20/11/2025
I'm a fan of half-assing it. I think it's one of the most helpful things you can do to improve your exercise consistency.
It's not a common strategy for a fitness professional to be encouraging her clients to half-ass their workouts. It's way more common to hear the typical encouragement strategies of 'just try harder!' or 'sore today, stronger tomorrow!'. And while I'm a sucker for a great encouragement quote, this exercise consistency strategy is a bit counterintuitive.
Let's talk this out:
Next time you find yourself talking yourself out of a workout, or procrastinating getting your workout started, I want you to try DO-ing the workout instead, but in a half-assed way.
Do half the workout. Do less reps, less sets, less weight. Choose the easy versions of each exercise. Choose exercises you like.
The real goal here is to stay invested in exercise, and to show up and go through the motions. A skipped workout means we're not actively involved in building or maintaining a habit. A half-assed workout is a way for us to stay on the wagon, just at lowered intensities.
Here's the catch: On the days you're motivated and full of energy, go for it! Lift heavy, and do your best when you can. On the days you'd typically skip your workout, try half-assing it instead of skipping it.
Over time you'll realize that half-assing your workouts is THE thing that helps you to lift heavier on your higher motivation days. It's THE thing that keeps you able to tolerate some load and to progress further when the time/energy/life stage is right. And perhaps most importantly, we don't have to completely re-build our exercising habit from the ground up, over and over again, because we're not stopping altogether.
