Have you ever wondered how some people manage to get themselves to the gym everyday? I’m amazed by those who, come rain or shine, will never miss their morning run. It’s become a habit for them, which they’ve built up over many years. But even they had to start somewhere at some point. They too had a ‘first gym session’ or a ‘first run’.
I recently wrote an article about the importance of changing our mindset around exercise in order to motivate us to begin exercising. But once you’ve got a couple of training sessions under your belt, how can you remain motivated to keep showing up?
Today I’d like to delve into what steps you can take to keep you returning to your activity of choice, especially if you feel as though your initial enthusiasm has begun to wane.
Off the bat, I should mention that a lot of what I’ve learnt about exercise motivation has come from psychologist and academic Dr Ian Taylor, so I would recommend checking out his work if you’d like to know more.
Without further ado, here are 8 tips you can use to keep your eye on the prize and get yourself moving every day.
Off we go!
1. Goal-Setting
You may be rolling your eyes right now, because goal-setting is not exactly a revolutionary idea. Your big goals and dreams were probably the reason you began training in the first place!
But let’s face it, when the initial enthusiasm about the marathon you want to run begins to fade, all that’s left is a never-ending drone of training sessions, many of which seem to pass without improvement. Eventually, you may feel like you’re not getting closer to your goal and it may be easy to give up.
But what if I told you that you’re thinking of your goal-setting all wrong? Having one big, lofty goal can be great, but the important thing is to break it up into smaller, easily-achievable targets. As you work your way through, celebrating each mini win, you’ll be getting closer to your overall goal.
Even better than that is goal-setting for immediate rewards, i.e. for short-term benefits rather than long-term results. What do I mean by that? I mean, you can set goals that you know you’ll achieve by the end of the session – goals like feeling better, more positive and more energised after training, rather than goals that are only achievable after months of effort, like significant weight loss or disease risk reduction (Mailey et al., 2018).
The brain considers immediate effects to be more important than future events. When we decide that we’ll exercise ‘tomorrow’, the effort we must exert seems far away, so we decide in favour of exercise. However, on the day, we are more likely to skip the session, because the cost of exercising is immediate and the benefit is in the future. Therefore, we should focus on the benefits that are immediate and are judged to be greater than the cost, to balance out the cost-benefit analysis that’s constantly going on in our brains (Boksem & Tops, 2008).
These types of goals mean you reap immediate benefits and it has been shown that they are more likely to result in adherence to exercise (Woolley & Fishbach, 2016).
If even these goals are too big, then you can break them down into even smaller steps, such as putting on your trainers, or getting yourself out of the house. These can be small, achievable goals that you set yourself, and once you achieve them, it becomes easier to exercise.
This ease that I’m referring to, bring me onto the next tip:
2. Reducing Effort
What does that mean? Surely exercise needs to feel effortful for us to make improvements.
I don’t mean reducing the effort you put into your training. I mean we need to reduce the effort it takes to get us started with exercise. This is because relying on our willpower is not a good idea – it’s too fragile to rely on.
So our strategy should be to minimise the effort it takes to begin exercising. You might be wondering ‘how?’ Here, we can include things like laying out your workout clothes and trainers before going to work, so they’re right in front of you when you get home after your busy and stressful day. If you can see your workout clothes and they’re the first thing you can change into after getting out of your shirt and tie, then you’re more likely to wear them and head to the gym. James Clear uses a similar example in his book, Atomic Habits.
Another example could be to take yourself out on a walk if you don’t feel like going for a jog. A friend of mine gave me this advice a couple of years ago. She argued that eventually, you may become bored of walking and actually begin jogging anyway – once you’re out, you’ll think you might as well start moving faster.
I have to say, I’ve used this trick a couple of times and it’s definitely worked for me. Here, the effort is in getting you out of the house. Once you’re out, it takes a lot less effort to actually begin jogging.
A final example is planning your workout from beforehand, along with some options for unpredictable situations (e.g. rain if you’re working out outside, or equipment being unavailable if you’re going to the gym) so you know exactly what you’re going to do once you get started. This reduces the effort needed to start and work your way through your workout.
3. Focusing on Enjoyment
We know that if something is enjoyable, we’re more likely to do it than if we don’t find it pleasurable. It’s the same with exercise (Jekauc, 2015).
For this reason, we should pick exercise that we enjoy, and not something that is a drag to do, because we might make an effort to do it once or twice, but it likely won’t be sustainable.
In this same vein, if you enjoy working out in a particular gym, prefer doing your exercise outdoors, or simply enjoy doing your workout with a friend or in an exercise class, then choosing to do these things can help you actually turn up and continue to exercise regularly.
I’m certain there’s some form of exercise you’ll find enjoyable, so try and discover what that is, and do that! If you’re not a fan of the standard forms of exercise, think outside the box. You don’t have to run unless you enjoy it. You don’t have to play a team sport where there’s competition unless you want to. Oftentimes, we get bogged down thinking exercise is one thing, when really, gardening, martial arts and couples’ dance classes all count as exercise too!
4. Making Commitments and Contracts
You may already be innately aware of this, but you’re more likely to stick to exercise if you committed to it (Bhattacharya et al., 2017) and if that commitment costs you something.
Take paying for a gym membership, for example. I’m much more likely to go to the gym regularly if I’ve paid for a membership, because I won’t want to waste that money on something I don’t use. The way I see it: the more gym sessions I fit into my 6-month membership, the cheaper each one of those sessions works out to be!
