Behavioral expert explains why people should regularly treat themselves after starting a new workout

Forming a workout routine and figuring out a long-term reward for your efforts is much easier than sticking to it for most people. Ideally, planning and executing a workout plan can work for a while if you establish rewards for yourself, but many folks still end up quitting exercise anyway. Do rewards even work at all? A habit expert has an explanation for why so many people continue to struggle.

Habit expert and journalist Charles Duhigg explains in a video that rewards can help form good habits, like an exercise routine, but only when they're immediate and when there's time to fully enjoy them.

Duhigg says that when most people start exercising, such as going for a run, they often have to compromise their usual schedules, meaning they have to shower more quickly or shorten breakfast. As a result, while exercise offers long-term benefits, the brain tends to care less because of the immediate short-term hassles.

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"I'm actually punishing myself for exercising, and my brain pays attention to that punishment," he says.

Duhigg says that for rewards to be effective when forming an exercise habit, they need to be immediate and paired with enough time, space, and resources to fully enjoy them. Otherwise, the brain won't feel satisfied and may feel shortchanged if the reward is rushed or serves as a poor substitute for what you actually want. The brain also struggles to care about the long-term benefits of exercise weeks or months down the line, which is why distant rewards tend to be weaker motivators for sticking with a workout routine.

Duhigg, along with other studies, says that rewards do help "at first," but over time, as a habit forms, most people begin to experience the rewards as intrinsic rather than extrinsic. For example, if you decide that your reward for a morning workout is a piece of chocolate when you're just starting out, you may eventually reach a point where you complete the workout and even forget about the chocolate altogether. You're then motivated by the benefits of the exercise itself, such as feeling stronger or experiencing endorphins, because the habit has become firmly established as part of your regular routine and daily life.

"In the beginning, the nervous system needs an external reason to engage in an activity: a pleasant or regulating reward that makes an activity 'worth it,' which makes the discomfort of it more tolerable," licensed therapist Chloë Bean tells GOOD.

Bean adds, "Over time, the reward can shift from external to internal, which is the goal. When the body has repeat experiences of an activity that ends in relief, increased energy, or calm, your body starts to associate the habit with feeling 'good.' At that point, the work out or activity is no longer something you have to push through to get a reward, it's the felt sense afterward that becomes the reward."

So if you're starting a new workout routine, don't feel bad about rewarding yourself early and often to help you stick with it. Over time, you'll end up feeling better on every level.