---
title: 'How to build a habit of going to the gym when you have ADHD'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=grX67eCAwCA'
video_id: 'grX67eCAwCA'
date: 2026-06-30
duration_sec: 1507
---

# How to build a habit of going to the gym when you have ADHD

> Source: [How to build a habit of going to the gym when you have ADHD](https://youtube.com/watch?v=grX67eCAwCA)

## Summary



## Transcript

hi everyone this video is about
how i've developed a consistent habit of
going to the gym as someone with adhd
now this entire video is important but
if you're more short on time i've
labeled which parts are more specific to
people with adhd or general
neurodivergent people so you can feel
free to skip to those or take a look at
the script outline that i've linked in
the description and feel free to use
that to decide how you want to skip to
the relevant sections first a brief bit
of intro i've always been a bit
frustrated by advice when it comes to
building habits or going to the gym
and look these are things that you
should try first if you haven't already
so things like promising yourself a
simple reward like a snack after going
to the gym going on a regular schedule
or participating in intramural sports or
some kind of team sport where you have
some incentive to go and you can be held
accountable but videos often stop here
with very little additional information
some videos talk a little bit more about
the dopamine reward system and how
reward and habits can can build based on
that what i've always wanted is a more
specific set of guidelines or a starting
point that i could use to develop a
habit and this video is is exactly that
and i hope it's helpful to give you an
idea of how well it's worked for me my
gym habits are that i go anywhere from
three to five times a week i've
maintained this habit since 2016 back
when i was 27 i'm 32 now and this was
well before starting stimulant
medication which i started in 2020 so
it's something that really worked well
as someone with adhd so we'll get to
that and as for the workouts themselves
i do a mixture of cardio like running
and rowing on machines and i do some
lifting like power lifts and olympic
lifts and look i'm not physically
impressive i am skinny but i do have a
robust habit that i've maintained
through
various things like changing jobs
changing countries stress-rated work and
stress in my personal life so hopefully
this video can help you build a robust
habit as well first thing before you
even get to the gym there are some
things to consider
and this is important for really anyone
you don't have to have adhd to find this
advice useful at least i hope the goal
here is to develop a pull towards
healthiness and a push away from
unhealthiness and if you're familiar
with the self-help literature this
probably sounds very familiar this is
actually from the self-authoring program
i won't say anything more about it
because i want to be clear i don't
support the person behind it however the
ideas are fantastic what's helped me is
to understand what it means to be
healthy and what it means to be
unhealthy building up concrete examples
of what that means it can be
a little more vague or more concrete for
example you might feel fine now but the
question is will your habits keep you
comfortable 50 years from now another
maybe a more concrete example is that
people tend to age more slowly when they
exercise regularly and people tend to
age more quickly when they don't and of
course this is a more of a correlation
but it's something that helps to keep in
mind i'll talk a little bit more about
this in a moment something that's
another thing that's concrete is
remembering how your body feels during
stretches without exercise if there was
a time in your life when you didn't
exercise a lot or if you're currently
not exercising a lot think about things
like how quickly do you get tired you're
just jogging a little bit from point a
to point b did you not get as far as you
would have liked to before running out
of breath and then the other side
remember how your body feels or felt
during stretches when you did exercise a
lot do you or did you feel good were you
able to jog without losing your breath
and did that feel good were you able to
do the things that you enjoy without
having to stop every few minutes were
you able to get out of bed more easily
things like that concrete examples that
really are easy to remember and stick in
your head
and for people older than their late
twenties
how much harder will it be to get into
shape now than it was five or ten years
ago and think about how much harder it
might be as the years go on if you are
in your 50s or 60s of course you can
start now the point is it only gets
harder the point of bringing that up is
not to guilt you there shouldn't be any
guilt in this you should allow yourself
to feel bad if you don't work out but
it's a part of a concrete set of
examples that builds that kind of push
away from unhealthiness and pull towards
healthiness of course there are plenty
of exceptions a healthy lifestyle is no
guarantee of anything there are plenty
of people that work out all the time and
eat well and whatever and they can get
cancer and unfortunately die young and
there are plenty of examples of people
that don't work out who smoke every
single day like a pack a day who live to
90 something there are exceptions but
the point of doing healthy things is to
improve the chances of staying healthier
for longer and to improve the chance of
having a more comfortable life as we age
so that's something that i think about
personally your long-term motivation
might be a little different but yeah we
all understand there are exceptions
these are correlations you want to frame
them in your head in a way that helps
motivate you and doesn't quite
guilt you too much you should do this
over a very long time frame it shouldn't
be done in a day or two longer is better
because your brain will have more time
