Workout Motivation: Scroll through any social networking site, and within seconds. You’ll come face to face with a “fitfluencer” claiming to have everything you need to find the motivation to exercise. From “hugging habits” to “sweating your best people,” the advice may leave you scratching your head and no closer to acting on it.
Here’s the thing—you can find and maintain motivation at work in three simple steps. Previously, exercise psychologists and psychotherapists boiled it down to three simple steps.
3 Steps to Workout Motivation
Your motivation at the gym may now seem like you’re having trouble finding a partner on a dating app. But after reading this article, you’ll know exactly how to motivate yourself to workout in three simple steps.
1. Find Your Big Why
Quick: Think about what lifestyle you want to live in 10, 20, 30, or more years. Now ask yourself, “How can the health and wellness practices that led up to these years help me achieve this life?”
Whether you’re imagining climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with a friend, building an eco-friendly home by hand using a polycule, or imagining playing with Legos on the floor with your kids, the hard facts are that constant movement can help you build strength. It would help to have mobility and cardiovascular fitness to do what you think.
Regular bodily activity can help you improve your health, says Sharon Gum, Ph.D., CSCS, an exercise physiologist and specialized strength and conditioning coach. “It’s all about finding the ‘big reason’ for long-term health and well-being.”
Remembering all the health benefits of regular exercise can also be helpful, says Katherine Williams, CPT, a certified trainer and integrative health specialist with ThriveWell. “Regular exercise has many health benefits, including maintaining weight, lowering blood pressure, managing stress, improving heart health and mood.”
2. Set a SMART Goal
“Now that you have a long-term goal, it’s time to set a short-term goal,” says Gam. “It’s the overall outcome or what you want to achieve at the right time.”
Depending on your specific fitness interests, this goal could include anything from gaining strength and losing weight to the number of races you run, the type of race you run, or the frequency of your workouts. Once you’ve defined your goal, it’s time to fill in the details.
“Instead of writing a goal, you should write something called a SMART goal,” says Rebecca Capps, LMFT, licensed psychotherapist, mind coach, and founder of Mind Body Thrive.
For those unfamiliar with the acronym, SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals. The idea is that SMART goals provide a framework for achieving your goals. Here’s how to set a SMART goal.
Specific
- Capps says to focus on your goal and keep it as concise as possible. “Your mission should be clearly defined and clear, leaving no room for ambiguity.”
- Instead of setting a goal to sign up for a CrossFit competition, for example, take the time to research and find a specific CrossFit competition to sign up for. Or at least pick a month to achieve this goal.
- Likewise, instead of setting a goal to do more yoga, you can determine how many minutes you want to do per week. You can also select a specific group of positions you want to win.
Measurable
- Measurable things like pounds, days, or times per week will make it easier to determine when your goal has been achieved and how far you are from any location, Capps says. “The goal should include criteria to track progress or compliance with the goal.”
- Typically, Gum suggests choosing a specific weight, time, or frequency at which you have a high chance of getting stuck or bumped. Especially at the beginning of your fitness journey, she says you need to choose goals you have an 80% chance of achieving.
Achievable
- Undoubtedly, there is a time and a place to aim high. But if you’re trying to boost your fitness motivation, Capps cautions against aiming too high. “Setting unattainable goals can lead to disappointment.”
- Worse, if someone takes all the important steps to achieve their goal but still fails, it can create a feeling of failure that will ultimately lead them to quit rather than persist, she said.
- However, this does not mean that you should throw the ball yourself. Instead, you would be wise to think critically about how realistic your goal is. What is considered an achievable goal depends on your health, fitness level, age, training plan, and more.
- If you can find a health or fitness professional, you should seek help. Otherwise, keep in mind that healthy weight loss is considered one pound (or less) per week, and it takes most people up to three months to notice any real gains in muscle or strength. Additionally, you should not increase your running distance by more than 10 percent at a time.
Relevant
- Take a moment to remember the “Great Reason.” “Hopefully, your short-term and long-term goals are aligned,” says Capps. “You want to ensure that your current goal is connected to your overall goal or purpose.”
- If you currently have a body fat percentage that may increase your risk of heart disease, setting a goal to lose 20 pounds this year will help your overall goal of improving your health.
- On the other hand, if you want to live independently as an older person, setting a goal to increase overall strength and doing heavy deadlifts will also help achieve that goal. After all, strength comes with greater independence.
Time-Bound
- According to Capps, every goal takes time to achieve. “Adding a deadline to a goal makes it tangible and gives a sense of responsibility.”
- It also helps create a sense of urgency that can motivate you to go gym or lace up your shoes—even on days when you have no other motivation to do so, she says. To add time to your goal, consider doing one of the following actions you just wrote:
- By X month
- Before X event
- Through the end of X month or season
- Until the start of X time
3. Find a Kind of Movement You Enjoy
Gum said that people who exercise regularly have found a form of exercise they enjoy. Many people who exercise regularly are not very motivated.
“It takes a lot of willpower and spiritual energy to force yourself to do something you hate,” she says. In all likelihood, you will eventually run out of that kind of energy and give up.
“[But] it doesn’t take desire, motivation or discipline to do what you truly love,” she says.
If a particular fitness class or exercise program doesn’t immediately come to mind, experiment until you find it. If you’re unsure where and how to try different exercises, consider the following:
- If you have Peloton or the Peloton app, try all classes.
- Do a different workout on YouTube daily until you find a trainer you like.
- Sign up for a trial week (or month) of membership at various boutique gyms.
- Play plus one for every training session of your friends.
- List all the activities you’ve always wanted to try, then do at least one activity every week.
- Try any fitness classes you offer.
Once you find a specific type of exercise or workout that you enjoy, you will find a movement that forms the basis of your training program. Then, once you’ve established a solid workout routine that you can stick to—even on low-motivation days—Gum suggests supplementing your routine with strength, movement, or cardio workouts that may be lacking.
For example, if you find that you enjoy yoga and do yoga three days a week, you can add one day of heart rate training. On the other hand, if your daily routine involves hitting the treadmill, you can add a weekly pit stop to the weight room or use arm weights at home.
Just make sure happiness is the leading emotion, says Gam. “You may not like every part of the exercise you do, but if you can identify one or two things you like, you’ll be more likely to return for more.”