Get motivated to start working out!
Building new habits can be hard. If you struggle to exercise on a regular basis, I’ve got some tips to help you not only start working out, but make regular exercise a sustainable part of your day!
Learn not only how to motivate yourself to get to the gym (or workout at home), but also what to do once you get there to ensure you’ll want to go back the next day!
(Note, if you have any health questions or concerns, make sure to clear any new exercise plan with your physician before beginning!)
Today’s questioner asked: “How do I get the motivation to start working out? I’ll do it or one day then not do it again.” While I’ll be directly addressing this question in this post and the video above, this applies to you just as much if you haven’t even tried to start working out yet!
I’m guessing there are a couple of things at play here.
Let’s start with motivation
Get really clear on your why. Why do you want to work out? If the best you can come up with is “my doctor told me to” or “because I know it’s the right thing to do”. Then it’s going to be really hard to motivate yourself to work out.
Dig down, if you’re asking this question, my guess is you have a really good why.
Do you want to get healthy so you can play with your kids without getting winded? Perhaps you want to feel comfortable and confident in your own skin? Maybe you want to go on an adventure trip with friends or family but you need to be in better shape first?
Once you have a really clear why. Focus on that why. When you struggle to get to the gym, to exercise at home, or to go out for a walk, return to your why. You’re not exercising simply to work out, you’re doing it so you can achieve your why.
Next let’s talk about logistics
You know this is already something you struggle to commit to. So set yourself up for success by arranging to meet a friend to workout, keeping a packed gym bag in your car for after work, signing up for sessions with a personal trainer, and/or joining a peer support group through a fitness app/tracker/or gym.
This could be as simple as checking in by text with your accountability buddy when you’ve done your daily workout. Or it could be more structured like scheduling a consistent time and day to workout with a trainer or accountability partner.
You know yourself better than I do – set up logistics that work for you and your schedule!
Don’t over do it!
Finally, I suspect you may be overdoing it during your one day of working out.
Does this sound familiar? You feel stressed out because you avoided working out for the last few weeks. So when you do finally make it to the gym (or start a home workout), you feel like you have to “make it count”. So you go hard. An hour of cardio. Lifting weights pushing to the max on reps and weight. Then back to the cardio for a cool down.
Not surprisingly the next morning you’re exhausted, achy, stiff, and sore. You struggle to get out of bed and the idea of going back to the gym sounds like torture. (If this sounds spot on, it’s because I’ve learned this lesson the hard way too!)
Instead of repeating this pattern, set a time limit, work out for only 30 minutes (depending on your current physical fitness level, you might need to increase or decrease that time). That might be cardio. It might be weightlifting. It might be a fitness class. Whatever you choose, remember the goal is to not overdo it. Aim for a nice warm glow, not a red faced, panting, collapse on the floor level of exercise.
The next morning when you wake up and feel just a hint of the workout from the day before, you’ll be much more likely to feel excited and motivated to hit the gym again!
Small steps set you up for success
While that nice warm glow might not get you to your fitness goal today, by starting with small steps, you set yourself up for success. Over time, as you increase your physical fitness level, you’ll be able to work out longer, and harder without over doing it!
Check out this blog post for more about taking small steps to set yourself up for success.
There are two main components to keeping yourself motivated to work out. Find accountability – that can be intrinsic – your why, or extrinsic – a friend, class, trainer, or group. And then make sure you don’t overdo it!
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. If you take one step a day every single day, you’ll get there much faster than if you take ten steps once every few months!
