Working out and exercising can be quite the delightful experience, especially when you get that dash of energy from keeping yourself active and well. Unfortunately, sustaining the motivation needed to continuously exercise can be quite the tricky endeavor, and sometimes you can just outright lose the will to move yourself and your body. In this article are power tips on how to stay motivated while you exercise – because sometimes you just need that push for everything to work out just fine.
If you find it a bit tricky to stay motivated working out, you’re not exactly alone. In fact, athletes have a bedrock of motivation to lean back on if they want to work towards accomplishments in their career, but maintaining desire, determination, effort, and confidence aren’t always easy.
Motivation is defined as one’s ability not just to initiate but also to persist in doing a particular task. In terms of sports, motivation is important as players need to learn to work harder even in the face of pain, boredom, fatigue, or the desire to try out new things. Moreover, motivation will also affect almost everything that can influence your performance – tactical and technical training, general lifestyle such as in work, school, diet, sleep, and relationships, as well as fatigue.
In fact, motivation is the only one of the three contributors to performance that you can actively perform. For instance, your mental, physical, tactical, and technical abilities may be things you can improve, but the rate of progress you’ll achieve in the end depends on how your mind and body cope with training. Secondly, the competition will inevitably influence your performance, such as your competitors’ abilities and other external factors such as crowd and temperature. Motivation, of all the three, only allows you to have a degree of active control you need to up the ante on your game. Be motivated, and you’ll naturally put the effort and time necessary to make improvements to yourself and your performance.
This might not be exactly the same as working out, but the principles involved are the same. Unless you push yourself towards excellence, achieving something is tricky without motivation.
Working Out: Staying Motivated
If the above is to be understood, there really are a lot of perks when it comes to working out, and you’re not exactly alone in this boat. However, keeping yourself motivated can really be a tricky thing to sustain, but not impossible. Folks from institutions such as Endeavor Wellness do have some strategies in mind to keep themselves motivated to work out, which you may even be able to use:
- Set your fitness, workout, and wellness goals first: One of the most frustrating things to happen to someone who wants to accomplish something is to not have a plan, and this is much more so when you workout. Unfortunately, working out doesn’t have an “ending” because it’s more of a lifestyle choice than something to work towards. As such, realizing this and having your own personal goals to achieve can make it much easier to get yourself motivated to meet your personal demands. Be precise and specific as to what you want this workout to do for you. Do you want to lose weight? Do you want a particular body build? Are you aiming to grow a certain part of your body? Do you want to learn sports? Do you want to learn how to relax? There are a lot of goals for you to be able to consider, so make sure you recognize what you really want to do.
- Put everything you plan on doing on paper:When you’ve decided on what you want to do, make sure you put everything you want to do on paper, electronically, or something that shows “proof” of your desire to do things. Making a thing “physical” makes it something your mind will be “obliged” to do, as unlike being in your head, this is an actual “thing” that exists. Try to list the parameters of your workout goals – such as how much of any one exercise will you do a day, when are your cheat days, what are you allowed to do, and so on. Keeping it on paper also helps you have a handy reference of what you should and shouldn’t do as you do your workout.
- Assess what you can and can’t pull off:One of the other frustrating things of having a goal to work towards is to realize too late that the goal is something that’s not for you to pull off. While it helps to stay motivated to do things despite what people say about your ability, you need to recognize that there are things you may not be able to do on your current skill level. As such, make sure the routine you plan on doing now is something you can actually pull off with your condition. Check with the doctor, especially if you have a particular condition to watch out for. Aside from this, check with yourself if the things you want to do can actually be done on the frequency you want.
- Make incremental changes to your lifestyle: When you’ve decided on what you want to do and how you want to do your workout, make small changes to your lifestyle to get yourself acquainted to your new “system.” Start changing your diet slowly, taking one small adjustment at a time. Start slow with your workout and make sure you allot ample time for your body to practice everyday before you go full-blown. Make sure your body slowly adjusts to your new system so it won’t get overwhelmed and start strong but get burnt out after a few months. Make sure you do everything correctly all the time, so you’d get used to it.
- Make your workout routine a part of your life: Make working out an active part of your daily life so you continuously get to do it. A secret to motivation is to never make an act look like something you “need” to do, but something your body “just does.” Allot an hour or two at home specifically for working out, to the point that a day isn’t complete without you working out. Work your way towards making “adjustments” or “compensation” whenever you can’t complete your workout. You should jog, or eat less, or do more yoga. Making your workout a part of your lifestyle instead of just making it a “past time” makes it a much more fruitful endeavor, as it’s actively going on.
- Reward yourself every now and then: Don’t forget to reward yourself every now and then. Participate on a cheat day every week, buy yourself new clothes to adjust to your weight, and have attractive exercise gear. Make sure you’re treated well for the effort you’re expanding. Complement yourself whenever you see adjustments to your body, and surround yourself with people that can motivate you to push yourself forward.
- Take as much rest as you need:Remember, no one’s hurrying in terms of your workout and exercise goals. Take as much time as you need in order for you to be able to properly adjust to things that are happening around you. When you need to rest, take a rest – especially when your body is hurting. It’s much better for you to stay safe and stay motivated than to be motivated with a broken body. Your diet and relaxation and rest are just as important in the process as actually working out and achieving your goals.
- Sustainability is always the goal: Most importantly, when you decide to get motivated on exercising, remember that you’re not just doing it for the “goal” you’ve set, but you’re doing it to make sure your routine is sustainable. A moderate routine that’s done all the time is much better than a heavy workout you don’t get to do a lot.
The Takeaway: Power Through Exercise With Motivation
Working out and pushing for a life of fitness can be both challenging and dreadful for a lot of people – even fitness buffs. Sometimes you’d have this awesome momentum one day, and then you’re so out of energy the next. This can make the process of actually pursuing a good and healthy body a bit frustrating, as getting “psyched out” can really be a detriment to your progress. If there’s anything the above can share, though, is that there really are power tips on how to stay motivated while exercising. Follow the tips above in order to make sure you manage to push through with your fitness goals without a hitch.