and hard work worthwhile.
For many of us, once we start seeing results from our routines, our motivation skyrockets.
And rightfully so, who wouldn’t get motivated knowing that their work is paying off!
You know all you’re hard work is paying off because you can see the results right in front of you!
When the times comes that we do actually see them, it’s a huge motivator to get you in the gym and keep you there.
What If You Aren’t Seeing The Results You Want to See?
When it comes to fitness, we often have a hard time seeing our own progress within ourselves.
I’m not entirely sure why, maybe because we see ourselves everyday and don’t notice the small changes? Or because we have confused perceptions of ourselves, and pick ourselves apart too harshly?
Regardless of the cause, the truth is that most often times we don’t feel like we’ve made much progress in our routines.
This doesn’t mean we aren’t making progress. It just means we don’t see it or feel it within ourselves. Which still doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Especially for women who lift weights and have goals like body recomping, your results are going to be super slow!
But that’s just part of the process, it doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong.
However, this is when things become more challenging.
It really is a challenge to stay motivated in the gym during times when you feel like you’re results aren’t paying off.
So what happens when you aren’t seeing any of these results you want to see, or feel like they’re coming to slowly? Or even just feel like you aren’t seeing any results, even if you are?
Where does your motivation come from then?
The Best Strategies for When You Feel Like You Aren’t Seeing Results
Well, the first step is to learn how to be patient with your gym progress. And the second step is to find other ways to keep yourself motivated in the meantime.
For example, you can try things like finding motivation inside of the gym.
Maybe bring a friend or make friends in your gym who help make your workouts more fun and enjoyable.
Or, you can focus on the changes you feel rather than the changes you see.
Focus on changes in how you think, feel, and most importantly, how you perceive yourself.
Finding other ways to keep yourself motivated, outside of your physical results, is huge in keeping you consistent in the gym.
Rely on Discipline Rather Than Motivation to Stick to Your Workouts
With most things in life, discipline takes you way further than motivation ever will.
Discipline means you know what you need to do each day, so you do it. Once you commit to doing something, you do it.
Regardless of how you feel or how motivated you are.
And once you commit to doing something and follow through on that commitment, and do this over and over again, that’s when that thing becomes a habit.
Discipline is huge when it comes to making habits and staying consistent with your commitments!
In terms of your workout routine, this would mean you consistently stick to your workout plan, each day.
When you look at it that way, discipline solves every problem you could ever have with inconsistency.
Being disciplined is the only way to keep yourself consistent in the gym, always.
Of course, there are always times when it’s acceptable to miss your workouts. That’s why I wrote a post on what to do after missing a week of workouts.
Because life happens and unavoidable things can get in the way of your workouts!
But just because you miss a workout doesn’t mean you lack discipline.
You should never beat yourself up after missing workouts. That’s the best way to kill your motivation and make it even harder to stay consistent than it already is.
Unless it starts becoming a habit, a missed workout here and there won’t have much of an impact on your long term results.
So as long as you can bounce back and resume your workouts, you’re just as disciplined as you always were.
And if you stay disciplined in the long run, you will see the results you want to see.
Takeaways
Staying consistent in your workout routine is crucial to seeing results in the gym.
However, actually keeping yourself consistent isn’t always easy.
The key is to understand the role consistency plays in your routine and why it’s so important for your results.
Then, by creating a workout routine, finding ways to keep yourself motivated, and staying disciplined, you can start holding yourself accountable and becoming far more consistent in your routine.
In no time, all your consistency will be paying off and you’ll be seeing results like never before!
More of My Posts On Women’s Weightlifting and Fitness:
How to Choose A Workout Style That’s Best for You