Everybody knows how beneficial exercise is for our health. You can’t count the benefits of working out regularly to start with. It is great for your physical and psychological health. But despite knowing all of that, we find it difficult to stick to a workout routine. Work takes up most of our time and after that, it is mostly Netflix that eats up the spare time. Exercise is the thing that remains at the bottom of our priorities list. But if we want to stay healthy even after our 40s, we need to change that. There are motivational techniques that can help you in sticking to your routine.
Here are five of the best ways to motivate yourself to never miss workout again:
Group Activity:
The wish to be the best in a group of people can motivate us to do anything. Exercising alone is boring. But when you join a group and start working out with them, you will notice how fun it is. The competitive aspect of it will keep you motivated to achieve your goals. Also, seeing how exercise has helped other people in the group will also encourage you to continue.
There are no rules when it comes to the type of group you should join. You can get a gym membership or workout at home with your two friends. As long as the company is fulfilling its purpose of motivating you, the rest doesn’t matter. You can start fitness contests with your friends to challenge each other. You can also join an online community of trainers to learn which exercises work best for different body parts.
Set Achievable Goals
A lot of times people set up unrealistic goals for themselves. And failure to achieve them result in giving up exercising. You can’t start working out today and run a 10K marathon on the weekend. You have to build stamina first before you can achieve tougher goals. You can’t be too hard on yourself from the start. You would be helping yourself by setting smaller goals in the beginning. Achieving them will motivate you to keep working out so you can break your own records.
You can also keep track of your records in a journal. This will help you realize how much your stamina has improved over time. Once you set a goal, stay focused on it. Set reminders on your phone and mark your calendar so you never lose sight of it. And don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. You can always do better than what you did yesterday.
Add Fun in the Mix
If your workout routine is boring, you will get tired of it and want to stop. In order to keep yourself motivated, you must add fun activities to your routine. They can be anything from dance workouts to playing sports with friends. If dancing is more your thing, you can join a hip-hop group. If you prefer to workout in silence, yoga is also a great option. You will find both peace of mind and fitness in it.
Trying different workout techniques will also keep your mind engaged. You will take longer to get tired while dancing than you do while doing cardio.
Set a Schedule
You follow the schedule of everything in your life like going to work and eating meals. So, why not set a schedule for workout too? Before the start of the week, make the schedule of workout so you know when you will have to take time for it. When you have a time table, it will be hard to ignore it. If you plan your days according to your workout scheduling, working out will be easier.
Humans inherently like routine and all you have to do is follow it for a few weeks until you become used to it. Once working out becomes a habit, you won’t have hard time motivating yourself to do it every day.
Get a Fitness Tracker
There is nothing more motivating than seeing your progress, or the lack of it, on your wrist. A fitness tracker has many benefits. It can track your exercise too so you don’t have to keep the record yourself. You can check your progress in the app of your tracker. You can choose any tracker from Fitbit to Apple Watch. The apps of trackers also allow you to compete with friends and family. You can also set your goals in the app and get reminders to achieve them during the day.
A fitness tracker is also a good way to stabilize your sleep schedule. You can set alarms on the tracker and see the quality of your sleep in the app.
Working out regularly may sound difficult, or even impossible for some out there. But with the help of a few motivational techniques, you can climb this mountain with ease. As long as you stay patient and give yourself time to adjust to the routine, you will be able to achieve your fitness goals.