to internalize these examples and make
it more second nature for you to
understand what healthy means just
collect data don't stress over this it
should be a passive process the way that
i did it i certainly didn't spend a ton
of energy googling what it means to be
healthy and looking up images and videos
of people talking about it if you want
to do that that's great but what we're
going for here is a long-term
sustainable change the less stress we
can associate with this the more likely
it can be that these ideas will stick
the idea is that generally over time
you'll make healthier decisions when it
comes to exercise try not to buy into
fads when it comes to food and exercise
do what works for you collect data
specific to your body there are all
kinds of people out there that will say
this or that is the answer you should
listen to your medical doctor and you
should not take non-medical
professionals words as truth including
me figure out what motivates you when it
comes to health keep it minimal easy to
understand specific to you and look
these don't have to make sense for
anyone else and i'll go from uh more
general to more specific so for me it
feels good to be healthy i look better
clothes fit better now we're getting a
little more specific my hair is slowly
thinning it doesn't quite look like it
from your perspective but it is and i
know that i'll go bald eventually i'll
start balding eventually at the top of
my head a little vain but i see fitness
as my consolation prize there i have
other motivations for fitness obviously
but it's like it's like my little mini
consolation prize i might lose my hair
but at least i'll be fit i'll also learn
how to accept the fact that i'm balding
in a more healthy way but i use these
small things to kind of keep me
motivated in the short medium or long
term another thing is that i can
basically do whatever i want physically
if someone asks me to play just like a
5v5 pickup basketball game now i could
do that thinking back to when i was
little i could just get out of bed and
start sprinting and everything was fine
these days as an adult i do have to warm
up but i can basically do the same thing
and it's really important to me to
maintain that for as long as i possibly
can
whatever works for you collect data
about yourself what it is that you like
what it is about health that you enjoy
or really want or whatever it is kind of
observe yourself this does require a
good amount of introspection stretch it
out over a good amount of time we don't
have to rush this i know it contradicts
with the idea of working out now is
better than working out later well you
can work out now too so get the stuff in
your head over a long time passively but
as efficiently as you can the more data
you collect the easier this will be next
building an understanding of going to
the gym the goal here is over the course
of months to years
understand what it's like to go to gyms
different gyms in different ways how
long it takes by car foot or public
transport how much energy is involved in
going learning what different gyms look
like in person videos don't count you
can't be pictures you have to be
physically be there you have to see it
in person you need to know the sights
sounds and smells you have to observe
how people are working out and
interacting with each other and not
overtly right you don't want to stare at
people that's not cool but start slow
and easy
this is a lifestyle change and therefore
a long-term change
you want to make this process as easy as
possible and i'll talk about the
importance of that in the next section
experiment with different schedules of
going to the gym
you could try
regular schedules at different time
scales maybe you want to say three times
a week
at specific hours or non-specific hours
you could try going a set number of
times a month make a tick mark each time
you go to the gym and that could be at
specific times or non-specific times you
could let go of all of that and just say
look i'm just going to go as many times
as possible as my brain or motivation or
energy will allow and do that at
specific times or non-specific times you
could try each of these one week or over
the course of a month that also is hard
what i did was try to commit to a
schedule and i failed many times so i
did stuff like this and i stuck to it as
long as i could and just kept not
succeeding for example i tried three
times a week going to the gym lasted
maybe a month and i stopped going for a
while and then i tried running every day
in the morning after waking up and i
lasted maybe three weeks and then
stopped for a while i tried running uh
sorry going to the gym once a week and
that lasted a few months and then i
stopped for a while
and then i started running 5k three
times a week lasted about three months
and i stopped for a while and then i
list lifted up three times a week and it
actually lasted much longer about six
months um and then i again stopped
what's interesting is that over the
course of a few years of doing this
trying and failing i ended up building a
good understanding of what it meant to
go to the gym and i started to feel more
comfortable going and less
self-conscious and less anxious about
various unknowns related to that even
going to the gym regularly and failing
sorry going to the gym trying to go
regularly but then failing is actually
not wasted effort you can try sticking
to a schedule and then and then failing
and then not going for a while you can
try experimenting with different
schedules as i mentioned but you should
let yourself be okay with fading out if
you're really having a difficult time
motivating yourself at some point you
should be okay with that especially if
you're starting out you can also
experiment with different gyms and i'll
talk about the different gyms that you
can consider in a later section there
are several helpful things about framing
a gym habit as building an understanding
