The term ‘habit stacking’ has been floating around on the self help side of the internet for a while but a lot of us don’t really know what it means so we spoke with Emma (our exercise psychologist) who gave us a breakdown of what habit stacking is and how we can use it to create a consistent exercise routine.
Created by BJ Fogg, habit stacking is a technique that can help us build an overarching habit. Habit stacking involves identifying a current habit, and then pairing the new habit you wish to build (in our case, exercise) with this pre-existing habit. For example, a pre- existing habit could be taking your work shoes off when you arrive home. By saying, ‘After I take off my work shoes, I will immediately change into my workout clothes’ you’re now stacking your habits and increasing the likelihood that you’ll exercise after work.
What are the psychological advantages of habit stacking?
According to Emma, the psychological advantage of habit stacking is that it minimises the mental effort required to build a new habit as it uses a pre-existing, current behaviour as the cue or trigger. Rather than needing to build a whole new routine, habit stacking leverages upon a cycle that already exists.
Who would you recommend habit stacking to?
Emma says habit stacking can be great for anyone! Think about your current habits, or the things you do fairly consistently each day and how another habit can be added to trigger you to exercise.
An example we recommend is whenever you flick the kettle on to boil in the morning, you pair that with setting up your workout space ready to start your Boxx+ class.
You will notice in our app, our coaches refer to stacking classes. An example of stacking Boxx classes would be doing a 15 minute BoxxSTRENGTH class followed by a 5 minute Core class. Doing this will give you variety and also extend the amount of time you train for.
Rather than setting out to do one 30 minute class, it is mentally easier to start with a 20 minute class then stack an additional 5-10 minutes on top.
Give it a go and let us know how you get on, we would love to hear if you love to stack or not to stack.
