6 Effective Exercise Tips To Help Keep up the Motivation

Motivation to exercise is not an easy thing to keep up, especially long term.  Most people tend to stay motivated during the first few weeks of their new exercise regime. Whether it’s working out at home, joining your local gym, running outside or cycling to work, it’s new and exciting. You see huge progress at first, too.

Staying motivated over a longer period, however, can be the biggest challenge. (Even more so during winter). A lack of enthusiasm can also deter your workout performance, which is why it’s important to find new ways to gear yourself up for it. It’s essential, and the more motivation, the better!

We’ve put together some top tips to help you stay passionately motivated about exercising all year round and improve your day-to-day performance in your training too.

Want to move fast? Jump to the right section below.

• Challenge Your Mind
• Listen to Music & Podcasts
• Exercise with a Friend
• Buy the Right Kit
• Set Yourself Goals
• Mix It Up

Challenge Your Mind

Sometimes, you can be your own worst enemy in your exercise, and this can affect your motivation. It’s easy to find excuses not to train despite being capable of completing a 60-minute workout, especially when working out in your home gym. That’s the biggest problem.

Get in the right headspace. Psych yourself up in the morning or after work to exercise and maintain that “I can” attitude throughout. You’ll experience a positive uplift in your performance and your feelings post-workout. A positive workout will keep you more determined to exercise the following day and the day after that, and so on. It’s a knock-on effect.

Even changing how you actually perceive exercise, like seeing it as some valuable “me time” can help. Find the meditative effects exercise can offer and use it to help boost your self-belief. Making exercise something you want rather than a chore goes such a long way.

Listen to Music & Podcasts

Music is a great way to stay motivated while you exercise. Choose music that will keep you pumped for longer. It’s a great way to keep yourself occupied, which, as a result, will improve your performance, reducing boredom and rest times. Don’t let it be a distraction too much, but do use it to get pumped!

If music isn’t your thing, that’s not the only audio entertainment out there, either. People can get bored with listening to the same music, which is why podcasts are growing in popularity with fitness enthusiasts. Listening to podcasts can help you zone out while doing cardio and forces you to listen to what is being said, distracting you from your workout.

If you really plan ahead, you could even take things to the next level and use educational fitness podcasts to help boost your exercise motivation by teaching you new things and ways to do things. The better you perform, the better the progress you see. That’s often motivation enough.

Exercise with a Friend

Exercising on your own is great for concentration, but exercising socially can be better for motivation. (Plus, it has other benefits too). You don’t need to go solo when exercising; invite a friend along and workout together. It’s a good way to stay motivated, and you can complete exercises together, spot each other and help one another to progress, or even compete to get that rivalry fuelling the fire. When you’re feeling a little deflated, your friend will be there to encourage you not to give up.

Exercising with a friend can make the workout fun and enjoyable. It’s also a good opportunity to try out a new exercise or a piece of home gym equipment that you don’t feel confident doing alone. Plus, you’re less likely to cancel on your friend if you have an exercise date planned, and it’s a fantastic way to keep busy!

Buy the Right Kit

Nothing will give you a boost you need, like new home gym equipment and clothing. New exercise equipment is exciting, and it should improve your motivation levels as you’ll be eager to start using it and set yourself new goals. Likewise, with new gym clothes, you’ll be keen to wear them and workout in style. They’re both great ways to give you that little push since you have invested in them personally and financially.

If you aren’t quite certain about it, why not flip it in reverse too? You can always use incentives like these to help motivate yourself financially. Reward yourself for reaching certain milestones. that way, you won’t be risking money loss, and you’ll be advancing with your kit.

Set Yourself Goals

Next up on the list is setting yourself some serious and actually realistic goals. The fitness world is full of false expectations and unreal standards. You need to make goals that are suited to you, not to a celebrity or model.

Seeing your progress and hitting your targets is an effective way to keep yourself motivated and determined to reach the next level. Exercising with no ambition can be devaluing and turn your workout into a chore. Setting goals keeps your mind stimulated, and your willpower to succeed will be stronger than ever. Besides, it further powers our first tip on challenging your mind.

Once you know what they are, that’s when you can really start planning what you need to do to get there and really keep yourself going in the long term. Things change, and your goals may do too. Just keep on pushing forwards and training the smart way!

Mix It Up

If you start to see that your motivation to exercise isn’t really where it should be and you’re starting to think about throwing in the towel for a while, there’s this to think about too.

Instead of taking a break from your exercise as a whole, why don’t you seize the opportunity to try something completely different? Change it up, and find a new exercise that you love doing. Try getting outdoors for a while, go for a swim, play a sport indoors, whatever takes your fancy. The break from what you were doing might be just what the doctor ordered and even boost your progress in the long run!

These are just a selection of our favourite ways to stay motivated whilst exercising. The key to staying enthused is to never talk yourself out of completing a workout (unless there is a legitimate reason) and to give yourself a reason to exercise. Don’t be too hard on yourself, and do give yourself wriggle room, but push hard too.

Before beginning any exercise or nutrition program, consult your physician, doctor or other professional. This is especially important for individuals over the age of 35 or persons with pre-existing health problems. Exercise.co.uk assumes no responsibility for personal injury or property damage sustained using our advice.

If you experience dizziness, nausea, chest pain, or any other abnormal symptoms, stop the workout at once and consult a physician or doctor immediately.