of how to get to the gym
because it removes the many many
unknowns about exploring new places i've
always had very big issues with this
even a small task like going to the bank
and opening an account was terrifying
for me there are just so many unknowns
you just don't know what's going to
happen learning how to get to the gym
it really
puts those at ease because you you see
that oh okay it really is not a big deal
but you can only do that if you
physically go it adds a motivator that's
distinct from just working out more
motivators are always good it
contributes to robustness of the habit
if you don't go to the gym for an
extended time for whatever reason this
framing can actually help take guilt
away from going to the gym less
frequently because data collection
doesn't have to be super frequent yeah
you have to be careful about that one
but
for me it's kind of helped okay so
getting to the gym
this is really important this can be
very often make or break
certainly in my case
and i think this really applies
especially for people with adhd first
thing is you want to make going to the
gym as easy as possible you want to get
that foot out the door you want to make
sure that getting to the car driving to
the gym getting from the car to the gym
every single step should be as easy as
possible so to do that you want to make
your clothing comfortable for the
weather all your car problems should be
fixed if you are driving so do all your
safety inspections fix the check engine
lights whatever is wrong with your car
that's important to fix fix it if you're
taking other forms of transport like a
bus make that as easy and as fun as
possible like look forward to browsing
stuff on your phone listening to your
favorite songs watching videos whatever
you like doing on your phone let
yourself do it on the bus
next you want to minimize the time it
takes to get out the door
if you take more time to get out the
door there will be more opportunities
for you to get distracted you might
start thinking about doing easier things
than going to the gym like playing video
games when you've thought about easier
things for long enough it's extremely
hard to convince yourself to go to the
gym you will definitely have the
willpower to go anyways
the catch is that you can only do this
once or twice or maybe even 10 times you
could probably sustain this for a good
amount depending on how how motivated
you are but you don't want to fight with
yourself every single time you go to the
gym that negative feedback loop will
build maybe like two people on this
planet have the strength to really keep
pushing through that because they're
insane
but you need that strength to overcome
other bs related to adhd affecting other
parts of your life so you need to make
this process as easy and as smooth as
possible and if you keep allowing that
negative emotion to build up then you're
only going to associate going to the gym
with very negative thoughts and emotions
and this entire process of going to the
gym of building a habit is extremely
sensitive to negative emotions it has
been in my case i wouldn't be surprised
if it was the same for your case that's
what i've noticed and i think that's
important to point out even if you don't
go to the gym very often that's another
really important thing that i noticed
with myself even if i went like the time
that i went once a week i started
building up these negative associate
feelings associated with it it just felt
like such a distraction such a chore and
i thought well it's only once a week
right that should be easy it's not like
it's three times a week well those
negative emotions build up and it it got
to a breaking point i just had too many
other things to deal with and i just
stopped going it's important to minimize
those as much as possible make your keys
gym clothes wallet whatever you carry
with you to the gym in a standard easy
to access area or set of areas for
example i always put my wallet keys
and phone on my desk somewhere on my
desk sometimes i'll put it on my bed or
on the floor close to my desk whatever
it is i just have a pre-defined set of
places where i know where things might
be and so if it's not on my desk i can
immediately look on the floor or on the
bed oh okay there it is grab and go
i leave my gym clothes on my drying rack
which by the way combined with with my
laundry basket this is a really helpful
visual cue for when i need to do laundry
i've also left clean gym shorts on the
floor so they're easy to see but the
idea is that it's easy to pick up and
put on just go
you definitely want to do laundry
regularly so that gym clothes are
readily available i know that this can
be hard and make make or break this is
really important for for getting out the
door quickly for me not having clean
clothes has always been like this
kryptonite to not going to the gym
because i just i hate doing laundry on
the spot you know i realize oh three
hours from now i have to go somewhere i
need i have two hours to do laundry
it's enough time but i i hate doing it
it's just not going to happen so i try
to make sure to do laundry
semi-regularly so i always have clothes
available i haven't done this one
personally this this is another one
takes more prep but less time to get out
the door so depending on how your brain
works this could be better for you you
could put your clean gym clothes just
all of them for the week in a gym bag so
that it's ready for you the next time
you go to the gym you can just grab and
go and since there's multiple days of
clothes in there you don't have to
keep swapping out clothes all the time
you just have to take the old clothes
out yeah then you can just just grab it
walk down the stairs or whatever however
your house is laid out apartment
whatever and just out the door without a
thought this is a bit weird but you can
use both meditation methods and a lack
of impulse control to kind of make
yourself fall into
