This is the right way to do sit-ups (Or German, fitness trainer)
If you, too, look with envy at those who are in love with their workouts and can't miss a workout without getting depressed, you're definitely in good company. All over the world, people around the world have been trying for decades to understand what goes through the brains of those who can't give up exercising, and have made this sweaty habit an integral (and even enjoyable) part of their routine.
Over the years, experts from different fields have tried to understand how long it takes for habits to become fixed in the brain - and each such study came to a different conclusion each time. We, too, have told you a lot about studies of this kind, but a new study published on the subject tried to answer the question using an innovative tool that has not yet been tested in this field.
The study in question was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. It was conducted by researchers from the University of Chicago and the California Institute of Technology. It used advanced machine learning tools that analyzed data on the habits of thousands of people. This is in order to understand, among other things, what causes people to develop habits related to physical fitness, as well as other important habits such as washing hands with health workers.
A woman running a morning jog (Photo: ShutterStock)
First of all, let us squeeze and tell you that the study's conclusions are not encouraging. Contrary to the well-known myth that it takes a total of 21 days to develop a habit, this time the AI set a different and much more pessimistic figure. According to the data, it takes people on average no less than six months to develop healthy habits, although the researchers noted in the study that this figure is very individual and that different people differ greatly from each other in the ability to form a healthy habit.
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In the fitness section, researchers tracked the gym badge usage patterns of more than 30,69 members for about four years. The follow-up taught the researchers that it took the trainees about six months on average to become the habit of regularly visiting the institute at regular times and without "overlapping."
Dr. Colin P. Kammerer, director of the Center for Behavioral Sciences at the California Institute of Technology and the person who led the study, said: "Our data showed that the choice of whether or not to exercise, as well as the frequency of visits to the gym are things that are hard to predict when looking at a large mass of people. On average, people visited the gym one or two days a week. For us, those who developed a habit were the ones we could predict when that day or two would actually happen. If we can't predict it, it means these people haven't really developed a habit."
In addition, the researchers found (not surprisingly) that the more time that passes between workouts, the less likely it is to establish the healthy habit. They also found that about 21 percent of people go to the gym on those days each week. In general, these findings join many other findings that already indicate a similar trend and show that the myth around the <> days is far from true and accurate.
How to beat the statistics and fall in love with the healthy routine?
What can undoubtedly be learned from new research is that you can't really learn from new research. As mentioned, each person is an individual, and even intelligent machine learning systems have difficulty assessing what individual decisions each of us will make.
So instead of going through statistics and data, there are plenty of things you can do right now to help yourself make fitness a habit, one of the most prominent of which is simply addressing how much you enjoy the workout itself. Of all the ways to help you get in shape, we're sure you can find at least one that fits you better and fits into your daily routine, whether it's swimming in the sea, dancing at a club, intense CrossFit, exercising with the kids, playing with friends or simply taking breaks at work, if it's an app for short workouts.
And if you've tried to get in shape and failed many times in life, you should ask yourself honestly and without judgment why it happened and what alternatives will allow you to persevere. Enjoyment, comfort, the right integration into the schedule, the level of difficulty and dynamism of the training - all these have been proven to influence the motivation to stick to it and the desire to persevere over time. You don't have to be an expert to understand that once you enjoy something, you significantly improve the chances that it will turn from just another task on your schedule into a habit you won't be willing to give up.
- health
- Fitness
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- sport
- Fitness
