It’s one thing to find the motivation to exercise. It’s another to stay consistent with it. “Motivation comes and goes, but consistency is a choice,” says Peloton instructor Selena Samuela.

But like any big part of life, you might still have to work at it. “Even when you make a choice and feel passionately about it, it doesn’t mean that it’s always going to come easy,” she says. Take marriage as an example: “Marriage is a choice, and when you get married you feel strongly about that union and your dedication to it, but that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be easy,” Selena says.

Just like your romantic relationships are unique to you, so too is your relationship with exercise. It can take some time to discover what works best for you when it comes to how to stay consistent with working out.

But these tips from Selena and sport psychologist Judy L. Van Raalte, PhD, professor emerita of psychology at Springfield College, can help you find your path.

Common Obstacles to Staying Consistent with Working Out

Motivation is what’s behind your desire to exercise. It can encompass goals like training for a race, building muscle, or being able to move through your day with ease. Motivation might get you to the gym on day one of your plan. But then personal, professional, and family responsibilities might get in the way. Ultimately, even though you’re motivated to work out, you might find you no longer make it happen consistently.

Consistency can occur with or without motivation. It’s less about your desires and more about adherence, Van Raalte says.

And plenty of obstacles can get in the way of working out consistently, such as:

How to Stay Consistent with Working Out

So how do you overcome those obstacles and find ways to stay disciplined? Here are some pointers that might help you stay more consistent with a fitness routine.

1. Identify Your WOOP Goal

Many people are in the habit of creating SMART goals, or goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. While this can certainly be an effective strategy for some, others who use this framework find they still have trouble meeting their goals. Van Raalte says that’s often because they haven’t adequately considered the obstacles that get in the way of those goals.

Instead, she recommends creating WOOP goals:

2. Create the Habit Before You Optimize It

However you structure your goal, it’s important to have a clear vision of what you hope to accomplish before you can fine-tune the process.

“In the beginning or when coming back from an injury, you have to create attainable, realistic goals,” Selena says. You’re less likely to stay consistent if you expect to return from an injury with a 45-minute cycling class five days a week, for example. Instead, break a sweat for, say, 10 minutes, four times a week, Selena says. Once you’re back to consistency with a more moderate goal, you can up the intensity. 

3. Focus on Your Recovery Habits

You’re less likely to stay consistent with working out if you’re neglecting essential habits that fuel your fitness, Selena says. This means acing hydration, nutrition, sleep, and mobility, she says.

Here’s what that might look like:

4. Find a Community

Peloton’s built-in community can help you stay consistent when you have others cheering you on or virtually moving alongside you on the Leaderboard. But you can also find an accountability buddy in your neighborhood to meet for walks, text a loved one about your plans to exercise and ask them to check in, or stream a class on the Peloton App with a long-distance pal and video chat afterwards.

Take it a step further with Peloton teams. This feature allows you to create or join teams alongside other Members, set shared goals, and participate in challenges together so you’ll never want to miss a workout.

Your sense of community can even extend to instructors. “Do a class with the Peloton instructor who’s really fun for you,” Van Raalte says. There are so many motivating instructors to choose from, so there’s no shortage of options for who you could take class with from one day to the next.

5. Visualize Your Time

If one obstacle you face in your attempt to be more consistent with working out is feeling like you never have enough time, Van Raalte recommends writing down all the activities you do in a day and how many hours they take. For example, your job might account for 8 hours, and sleeping is another 8. Your commute adds another 2. That already accounts for 18 of your 24 hours in a given day. 

Write down all the smaller tasks too: Getting ready for work, scrolling through social media, watching TV, walking the dog, making the kids’ lunch. If you really want to be more consistent with exercise, how can you arrange some of these responsibilities differently? 

For example, instead of 15 minutes of doomsrolling or 30 minutes of television after you log off for the day, could you squeeze in a quick workout? “There often tends to be time [rather than] not having that time available,” Van Raalte says. “Sometimes that [visual] representation is helpful.”

6. Try a Personalized Plan

Maybe you’re not consistent with exercise because you’re not sure where to start. “If planning workouts is hard for you, then that’s an obstacle for you doing the workouts,” Van Raalte says.

Peloton’s Personalized Plans can help. “It’s a new feature that helps pick classes for you based on your goals,” Selena says.

The feature analyzes your class history, then delivers a well-rounded, customized training schedule every week. You set the framework by deciding your fitness goal, how often you want to work out each week, for how long, and the activities you prefer.

Taking the guesswork out of your training schedule can help you show up and get it done rather than get thrown off track by indecision.

The Takeaway

Staying consistent with working out essentially boils down to how well you can adhere to your plan. Even when you’re motivated to exercise, obstacles like unrealistic expectations, too little sleep, personal and professional responsibilities, health concerns, and limited access can make you less consistent with working out than you’d ideally like to be. Identifying and addressing your own personal workout obstacles can help you set achievable goals and become more consistent in your approach. Prioritizing recovery, building a community that holds you accountable, and getting some professional support in creating your workout plan can all help too.