Introduction
You know all about how exercise offers a huge range of physical and mental health benefits. You know that aerobic activity strengthens your heart and lowers your blood pressure. You know that weight-bearing exercise builds stronger muscles and bones. You know that physical activity boosts your mood and enhances your cognitive skills.
You know all of that. But knowing that being active is good for you doesn’t always make it easy to find the motivation to exercise.
So what can you do if all these health benefits aren’t enough to persuade you? Keep reading to learn the tricks that can help when your exercise motivation is at an all-time low!
1. Switch to Autopilot
Mustering up the motivation to exercise when you’re tired is tough. This is why you have to forget even trying to find it.
The more you think about exercising and trying to psyche yourself up, the more time and energy you waste. Instead, turn your brain off, put your sneakers on, and just get it done. You never know, once you go through the motions of starting to exercise, you might find that it’s exactly what you needed.
2. Tell Yourself No
Huh? How is telling yourself no going to help you when you can’t find the motivation to exercise?
Think about it. Short of getting paid to exercise (which is now possible, as you can read all about in this LifeCoin review), telling yourself that you can’t exercise might just be the best exercise motivation of all! When you tell a child they can’t have something, they want it more. When you see a red button with a cross through it, all you can think about is pressing it.
To make this reverse psychology work for you, you’ll have to use your imagination. Maybe the government has made yoga illegal. You’ve had a terrible accident and can’t dance anymore. Or the streets are so polluted that you can’t go out for a run.
You’ll start to feel indignant about the activity you love being taken away from you. You think of all the things you’ll miss such as some me-time, the adrenaline rush, or the stress relief. Before you know it, you’ll have several good reasons to say yes to exercise!
3. Find an Accountability Partner
Understanding how to stay motivated to exercise depends a lot on your personality and values. But for most people, accountability is a huge motivating factor.
If you have a friend who goes to your gym or enjoys the same physical activity as you, agreeing to meet them for a workout makes you far more likely to go. Even if you’re not feeling that pumped on the day, having exercise scheduled in and someone to keep you accountable are often enough to overcome a lack of exercise motivation.
And if you can’t find a good exercise buddy, signing up for group exercise classes or hiring a personal trainer can also help you stay accountable.
The Bottom Line
We get it, finding the motivation to exercise can often be the most difficult part of staying active.
But with these tips on how to improve exercise motivation, it should now be a lot easier to trick yourself into exercising, whether you have the motivation for it or not!
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