If you read white papers and materials on methods of staying in good physical shape, you may get the feeling that you are doing everything wrong. You spend most of your day in front of your computer, spend little time outdoors, watch too much TV, do not climb stairs, eat poorly, exercise a little, and so on, the list goes on and on. It’s easy to be lazy, but each of us needs physical activity to stay healthy and keep fit. In this regard, the question arises: how to make sports a part of our life? How to motivate yourself for sports?
Why don’t you have motivation for sports?
Need to understand what’s stopping you from exercising? Everyone is familiar with the most common reasons why we do not play sports. We are too busy, very tired, sports are boring and uninteresting, and so on. But are these reasons real? It’s easy to tell yourself that today was a tough day and not go to workout, but the real reasons why we don’t have the motivation to exercise go a little deeper.
We are not used to being active
For many people, a regular training system and exercise program is something they have never had to do before. Few are quick to redesign your schedule, and it often causes stress , anxiety, and even anger towards yourself.
The life of a modern person does not require a lot of movement
The modern world is inactive – public transport will take you almost to your home, there are elevators and escalators in shopping centers, you don’t even have to go for food – it will be delivered directly to your apartment. Those people who are not used to being physically active may have no reason to change this.
Exercise is too hard
For many people, training in a gym or fitness club seems painful: running on the track, constantly looking at the wall, a boring aerobics lesson, complex explanations from a coach, in which nothing is clear. As a result, one gets the impression that going to the gym is something negative. It is not surprising that in this case, we have no motivation to go in for sports.
No consequences
What happens if you don’t exercise? Usually nothing. In any case, not right away. Even knowing about the possible consequences, such as excess weight and health problems, is not enough to force us to be physically active.
So can you even find motivation to do sports? The answer is simple: yes, you can.
Motivation is not what happens to you, but what you consciously create for yourself. Gym work and exercise at home will not work if you are not motivated to achieve results .
Accept the fact that you should exercise
If you spend most of your time sitting and want to lose weight or stay in good shape, exercise is a must. No amount of diet or surgical procedure can replace physical activity. You don’t have to go to a fitness club, just do simple exercises at home or just move more.
Add more movement to your lifestyle
None of us are going to get rid of a computer or TV, and there is nothing wrong with that. To maintain physical activity, sometimes instead of using the elevator, it is enough to walk up the stairs, or to hold the next meeting with friends not in a cafe, but walking in the fresh air. Try to move more and you will feel better in just a few weeks.
Find meaning in your workout
For many people, exercise is a means to an end. Most often it’s a way to lose weight or get a perfect body. Try to change your attitude towards exercising, because exercise is a great way to relieve stress and get a boost of positive energy, not just a tool for creating an attractive body.
Do what you like
If you don’t like going to the gym, then you don’t need to. Try yoga or dance classes, they might interest you more. In order to keep fit, it is enough to do a few simple exercises at home, move more, monitor your diet and be outdoors more often.
Invite a friend
Getting started in sports and fitness regularly is much easier when you are supported by like-minded people. Invite your friends to go to the fitness club, run in the park, or play badminton in the fresh air, someone will definitely accompany you.
How to stay motivated
When you first start at the fitness club, gym, or exercise at home, you are enthusiastic and looking forward to your athletic future. Unfortunately, this attitude does not last long, and the desire to practice gradually fades away.
Staying motivated for sports and fitness is not easy, but it can be done. Follow these simple guidelines and practice at your leisure.
Set a goal
Answer yourself to the question: why do I want to go in for sports? If your goal is to lose weight, do not hesitate to admit it to yourself. Calculate how many times a week you need to exercise and try not to skip workouts.
Don’t expect too much of yourself
The easiest way to lose motivation is to not get the results you want. But remember that if you are not a professional athlete, you will not be able to achieve quick results, and this is absolutely normal. Workout and exercise are more of a lifestyle, they require regularity and consistency. Regardless of what goal you are pursuing, you need to wait at least a month for the first significant results to appear.
Enjoy
Create a workout routine that you enjoy. If you don’t like lifting weights, exclude these exercises from your schedule. Don’t like treadmill exercise? So you don’t need to do this. The best motivation for exercising and fitness is the feeling of joy and satisfaction after a rewarding workout.
Remind yourself of the health benefits
On days when you are too tired and want to skip a workout, keep in mind the benefits that exercise and sports bring to your health. They not only keep your body in top shape, but they also reduce the risk of heart disease and increase life expectancy by up to five years.
How to start today and not finish tomorrow
Many people dream of always looking beautiful and healthy. Such desires are completely normal. Most also know and understand that the easiest and surest way to achieve this goal is sports. However, most people do not go beyond these desires and knowledge. But why does this happen? The only problem lies solely in the people themselves and the internal attitudes that they give themselves.
Developing habits
To achieve any visible result, you must exercise for at least half an hour every day. But what can be done? What if a person has absolutely no extra 30 minutes a day, or physical activity during this time seems incredibly exhausting to him?
Often, in any instructions, sometimes even for beginners (!), It is written that it is necessary to study for as much as an hour and a half every day. But where to get so much time and effort? Everything is much simpler than it might seem.
To begin any regular physical activity, it is enough to devote only 5-10 minutes a day to this. The main factor here is just regularity. These light exercises, the level of regular exercise, will not help you gain a Schwarzenegger figure or lose your extra pounds, but they will develop a major habit in your brain: exercise every day. And then, when you get used to it, perhaps even half an hour will not seem so scary to you.
“I cannot force myself – if such a thought arises, then it is urgent to get rid of it. We must try to overpower ourselves, find something to do that will be a joy. If running makes the blues progress, then you should replace it with something else. Yoga, karate, sports dances, everyone can find such an active occupation that they like. And music can serve as a good accompaniment for training.
“But why do I need all this?” – and such questions are already a sign of insufficient motivation. Usually they arise in the heads of people who are already all right with their health, who just have nothing to complain about yet.
But there are many things that not everyone knows about and, perhaps, it is they that sometimes interfere with starting to study.
• Exercise improves health and reduces the risk of many cardiovascular and other diseases. For example, people involved in sports are much less susceptible to diabetes, strokes, cancer or arthritis.
• It has long been known that any kind of physical activity increases life expectancy. Just 10-20 minutes of sports every day can increase your life by as much as 2-3 years!
• Exercise promotes the production of hormones of joy, so sport helps to tone up and maintain a good mood.
• Due to the production of the aforementioned hormones, a sports person exposes himself to less stress and tolerates it more easily.
• Sport increases the body’s endurance, which means that a person will be able to carry much greater loads, which will certainly make his life brighter and more unforgettable.
• Sports will also help keep your mind and sometimes even your body young. We are all susceptible to aging, but regular exercise can prolong the time when a person feels young and fresh.
Isn’t that a good enough reason to start exercising right now?
Do not expect everything to work out right away. You need to patiently wait and train and, over time, everything will go as it should. The main thing is not to give up halfway. Because even the greatest athletes began with defeats, which did not prevent them from reaching the heights at which they are now.
Conclusion
The life of a modern person has been simplified to the point of impossibility, and we do not need to be active. However, playing sports and fitness will not only help you lose weight and keep in shape, but also significantly improve your health and general condition of the body. Find your value and meaning in them, and the motivation for training will definitely appear.