Keeping Up The Motivation To Exercise

Keeping up the Motivation to exercise.

The hardest part of exercise is not lifting weights or running. It’s finding the will to do it in the first place. Plenty of people find themselves slipping away from their exercise routine because they have trouble keeping up the motivation. If you want to be able to stick to an exercise habit, these tips will help you to keep at it.

Do What You Like

The beauty of exercise is that it covers so many activities. Some people might get exercise by running laps. Others might get it by lifting weights or shooting hoops. If there’s a way you can work your body in a way that benefits you, that’s all you need. Work on developing motivation by starting off with activities you already get enjoyment out of. For more difficult tasks, try to see how you can make them more enjoyable. 

Make It a Habit

The easiest way to turn an activity into a habit is to do it every day. It’s one thing to promise to yourself that you’ll exercise every day, but you have to take measures to make sure you can stick to it. Bring your gym clothes with you to work so that you can easily change into them. Fight back against any urge to skip out on exercising when you don’t have any reason not to go. The more you can stick to your exercise, the easier it will be to make it into a habit. 

Get an Exercise Buddy

Some people enjoy exercising by themselves. They like how the solitude lets them clear their mind and focus on their exercise. However, if you’re particularly social, you may have a better time exercising with a partner. You can enjoy their company and work to keep motivating one another. If you’re having trouble with a certain exercise, a partner can show you how to make it easier on you or give you the encouragement needed to pull through it.

Find Joy in It

Exercise shouldn’t be viewed as something you have to do. The idea of viewing anything that does our minds so much good as a punishment is absurd. Learn to develop a positive relationship with exercise by thinking of it as something you “get” to do. To have the ability and time to enjoy exercise is something that should never be taken for granted. To keep your motivation up, learn to smile at the sound of the word “exercise” and any similar terminology.

Track Your Progress

Exercise can get frustrating when it feels like you’re not making any progress. However, every workout you complete is another step forward. In order to make your progress feel more apparent, you need to keep a log. At the end of a workout, write down what you were able to get done or use a wrist fitness tracker. Even if your accomplishment is being able to run a bit further than you could the day before, it’s still a sign of progress.

So many have trouble with exercise motivation because they see the negatives of exercise far more than the positives. If you want to find the motivation to exercise, you need to have an upbeat perspective on it. Only then can you make exercise into something that you actively crave and want to keep doing every day.