On strength training

And forming habits

It was genuinely a quiet time at the gym, I didn’t ask people to move out of my shot.

One of the areas that most interests me in the field of psychology is decision-making: how do we make decisions? What makes a good or bad decision? Or what constitutes an easy or tough decision? And why do we put off making some decisions, or defer to other people to make them for us?

The questions around this area feel endless.

The late, great, Daniel Kahneman who died in March this year, wrote extensively about decision-making throughout his career as a psychologist and behavioural economist. And he suggested that we have two systems of that help with thinking and decision-making:

Photo credit: Sun, F. (2023). Controlled Processing in Psychology: Definition & Examples. Simply Psychology.

Just from my own experience, I often sense that there are a lot of messages that we receive in society that encourage us to be more conscious, deliberate, and more rational when it comes to our thinking and decision-making. Automatic and emotional responses in contrast are seen in a less positive light. In other words, system 1 = bad, system 2 = good.

Some of this messaging may come from the simplification of Kahneman’s work, therefore, when I first started doing some research for this post, I was drawn to some research that linked automatic decision-making to the psychology of forming healthy habits such as doing exercise.

For many years, I struggled with exercise - getting started, doing it, and sticking with it. That was up until about six years ago when I took up weight lifting at a class-based strength training facility. I had a smidgen of experience of lifting weights before then but had never been taught, or been bothered to learn if what I was doing constituted correct form. However, when I joined that gym, it cracked open a door to a new world of health and exercise.

Now, that door is wedged open as strength training is part of my life. But over the years, I have often asked myself, what changed?

There is a long list of possible reasons that can explain/help address this, but one thing keeps coming back to me - habits.

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If you were to think about it now, what would you say are some of your common habits? And are there any cues that trigger this habit?

Two of my morning habits are: putting my watch on after I get up, and brushing my teeth at least ten minutes before I take my first sip of tea (the taste is not that pleasant otherwise).

These habits are consistent, I do them every day. And I don’t put much thought into them, probably because I am still waking up.

Yet decades of psychological research have shown that when we consistently pair a simple action with a contextual cue the action can be activated again later. And it is when actions become customary, we may describe them as habitual. We can also activate the action in other situations when we are exposed to a similar context. For example, when we get into a car (contextual cue), the first thing that we may do is put the seatbelt on (the action), and generally we put a seatbelt on in each car that we get into.

The shift from making a deliberate decision of putting our seatbelt on when we get in a car into one that is automatic/habitual is significant, as less conscious decision-making can help free up mental energy allowing us to focus on other things (like deciding what music we want to listen to on our drive). Unlike automatic processes, deliberate decision-making requires motivation and our attention.

When it comes to motivation, whether we are talking about exercise or responding to that non-urgent email from our boss (who may give us the impression that the email is urgent), what motivates one person, may not work that well for someone else. The act of us choosing to do something will likely rest on both internal and external motivators, and these could vary based on the task, our mood, if we are getting paid, amongst other things. And just telling someone, just do it, doesn’t necessarily work. (And I know, I was a teacher for 16 years).

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One model suggests that there are three phases to developing habits (I have chosen a random example here to accompany it):

1. Initiation – an action is identified, and an appropriate context is selected where to perform the action (e.g., I want to eat more fruit - action, so I am going to take a banana to work each morning - contextual cue)

2. Learning – we repeat the action, and cues, consistency, and convenience are important here (e.g., I am going to leave my banana on the table with my keys, so that I don’t forget it before I go to work)

3. Stability – this is when the habit has formed and little attention and motivation are required (if any)

The learning phase is the most challenging of all three as that is when we may tire of the effort involved to sustain the action and we can lose motivation, especially when it is believed that simple habits can take around 10 weeks to form. That can feel like a long time!

Therefore, it is important to bear in mind that different actions may require different levels of attention and motivation. For example, choosing to learn a new language or taking up strength training would involve elaborate actions as more mental energy is necessary. For these actions, we must pay attention over a longer period of time and maintain motivation, particularly when we learn new phrases or movements. Plus, there are additional factors that can influence the likelihood of habits forming and sticking, such as our own autonomy over the action, access to appropriate contextual cues, and whether we are rewarded after completion of the action.

However, while it has been demonstrated that simpler actions can become habitual quicker than elaborate ones, research about habit formation remains broadly consistent, whatever the action - start small.

So, whether it is about eating more bananas or taking up a new exercise, jumping in and making a massive commitment sounds positive, but it may not lead to a long-lasting change. But once smaller habits become habitual, this can increase our confidence to pursue others, and perhaps even form ones that are connected such as taking a banana AND an apple to work each day (go crazy!).

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There are still days when I don’t want to exercise even though I boldly (and arrogantly) proclaimed at the beginning of this post that strength training is part of my life! However, the decision-making involved has become simpler, and on most days I would say that there is little decision-making involved. On mornings when I do exercise, I get dressed, eat a banana and go to the gym.

It does help that I enjoy strength training. I like seeing the progression with the weight that I can move, and the physical strength that this has given me. And these are just a few additional factors that assist with maintaining this habit.

But when I reflect on habit formation more generally, it kind of amazes me how we are all capable of behavioural change. Therefore, if I return to the question that I posed at the beginning - what changed? Well, the answer appears simple, I did.

But of course, like with most things in life, there’s a bit more to it.

Important note: I am keenly aware that habits can become unhealthy or even dangerous if taken to excess, which can lead to other issues such as obsessive and compulsive behaviour patterns, and addiction. This post is not intended to address these areas.

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References

I used a few different resources to help write this post:

• Gardner, B., Lally, P., & Wardle, J. (2012). Making health habitual: the psychology of 'habit-formation' and general practice. The British journal of general practice : The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 62(605), 664–666.

• System 1 and System 2 Thinking - the Decision Lab. (n.d.). The Decision Lab.

• Daniel Kahneman’s work on decision-making: Thinking, Fast and Slow.

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For readers who have been here since the earliest days of TBOI, you will already know that my main form of exercise is strength training. If you are a new subscriber, and you are interested in reading in a bit more, here are links to earlier posts:

My body and me (part 1)

My body and me (part 2)

And finally, if you would like to see this newsletter in your inbox on a regular basis, then please consider subscribing to TBOI by adding your email address to the link below. Also, if you like what you see here, it helps tremendously when you give the heart a squeeze, share the piece with one of your mates, or leave a comment (I read and reply to all - a great joy!). Thank you 😉

Take care,

Sarah