Day 20

I am feeling very well-rested after yesterday.  I did the stationary bike for 25 minutes and the 5+max sets of pull-ups.  Feeling very good.

I think at least one day of complete rest may be a good thing every 30 days or so.  Any more and I know from personal experience that I will seriously risk breaking my habit of getting up early and moving.  I am strong believer that for anyone planning to exercise consistently for the rest of their lives HABIT is the most important thing to cultivate, not heavy weight-lifting, fat-loss, endurance training, or any other exercise goal, but simply doing whatever it takes to build an unbreakable habit.

It is said that it takes 21 days to create a habit.  I doubt this.  I think it takes a bit longer, at least 30 days.  I am coming up on day 21 tomorrow and certainly feel that I have built-in the habit of getting up early (4:50am now), cycling and doing pull-ups every day, then lifting four days a week.  However, I will be a lot more confident in this habit after I reach the 30 day mark.  I feel that I will have the habit totally mastered once I can continue my program even in the face of obstacles such as travel, which can be a huge habit-destroyer.

Habit is also the major reason why I am doing an extremely scaled-back version of the New Rules Program. I do only half the recommended workout instead of the whole thing.  I have learned from experience that doing too much can result in quick burn-out and kill the habit.  This is why I believe the most important thing in starting a lifelong program is to focus on what contributes to the habit and assiduously avoid anything that may break  the habit.

Once the habit is set, then one can start seriously building on it, by adding lengthening the workout, adding a lot heavier weights, going for personal bests, etc.

I am not close to that point yet.   

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