Assessment
Is All-or-Nothing Thinking Keeping You From Exercising?
Rigid ideas about what counts as exercise can make it harder to stick to your goals. Here’s how to adopt flexible thinking so you’ll keep moving
Oleg Breslavtsev/Getty Images
Here we go again. You vowed to exercise regularly and built ambitious workouts into your schedule. A few weeks into the plan, you’ve already fallen off. What happened?
All-or-nothing thinking may be to blame, says Michelle Segar, a behavior change coach, researcher at the University of Michigan, and author of “The Joy Choice: How to Finally Achieve Lasting Changes in Eating and Exercise.” About half of well-intentioned people fail to stick to their exercise routine.
More Ways to Benefit
- Related Benefit 1
- Related Benefit 2
- Related Benefit 3
- Related Benefit 4
- Related Benefit 5
Fitting physical activity into a busy life requires a flexible mindset that’s hard to come by, Segar says. “In my 30-plus years coaching, I’ve seen that most people have exercise standards that are too high to stick with long-term," she says. For example, if you think you’ve got to feel the burn to get a good workout and a leisurely walk around the block isn’t valuable, then you’re not even going to take the walk.
A focus group study of 27 participants, mean age 41, published in BMC Public Health in 2026 by Segar and colleagues revealed that most had rigid ideas about how to exercise the “right” way to achieve health goals. These ideas typically involved sweaty, high-intensity activities performed for 45 or 60 minutes, in a gym, on the same days every week.
Not surprisingly, most study participants also saw exercise as an unpleasant chore and sought reasons to avoid it. When something came up to derail their plans, like pressing tasks or a change in schedule, they opted to do no exercise at all rather than switch to a shorter or different physical activity – say, a 20-minute stroll to the library versus an hour-long power walk.
How many pull-ups can you do?
A fitness revolution of sorts kicked off in the 1970s. Health clubs, hard abs and running became fixtures in pop culture over the next three decades, along with rigid ideas about body image, fitness and how exercise should be done. Federal guidelines suggesting 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week aimed to give an idea of what makes for healthful levels of exercise.
Rather than motivate, the guidelines may put people off, Segar says. Too many see them as prescribing exercise in doses — big ones. “Most people cannot and will not organize their lives around meeting physical activity guidelines,” she says. Older adults may also be unfavorably comparing their current abilities to their youthful athletic endeavors, opting to stop doing a sport or activity if they can’t, say, smash a serve the way they did 20 years ago.
“We believe we must do it perfectly, or it is not worth doing,” Segar says. “It prevents us from discovering how to [move] in ways that could feel good, that could help us connect with others, that could be joyful,” she says.
Activity swaps promote exercise sustainability
More flexible ideas around exercise may promote consistency. In a review of 68 studies from 14 countries published in the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine in 2025, about a quarter of the studies found that being able to work out on the fly was associated with how well people stayed active. The study also showed that people are more likely to stick with an exercise that they enjoy. That can mean thinking outside the gym to activities like salsa dancing or yoga.
Segar coaches her clients to make activity swaps, if they’re faced with a temporary obstacle. She suggests building a “movement menu” of activities they enjoy doing that could be done on any day that things get in the way. The swap might mean doing less of an activity — either by timing or intensity — or doing something different altogether. For example, if an appointment runs late and you don’t have time for your circuit training class, tee up a few workout videos or take a walk to the farmer’s market or the library.
Some physical activity is always better than none, Segar points out. You’ll also get the mental health benefits of spending time in nature. (Segar has developed a decision tool, called the POP! method, to help people make activity swaps. Click here to learn more and to try it out.)
Plus, if you take a walk in the neighborhood, you’ll feel good about staying on track with your goal to work movement into your days, Segar says, adding, “With consistent exercise you’ll manage your mood. You’ll do less emotional eating. You’ll sleep better. Better sleep equates to better ability to think and to really be in touch with what you care about.”
AARP Membership
Join AARP for only $15 per year with automatic renewal. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of benefits, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP The Magazine.
Benefits Recommended For You
Want to read more? Create a FREE account on aarp.org.
A healthy lifestyle helps protect the brain. Make brain health a habit and register on aarp.org to access Staying Sharp.
Not Registered ? Create Account
More From Staying Sharp
Fit Short Bouts of Exercise Into Your Day
Pair exercise with daily tasks to reach 30 minutes
Strength Training for a Healthier You
Improve physical and mental well-being with strength training exercises
Step It Up With Small Walking Increases
Extending your walks a little at a time can add up and support your health