10 Tips to Help You Stay motivated to Exercise

Above everything else the ability to motivate my clients is the most important part of personal training. My training programs and technique coaching is worth nothing if I can't consistently motivate my clients to attend training. We all lose motivation sometimes, unfortunately a small loss of motivation can result in a big step backwards. Here are 10 tips to help YOU stay motivated! 

1. Set your goal

You need to have a goal -  your training needs to have a purpose. Take the time to plan your goal and establish some strategies to achieve it.

2. Find new challenges

Goals within goals keep training interesting. Exercise can become monotonous and long term goals can be discouraging. Set yourself up for some victories on the way to achieving your long term goals by finding related fitness challenges. The challenges you choose may have never been part of your original plan but that's what makes them fun. 

3. Be held accountable

Elite athletes need a coach to keep them motivated, so do you. Find someone you can discuss your goals with and ask them to keep you accountable. 

4. Understand your motivation

Ask yourself why, why and why again! Make your goal personal and understand why it's important to you. It's not enough to "want to lose weight", why do you want to lose weight? Is it because you don't want your friends to think you look fat? Is it because you don't fit your jeans? Is it because you need to lower your risk of heart disease or diabetes so you live long enough to see your children grow up? Despite your best intentions you are not always going to be as motivated as the day you set your goal but understanding the reason why you set it in the first place is a powerful ongoing motivator.

5. Avoid injury and illness

There is nothing worse for motivation than injury or illness. For the most part this is out of your control but training with correct technique and exercise programming, dieting sensibly and focusing on recovery will help you avoid the pitfalls of exercise related injuries and illness. 

6. Monitor your progress

A system for monitoring progress is essential. Seeing results (or not seeing results) is a powerful motivator. An effective measuring tool could be as simple as the amount of weight lifted on a particular exercise, dress size, waist circumference or weight on the scales. This doesn't have to be complicated to be effective.

7. Establish rewards for success

The satisfaction of achieving your goal may be sufficient reward enough but a little bit of extra motivation is always good. Establish a reward for your success in advance so you can use it as a motivator throughout your training. Examples may include allowing yourself a food you have typically been restricting, buying yourself a new gym singlet or anything at all as long as you are prepared to follow through with it. 

8. Establish consequences for not succeeding

This may not work for everyone but establishing consequences for not achieving your goals can be a powerful motivator for some people. If we are going to reward ourselves for success, there should be consequences for not succeeding, right? To clarify, I'm not suggesting anything drastic, examples may include avoiding Friday night drinks, forcing yourself to run/walk Saturday morning or saying "no" to dessert on the weekend. Consequences could be anything at all, as long as you are prepared to follow through with it and it motivates you to train to avoid it. As per rewards, establish consequences in advance so they can used to motivate you during your training. 

9. Mix things up

Doing the same workout all the time can be really demotivating. Keep things different, varied and fun. The more things you try, the more likely you are to stumble across a few options you enjoy.

10. Don't let small set backs stop you

Despite your best efforts you will encounter small set backs. They come in many forms including: missing training sessions, eating too much or the wrong types of foods, not meeting short term goals or suffering an injury. Don't let small set backs snowball. Address them early, move past them and get back on track as soon as possible. 

You will find that some of these work for you and others won't. Some may work for you now and they won't 6 months down the track. Motivation is not 'one size fits all' and your main motivator will continue to change. Try to find the right thing at the right time to keep you moving towards your goal.



Related Reading

• 6 Steps to Set & Achieve Your Fitness & Weight Loss Goals
• 7 Tips to Make Your New Year's Resolution Stick

Drive Fitness | www.drivefitness.net

personal training & group training in Brisbane