Losing Motivation to Workout? These 8 Tips May Help
If you feel like you need a boost, you may only need to look at your workout from a different angle. These eight tips may help you rekindle your motivation and bring back your enthusiasm to reach your fitness goals:
- Set realistic goals one at a time — Having attainable short- and long-term goals can help. Success with short-term goals will keep you motivated and on track in the long run.
- Reward yourself when you achieve a fitness goal — The prospect of a reward after accomplishing one of your goals can help increase your motivation and entice you to workout more.
- Practice consistency — Exercising is a marathon not a sprint. Start slowly and methodically and push for long-lasting results. To do so, you may need to think of exercise as a habit that takes time to form and break, where you change your behavior consistently in order to develop habits that will allow you to meet challenges and enjoy the health benefits that exercising regularly gives you.
- Make your exercises enjoyable — Research has shown that enjoyment is one of the strongest predictors of long-term exercise maintenance. When you find the type of exercise you enjoy, doing it reduces your stress level and increases the likelihood you’ll establish a regular routine.
- Increase your accountability — This entails having something to be responsible for that’ll push you to exercise more. Examples include finding a workout partner, keeping a workout journal, participating in an online fitness community or joining a class that you know you spent your money on.
- Workout within your limits — When you begin exercising, you may assume that the more often you do it, the faster you’ll see results. But overdoing it at the start may cause injury and burnout. It’s important to start slow and build your intensity gradually.Don’t forget to listen to your body, once your physical activity overtakes your respiratory threshold, you’ll no longer find the activity enjoyable and you’ll delay those feel-good hormones by at least 30 minutes.
- Ensure you get enough high-quality rest — It’s also important to give your body adequate time for recovery. Getting enough high-quality sleep or taking a hot bath after a workout may help your body recuperate.
- Consult with a personal trainer — If you feel unsure or intimidated, enlist the help of a personal trainer who can check your progress, create workouts for you and ensure you’re doing moves properly. Plus, you may be more motivated to exercise because you’ll be spending some money for their help, and you’d want to maximize it as much as possible.