How to Fall in Love with Exercising

Keeping up with any kind of routine may be difficult at times. You might feel too exhausted ,lazy, or unmotivated to keep up and keep going. But the thing that is mostly messing with your ability to keep a routine up, is your motivation to do so. This reason is also why you can’t create, or keep up with any fitness routine. So, we figured out the first step you need to take to find that motivation, that drive to keep you going, let’s start with an example.

In the past, our coach Sofiia was always insecure about her arms. She used to get comments about how they were different from the rest of her body. She had nice and strong legs, shoulders and torso, but her arms were flabby. Since she got insecure about her arms, she decided to work on them and tone them. However, upper body exercises were just not her thing, and she loathed doing them, but decided to continue working on those muscle groups anyway. After a while, people noticed how toned and strong her arms looked. They complimented her and asked about her routine, they wanted to look like her. This is the moment Sofiia found her reason, her motivation and drive to keep going. Now she looks forward to training her upper body, as she has also noticed her growth.

How your mindset plays a part in this

Exercise has many benefits that might give you motivation to continue your fitness journey. But those might not be enough for you to keep up with every small part of your routine, especially when forming new habits. “Getting stronger” might not be enough of a reason to make you not skip leg day. Associating so-called leg day (the day you train legs on) with exhaustion and muscle cramps, won’t get you far: this is where your mindset comes in.

You always need a positive mindset to keep you going. If being strong, and healthy are not enough to keep you motivated, you need other reasons to do that. Those reasons might be very personal, and different for everyone. What usually drives people, is their insecurities. If you can’t overcome your insecurities, sometimes its best to try to battle them and change them. The good news is that, any form of exercise, such as resistance training and a good diet, can quite literally change your body. You can’t grow taller, but you can shape your stumpy legs, and your flabby arms!

How to stay motivated

There are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. 

• Extrinsic motivation is the pursuit of a goal for the purpose of an external reward. In our case, it would be praise and compliments from other people, on how fit or strong we look.
• Intrinsic motivation involves the pursuit of goals that have personal significance, without an external reward. In our case, it would be doing cardio because its fun and energizing, not for losing weight and being noticed by someone.

It is usually recommended that you find an Intrinsic motivation instead of the latter. Because extrinsic motivation relies on other people and external rewards, it might be putting too much pressure on you to achieve things, and ironically, not be enough to motivate you in the long run. However, even that extrinsic motivation comes from your wants and needs, and it might be good enough for you.

Our tip is to find a reason to fall in love with exercise! no matter if that reason is lead by extrinsic, or intrinsic motivation. That extrinsic motivation might lead you to your intrinsic motivation,, and it doesn’t even matter, as long as it helps. In the end, the benefits of exercising, or training that specific muscle group, will most probably outweigh your doubts and insecurities. Find your reason, the why you do the things you do, and you can do anything you commit yourself to.