Motivation seems to be the trickiest part of getting exercise for a lot of folks. Time and again I hear people say “I just can’t get the motivation to go to the gym!” or read something similar in a Facebook status update.
The problem is that its a vicious cycle. If you go to the gym all the time, it doesn’t suck as much when you go. If you are fairly new it isn’t necessarily a fun experience.
First off the way I deal with being “motivated” to go to the gym is to take the desire to
workout out of the equation altogether. Most of you probably have meetings and appointments throughout your work week. Why not treat your exercise regime as another scheduled appointment? Setting aside specific times that work for you will make exercise a habit.
And that is the key to making any positive change in your life. Make it a habit. Use whatever techniques work for you to form a habit. Some random links on habit forming:
A second problem is in being consistent. Consistency is a huge factor to getting in shape successfully. It is easy to workout in an ad-hoc manner, but its hard to get measurable results that way. The way I personally achieve consistency is by breaking my workouts into 10 week blocks. In that block I perform the same exercises and use a workout log to ensure that I go into the gym with a definite plan.
Another issue is continuing improvement. Again I use my workout log here. By competing against my performance the previous week I ensure that I continually lift more weight and/or more reps on a weekly basis – fulfilling the requirement for progressive overload.
Over Long Distances 