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Motivation!

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1.Find an activity that you love--or at least somewhat enjoy--doing. Just because everyone loves kickboxing and the gym offers 5 classes a day devoted to variations of the roundhouse, jab, and front kick, if you hate it and force yourself to take classes because kickboxing the trend of the moment, you most likely will abandon your exercise program faster than a pro-boxer can throw a one-two punch.

2. Be creative about finding time to work out. Although you may ideally want to devote an hour to your daily workouts, any time you can carve out of your day is good. Whenever you have a half hour or so to spare, fill it with fitness. Some ideas: wake up a half hour earlier and work out then; walk your kids to school if possible, and after dropping them off go for a run and then walk back. Most gyms are now open until 10 p.m. or later--try a late night workout. Of course, you can mix it up, depending on the day. The point is to try to find some time at least three or four days a week to fit in fitness.

3. Bingeing isn't better. Just as you can binge in your eating, you can become an exercise binger--especially after the holidays when all we want to do is lose some extra pounds and get into shape. However, spending two to three hours working out like crazy at the gym or during a home workout is not likely to be something you can maintain. Evidence indicates that people who go too gung-ho from the get-go end up flat-lined by an overuse injury, sheer exhaustion, or just the stress of having to dedicate so much time to working out. There is no need to work out that much. In fact, at a certain point you are getting diminished returns as you deplete your body of energy.

4. Buddies are better. Having a workout partner is great motivation to stick to your exercise program. You don't want to disappoint her or him by not showing up! You may want to sign up for team personal training sessions with your buddy. They're usually less expensive than one-on-ones and can be a lot more fun. One caveat here however: you still need to work out if your buddy cancels on you. Try not to think of your buddy as a prerequisite to performing your workout program.

5. Set interim goals and reward yourself. We all love to be rewarded for a job well done. Why not set up a reward system for meeting the smaller goals along the way to your ultimate goal. Say the latter is that you lose 20 pounds, and reduce your percentage of body fat to 17 percent. That may be reasonable to achieve in about three months. But you can set an interim goal of losing 8 pounds in the first month. Once you reach that goal buy yourself a present, or get a massage--something that makes you feel good about your achievement. (Interim goals can also involve increasing mileage per workout or the amount of weight you can lift during a resistance training session.)

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Creator: thetrainerx
Category: General/Other
Posted: 2/22/2008

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