How to Stay Motivated to Exercise
Hey everyone!
So over the last few weeks, my motivation to exercise has been pretty low. I don’t remember it being this low in over 10 years. Fortunately, it’s not at zero and there’s some hope at the end of the tunnel as gyms in London are slated to re-open on the 12th of April.
Due to various reasons, I can imagine that some of you are feeling the same, so in this newsletter, I wanted to share a few important elements that can get you back on track and prevent your fitness motivation from hitting zero in the future.
But before I get into it, I must stress that fluctuating levels of motivation are absolutely normal and it makes sense for our minds to regulate our desire for a reward.
Can you imagine the possible self-destruction if we were constantly motivated to do everything we want?
Thus, knowing how normal this is, self-compassion and self-belief are also absolutely important to get you back on track.
The general idea
Long-term motivation to exercise comes from within and also engineering an environment that rewards you for it.
They are many products and services that you can buy to help you, but they are unlikely to be as important for sustained motivation.
In order to stay motivated to exercise, there are 4 essential elements:
A higher purpose
Controllable goals
Social interaction
Scheduled fitness events
A higher purpose
If faith in a higher being helps you exercise, then perfect. If not, here’s another way to look at higher purpose:
Visualize an older you and think about how much better off that older you would be if you put in some work today. The higher purpose is an investment in yourself.
This isn’t easy to sustain but it’s essential to give you a reason to ‘sacrifice’ the time and effort today. You have to believe that it’ll pay off. Because very likely, it will.
Controllable goals
Losing weight and being fitter are great goals but not ones you can directly control. However, you can control jogging for 30 mins, thrice-weekly. You can control going for a 20 min brisk walk daily.
When we choose goals that we don’t have direct control over, we lose sight of the ‘why’. We start questions our choices and then mental clutter gets the best of us.
So always create simple and controllable goals. Regardless of what you achieve by doing them, keeping up with them is an amazing feat on its own.
Social interaction
Motivation for workouts requires social interaction. I reckon this is a huge reason why my own motivation took a major hit. The gym wasn’t just about making gains, it was about making gains with people also making gains.
To keep your motivation up, complete an exercise session with others once a week. Not only can they keep you accountable, but they also break the monotony and boredom that solo exercise can breed.
Bonus: Join communities or make friends with people who are already very motivated to exercise. This might be daunting to some of you but it’ll push you to keep improving yourself physically and mentally.
Fitness events
Athletes are motivated to train for events they compete in (although money and fame are also potent motivators but let’s forget about that for now) and we need these events too once or twice a year to ‘compete’ in with friends. It could be a race, a strength competition, or just how many times you can skip in 60 seconds.
It’s honestly too difficult to sustain boring home workouts and intense gym workouts without much reason for the ‘why’. This is especially so when you have a very busy schedule.
So set up these events to give you a good reason to work on your whole body, restructure your habits, and provide multiple short-term reasons to focus on your well-being.
To conclude
You don’t need to engage in all 4 of these elements but it will increase your chances of actually staying motivated to exercise
So have a think and keep trying. And again, never stop engaging in self-compassion and self-belief as you go through your fitness journey.
If you found this useful and know someone who might be lacking the motivation to work out, please share this with them!
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About Me
My name is Arun and I'm a 4th-year medical student at King's College London. I'm also a certified personal trainer and lifestyle photographer.
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For thoughts about this newsletter, please drop an email at hello@arunjayaraj.com