Keeping Your Exercise Motivation Going

Remember why you started:

What is your why?

Is it to loose weight? Reduce your risk at diseases? For your kids? Retain muscle mass?

Whatever your goal is keep that mind. Your “why” may change through out your journey but keep your original reason somewhere. Write down your motivation (s) down and post them somewhere you will see every day.

Fun with Friends

It is motivating and fun to exercise when you do it with someone else. The high fives, the friendly rivalries, and the positive encouragement can make exercise something you look forward to rather than dread. Also, when you don’t show up your friends will keep you accountable and remind you that they missed you.

These days, there are many group fitness gyms such as CrossFit, running clubs, Zumba classes, Pelton classes, pick up sports games like basketball, football and the list goes on. All you have to do is find the activity and the group of people that works best for you.

Change things up!

A great way to stay motivated is to add in a variety of workouts and activities instead of the same gym routine. This can be simply adding in new exercises at the gym by using different machines and techniques or just working on different muscle groups on different days of the week. You can also incorporate activities like hiking, golfing, volleyball or basketball games. Focus more on just being active and moving around rather then the same boring routine. Getting into a rut will most likely make you bored and less likely to continue.

Enjoy it

It’s a lot easier to exercise when exercise doesn’t feel like “exercise” but rather, it’s just plain fun. Find something that you enjoy doing, period. You might enjoy rock climbing, racquetball, golfing, badminton, ultimate Frisbee or any other sport or activity. You don’t necessarily have to do that activity 3-5 times a week, but doing something you enjoy can reinvigorate your motivation to be in good shape.

Set long & short term goals

Outside of having a reason why you exercise, it is important to have goals along the way. You want to write down your goals and keep them in a place that you’ll see them often. You might have a long-term goal of losing 20 pounds. A good short-term goal to support your long-term goal would be to exercise for 30 minutes a day, five days a week. Another short-term, supportive goal could be to lose one pound per week. Another goal could be applied to your eating habits and so on.

 Intermediate goals are a tremendous help because they help you to see bright spots along your journey to your long-term goal.