Related to CD's post, I think one of the key mistakes a lot of people make is doing too many things at once. Things that they can't sustain.
Whereas I think when you're bullding habits, the most important thing the first month is to do more than nothing. In the second month, do more than that. In the third month, do even more. You'll find by the sixth month you're doing WAY more than you thought, but if you try to jump the line to that sixth-month level of activity, you'll burn out.
We got the Peloton bike in June 2022. For the first 8 months, I basically only did cycling and stretching. I was certainly ramping up the length/difficulty/frequency of rides during that time, but all I was doing was riding.
Last Feb I added strength. Some times I'd do a set program which is 30 minutes a day, 5 days, over a 7 day span. Other times I'd just do 20-minute weights classes two days in a row (alternating muscle groups) with several days in between doing those sets. And I'd do core, but intermittently. I counted the stats and from Feb-Dec 2023 I did a total of 130 weights classes and 48 core, so out of ~330 days I did 178 workouts, or averaging one every other day. I kept riding and adding in longer duration rides. I averaged one ride of 75 minutes or longer per month (Peloton offers 75/90/120), with an average ride duration of just over 40 minutes. That got me to >15K annual minutes tracked.
This year I've decided to do core every day, so I've got 59 core classes (I took yesterday off due to my streak) and in a short while I'll have hit my 21st weights class, or roughly the same 1-in-3 days that I was doing for weights in 2023. I've increased my goal to 2 rides of 75 minutes or longer per month, which I'm already on track with three 90s and one 120.
So when I got the bike, I was mostly doing 20- or 30-minute rides, several days a week, and basically nothing else except stretching. Whereas today I already did 20 minutes of core, will do 20 minutes upper body, will do a 45- or 60-minute ride (haven't decided what ride yet), and if I don't get too lazy, take a stretch class (probably 10 min).
Admittedly that (85 to potentially 110 minutes in total) is a "heavy" day for me, but not really all that uncommon. I balance that with days that will only be 10- or 20-minute days, with the commitment of getting above ~41 average per day (to hit a 15K annual minute challenge) and a stretch goal of getting up to ~55 average (to hit a 20K annual minute challenge).
If I had started out at this level, I'd have burned out in a month. But by gradually increasing, the increased activity just seems normal.