just going out the door and i know this
is hard but the point is that you should
at least know how to do it even if
you're not good at it i'm i'm horrible
at it i
my brain will not shut up but you should
know how to
do it and then utilize it in the key
moments where you might need it for you
know like five ten seconds
so understand how it works like
you know some forms of meditation you
can try just focusing on one thing like
a particular sound like your breathing
or the cars or the cars outside or the
birds for like five minutes just learn
how to do that and then
once you know how to do that you can use
meditation to minimize thinking about
the hard parts of the gym or really
anything else that's going on in your
life that might prevent you from walking
out that door then use your impulse to
just go without thinking we all know
what this is like to just do something
without really thinking about it
carefully
the more you think about
all of this though just the harder it
will be to just go okay
another thing to consider that i haven't
done this a whole lot i think i might
have done this more subconsciously is
that the brain can really it can only
focus on a few things at a time so what
you can do is you can start singing a
song that you like as you're preparing
to go so it's it's less likely for your
brain to think about something else and
this can also be a little easier than
that easier than meditation because
you're doing something that you're
familiar with that you really enjoy so
as you're while your brain is kind of
distracted with enjoying the feelings
and remembering how to sing the song you
can pick up your stuff and and walk out
the door you can learn to counter
specific excuses this is very helpful
for example a big one for me is that i'm
too tired this really depends on the
situation but more often than not in my
case it's because i didn't sleep enough
or i had a hard workout the day before
generally i found that i can still work
out fine if i just go anyways i can
always scale back weights or reps if i
have to but again be safe you know your
body pretty well maybe you have a
physical therapist or something
within reasonable guidelines you can
counter this excuse another one for me
is i have too much work my brain will
use this sometimes even if i don't have
work so i have to be honest with myself
and either do the work if i don't go to
the gym or go to the gym because i don't
actually have work i don't always
succeed sometimes i'll not go to the gym
and not work it happens you just have to
be honest with yourself as much as you
can and sometimes give yourself a break
all right
at the gym i'll be a little brief
because this is a little more about
motivation and there are tons of videos
on motivation and working out
effectively one thing that
i've used very consistently
is to enjoy the grind and i don't know
if videos talk about this but i've
always
been in the mindset of of of going in
and just you know just trying really
hard within again reasonable limits
because there is such a thing as
overtraining no matter how much you work
out or how long you work out over you
know however many years your mind will
want to give up before your body more so
when you're more trained and less
trained but either way that does happen
you should view this as a challenge to
be overcome so really getting into that
grind and pushing through uncomfortable
physical physically uncomfortable
situations that's something you should
really learn to enjoy and then view
maintaining good form as a top priority
if you can't maintain good form or
posture in whatever movement you're
working on just scale back until you can
and you can also view this as a
challenge because it can be very hard to
maintain good form when performing at
one's limits make sure to don't overwork
it is possible to have too much of a
good thing just be careful of that
that's also i guess a general helpful
life thing you know try not to overwork
but figure out how to enjoy the work
when you're working yeah when it comes
to working out i think i think that's a
little easier because you're really
doing it for yourself and for your
health something that can help while at
the gym is to watch videos of pro
athletes working out or training just
look at how hard they're pushing you can
like pretend like you're kobe bryant
training to become the world's best or
something whatever works again doesn't
have to make sense to anyone else just
whatever works for you take clear mental
or physical notes of your improvement
are you less out of breath did you lift
more did you last longer did you do more
reps you can take note of this somewhere
i usually use my phone and
intermittently take notes of different
milestones if i remember but it can help
show you that you are improving
concretely now after the gym if you're
taking physical notes like i said i use
my phone sometimes enjoy the increases
in the numbers because if you go
regularly you will see an improvement
but
also remember
that numbers don't always increase this
is something that threw me off a lot for
years until i finally realized oh that's
right some days your body just won't be
at 100 that's fine or you were really
distracted you had a lot to do and you
just didn't work out for a few weeks
maybe even a few months and you lost a
lot of strength this is a long-term
process so it can help to pay more
attention to the fact that you went to
the gym than the fact that whatever
numbers have increased or decreased
that's something that was very
discouraging for me is that i'd make
these really nice leaps in my squat
numbers or bench numbers or whatever and
then i'd
change jobs move to a new city to a
different gym that didn't emphasize
those lifts and i get weaker at those by
the way i go to a class with different
programs for for working out so that's
why i might not do squats at a different
gym okay be mindful of that
and
your body will remind you that you
worked out you'll be sore
