Motivation: Smart Strategies for Everlasting Exercise Enthusiasm
Monday’s episode of the HIIT’N 50 Podcast focused on the importance of strength training, stability, and nutrition for older adults with a particular emphasis on the benefits of regular exercise, including increasing muscle mass and strength, improving balance and joint health, and enhancing overall well-being. The first guest, Christine Boyers-Zazzaro, discussed the importance of strength training and provides tips on how to get started. The second guest, Linda Magid, talked about the role of balance and stability in avoiding falls and injuries as we age. The final guest, Rebecca Dickinson, shares her views on sports drinks and post-workout nutrition.
If you haven’t listened to the podcast, you can subscribe to it on Spotify, Apple, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
Motivation in fitness refers to the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that stimulate and maintain an individual’s desire to engage in regular physical activity. Understanding these motivational drives is crucial as they affect how one starts, continues, and enjoys their fitness journey.
Defining Your "Why"
The foundation of sustained exercise motivation lies in defining your "why." This is the intrinsic motivation that provides a personal and meaningful reason to stay active. Your motivation is personal to you and should reflect your specific reasons for wanting to embark on a fitness journey. Here are a few things to keep in mind when defining your motivation.
1. Set Personal Goals: Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Whether it’s running a 5k, competing in a triathlon or improving mental health, clear goals provide a roadmap and benchmarks for success.
2. Find Your Passion: Enjoyment is a powerful motivator. Trying different activities—yoga, hiking, team sports, or weightlifting—can help you discover which exercises you look forward to doing.
3. Visualize Success: Visualization is a technique where you imagine completing your goals. Regularly visualizing success can boost your confidence and enthusiasm.
Maintaining Motivation
Maintaining motivation can be challenging, especially when progress seems slow or life gets busy. Here are strategies to keep your motivation steady:
1. Routine and Habit Building: Embedding exercise into your daily routine turns it into a habit rather than a chore. Start with small, manageable workouts to build the habit. Don’t try to jump right into hours long sessions at the gym. I’ve been exercising for quite some time and that wouldn’t be a fun way for me to spend my time.
2. Track Progress: Tracking your progress, either via a fitness tracker like the Apple Watch or writing your accomplishments in a journal can be a powerful motivator for improving your fitness. If you’re just starting out however, I would focus on building the habit and using metrics (if you’re tracking say mileage or pace) solely as a way to establish your current fitness level. And while I am a huge fan of tracking workouts, you may want to toss your tracker aside for periods of time as you build your fitness. If you’re established, fitness trackers are wonderful for honing in on specific zones or paces, creating more options and variability for your workouts.
3. Social Support: Training with friends or family can also make exercise more enjoyable and keeps you accountable. I’ve told this story countless times, but I credit a good friend of mine who suggested that we workout together every day so he could “get in the best shape of my life.” It kept me accountable, knowing that every morning, I had to show up, regardless of how challenging the day’s workout may be. Online or in-person groups of people who share the same interests can also help you stay motivated and accountable.
Tactics to Enhance Motivation
Various tactics can help you reignite or strengthen your motivation on a day-to-day basis:
Set Mini-Goals: Besides long-term goals, set smaller, daily or weekly goals. These can be time based goals (workout for 15 minutes a day for 5 days), mileage based goals (walk 5 miles this week), pace driven goals (run a 10 minute mile on Friday), output driven (cycling) or almost anything that can be measured that will help you stay motivated.
Reward Yourself: Establish rewards for meeting certain milestones. This could be a new workout gear, a massage, that bag you’ve been eyeing or literally anything that keeps you coming back.
Mix It Up: Variety in your workout regimen can keep the routine exciting and reduce boredom. Try new sports or workout styles to keep things interesting, but choose activities that will be both fun and challenging.
Educate Yourself: Understanding the benefits of exercise and how it impacts your body and mind can motivate you to keep going. Knowledge about nutrition and fitness can also empower your journey. It’s one of the big reasons why I created the podcast version of this newsletter. I get the opportunity to speak with individuals about their areas of expertise which, much of the time, provides me with information about how I can adjust my workouts, eating habits and mental well-being.
Mindfulness, Meditation and Rest: I frequently use the phrase “fitness journey” to describe healthful living. Along that journey, I’ve discovered the benefits of breathing exercises to help calm stress or to help with sleep. There are tons of guided exercises that you can find for free on YouTube or if you are invested in fitness platform, they will frequently already be included. And don’t forget your rest days. Once you’ve established a consistent habit, it can be hard to take a day off, but your body needs time to recover. I found it quite difficult to take days off, but taking a rest day from time to time is crucial to avoiding injury.
Gamify your Workout: Fitness apps and platforms generally have badges or similar that you earn as you complete exercise tasks. Peloton literally incorporates a game into their bike called Lanebreak in an effort to draw younger audiences into their platform. Apple has special edition badges that you can earn for completing specific types of workout or workouts on specific days. And if you happen to have access to a virtual reality headset, there are tons of options if you can handle looking a little silly. It’s just another way to help maintain motivation and variability in your exercise routine.
Overcoming Motivation Barriers
Identifying and overcoming barriers to motivation is essential for long-term success:
1. Time Management/Scheduling: For many, finding time to exercise is a barrier. You are literally probably sick of me saying it, but scheduling your workouts on days you plan to workout makes it more likely that you’ll actually complete the workout.
2. Mental Barriers: Negative self-talk and unrealistic expectations can sap your motivation. I am guilty of this myself from time to time. This past Monday in fact, my plan was to do 40 minutes of strength training in the morning and 20 minutes of cardio in the evening. My 40-minute session in the morning was cut short because of a work emergency by 10 minutes and even though I design my strength workouts to be modular (5, 10 or 20 minute increments) for exactly this reason, I was annoyed with myself, perhaps even muttering something to the effect that I couldn’t even complete my morning workout. Stay positive and if you have a setback, don’t dwell on it and just move on to the next workout.
3. Illness/Injuries: Injuries or illness can be especially demotivating and depending on how long you were away from exercise, can set you back in terms of your fitness. If you’re coming back from a lengthy injury or recovering from an illness, don’t expect your fitness levels to return right away. As humbling as it may be, you’ll need to start slowly and rebuild your fitness levels.
Conclusion
Staying motivated for fitness requires a combination of understanding your personal motives, setting and pursuing varied goals, leveraging community and social support, and using effective tactics to overcome any arising challenges. By integrating these strategies into your lifestyle, you can maintain a healthy and motivating exercise routine that lasts.
By building on these foundational ideas and continuously adapting to personal experiences and challenges, individuals can develop a resilient and enduring commitment to fitness. As you evolve, so will your motivations and methods, keeping your fitness journey both effective and enjoyable.