enjoy it and give yourself a little
praise each time you notice let yourself
feel good about it take notice of any
improvements in physique you want to
associate those positive feelings with
having gone to the gym workouts or gyms
to consider you can consider 24-hour
gyms and i mentioned this i haven't done
this but i mentioned this because in the
past i'd often want to work out at odd
random hours one day i'd want to work
out at 2 pm the next at midnight the
next at 10 am there was no pattern to it
it's a good idea to not work out before
going to bed but you should try
experimenting with this especially if
you have random urges to work out at odd
random hours like i did because
personally for me working out late an
hour before going to bed it's never
affected my ability to sleep maybe i had
lower quality sleep and didn't know it
but i could fall asleep just fine and it
also let me get that energy out which
actually helped me sleep so
another thing to consider and 24 hour
gyms are just nice because you don't
have to force yourself to fit a schedule
and it can make the process of creating
a gym habit that much easier you can
indulge those workout impulses what at
whatever time you might be feeling it
you're already spending the entire day
forcing yourself to fit into all kinds
of things into this neurotypical world
so why not give yourself a bit of a
break with that kind of thing you can
consider gyms with classes or coaches
like like a spin class or something
these are nice because they're more
structured in terms of class times and
they do have a little more interaction
than just going to a regular gym it can
help if you prefer those regular times
and prefer to interact only a little bit
with people being surrounded by others
who are positive and doing the same
thing could be a good motivator gyms
like this also provide a much stronger
sense of community structure these
classes in different states or countries
may be much more similar in terms of
people and equipment than regular gyms
things like boxing jiu-jitsu gymnastics
gyms something very focused
these tend to have much more one-on-one
interactions and that can be a very good
incentive to show up and work hard
likewise these gyms probably have
similar equipment and social
expectations in different gyms worldwide
and of course if cost is an issue you
can run while listening to podcasts or
audiobooks i mean there's countless
things you can try there are all kinds
of
videos and bodyweight exercises on
youtube you could try doing intramural
or different pickup sports which is also
a low-risk way of socializing all right
so finally everything i've said is a
starting point so you should modify all
of this advice in a way that fits you
you should start experimenting and start
questioning over the long term how you
can make this habit sustainable you're a
different person you have your own
individual quirks and subtle differences
over time
as much as you can ask yourself what are
the problems in the way of building a
gym habit that are specific to you
modify it and all the questions i've
been asking i'm trying to keep it
general but there could be something i
missed and the this process of
introspection is it's really helpful for
you to identify what works for you
okay so
to conclude prepare for a lifestyle
change in other words a long-term change
this is not something that you can just
get up and do right away unless you want
it to fail within a few weeks make this
process of building this habit as easy
and stress-free as possible so negative
feelings don't build up physically go to
these gyms understand what it's like to
to go minimize all the unknowns small
and or slow changes can be much more
sustainable than fast and or large
changes we're going for sustainability
look if fast and large changes really
work for you and you can sustain that
great then just stick to it but i for me
if it's a habit like going to the gym
that's very hard i need
a long-term slow change
whatever works for you and remember
going to the gym people are not judging
you they understand you're there to work
out there's a million different reasons
why someone might be staring in your
direction very often what i'll do is
i'll do a difficult rep or like you know
get off the running machine i'm trying
to catch my breath i'm staring into
space and or maybe i was lifting and i'm
just thinking about my form you know did
this didn't quite feel right i feel like
my you know my knees weren't pushed out
enough or something you know whatever it
is
and
i'll be looking at someone
and i don't mean to so
you know i'll look away so that's the
thing that can happen and in a gym
there's a lot of equipment everywhere
someone might be looking at a specific
piece of equipment or someone behind you
but they're not judging you
and if you go to the gym enough in time
you get more fit and you realize that oh
that's right i go to the gym regularly
and
i don't judge anyone that's coming in
there might be someone that looks a
little different but then all you want
to do is say like that's awesome man
like you know maybe it's someone who's
trying to lose weight or trying to gain
weight like it's it's awesome that
they're there then you start to wish
that you could tell them that look no
one's judging you but
you get the idea you'll just have to
take my word for it so hopefully that
minimizes some anxiety there i hope this
was helpful thank you all so much for
subscribing
i can't believe how much the channel has
grown
when i initially started this channel i
was really just hoping for 100
subscribers and right now it's it's it's
over that
so
we're actually approaching about 200. so
yeah i really appreciate it i'll get the
the next video which is about the
creativity papers
going unfortunately i'll be a little
slow on that everything is going well
work-wise here it's just uh there's a
lot going on but thank you all for
watching and sticking with me
take care