Alternatively, you can commit to meeting a friend, or even book sessions in with a personal trainer. The fact that you’ve made a commitment means that you can’t go back on it without looking bad – so you’re more likely to show up to avoid that uncomfortable conversation!
5. Bribing Yourself
Admittedly, this next strategy might only work if you’re very busy and generally don’t have time to get to your relaxing hobbies, but you could always give it a try… Again, this ties into the piece on making exercise enjoyable.
If you’re always on the go and don’t really have time to sit on your sofa and relax at the end of a long day, you could allow yourself to watch your favourite TV show while on the treadmill, or listen to an audiobook while on your run, for example.
This could give you an added incentive to do exercise (Milkman et al., 2014). You could be multitasking and doing something that you find enjoyable while you exercise – something you otherwise would not have had the opportunity to do.
6. Gradually Increasing Exercise Intensity
If you’re just starting out, it’s a good idea to keep your exercise intensity low. If you try to exercise at a high intensity too quickly, you might find it to be too difficult and dislike the experience. However, continuing to exercise at a low intensity if you’re used to it, might become boring.
So, the key is to find the right balance of challenge and ease. That may sound like a contradiction, but it’s actually quite straight-forward. Try to find an exercise intensity that is engaging, but not overly-painful, to the point where it might deter you from exercising again (Williams et al., 2016).
I spent months at one point doing very difficult leg days at the gym. I’d end each session feeling sick and weak, to the point where after a while, I stopped doing them altogether! Now, I’ve found a balance, where I fit in two difficult exercises that I should do for my strength but might not be in the mood for (at the beginning so I can get them out of the way), and spend the rest of the session doing exercises that are less intense, still beneficial and that I enjoy more.
This plays into the enjoyment aspect of exercise. We don’t need to be doing whole sessions of the most difficult exercises we know for the session to count! In fact, pushing yourself to the limit during every session isn’t even beneficial. It likely means that you’re not recovering well and not getting the best out of your workouts, despite pushing yourself really hard!
Additionally, if you’re planning out an exercise session, put the most enjoyable aspects of the workout towards the end of the bout. Ending on a fun high-note will mean you’re more likely to remember the session as enjoyable, and therefore, more likely to return to exercise.
Similarly, starting with your most intense exercise at the beginning and gradually ramping it down to the least intense at the end of the session, will likely make the session feel more enjoyable, meaning you’re more likely to return to exercise (Zenko et al., 2016; Hutchinson et al., 2020).
Find a balance and keep it enjoyable, because that’s what’s most likely to keep you exercising, and when it comes to exercise, consistency beats short-term high-intensity bouts any day.
7. Exercising First Thing in the Morning
Have you ever woken up and thought, ‘I’ll definitely go to the gym today after work,’ only to have a really tough day on the job that left you exhausted and without any energy left to exercise?
This is a very common situation. The day depletes us of our ability to use our willpower to exercise, so our best strategy would be to exercise at the beginning of the day, when our energy levels and motivation are still high. This also reduces our likelihood of something going wrong during the day that prevents us from exercising.
Yes, waking up earlier in the morning to fit a gym session in may sound difficult, but once you’re up, then you might as well do some exercise. So in this case, waking up earlier might be the most difficult thing you’ll need to do, but it’s been shown that those who exercise in the morning, are more likely to sustain their exercising habit (Schumacher et al., 2020).
8. Identifying as an Exerciser
This is perhaps a bonus tip that has more to do with perception than immediate action.
If we identify as exercisers, then we’re more likely to display behaviours that align with this identity. We don’t like the incongruence of identifying one way and acting another, so if we shift our mindset and begin to view ourselves as exercisers, rather than someone who perhaps does exercise sometimes, then we may be more likely to back that claim up with behaviour that supports it – i.e. we may be more likely to do exercise (summary by Husband et al., 2019).
This identity shift tends to happen naturally over time, but if you’re just beginning to exercise, then the best way to go about this is to fake it till you make it. How can you do that? You should try asking yourself what an exerciser would do in each situation, and then do that.
Conclusion
And that’s it! Those are some science-backed tips for how you can motivate yourself to keep exercising long-term. Eventually, you’ll hopefully build exercise into your schedule and it will become a habit. When that happens, you likely won’t have to think about it as hard and just do it automatically. Until then, I hope these tips help you get through the days when your willpower is the weakest, and help you become your strongest.
References
Bhattacharya, J., Garber, A. M., & Goldhaber-Fiebert, J. (2017). Nudges in Exercise Commitment Contracts: A Randomized Trial. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3048991
Boksem, M. A. S., & Tops, M. (2008). Mental fatigue: Costs and benefits. Brain Research Reviews, 59(1), 125–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainresrev.2008.07.001
Husband, C. J., Wharf-Higgins, J., & Rhodes, R. E. (2019). A feasibility randomized trial of an identity-based physical activity intervention among university students. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 7(1), 128–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2019.1600407
Hutchinson, J. C., Zenko, Z., Santich, S., & Dalton, P. C. (2020). Increasing the Pleasure and Enjoyment of Exercise: A Novel Resistance-Training Protocol. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 42(2), 143–152. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2019-0089
Jekauc, D. (2015). Enjoyment during Exercise Mediates the Effects of an Intervention on Exercise Adherence. Psychology, 06(01), 48–54. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2015.61005
Mailey, E. L., Dlugonski, D., Hsu, W.-W., & Segar, M. (2018). Goals Matter: Exercising for Well-Being But Not Health or Appearance Predicts Future Exercise Among Parents. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 15(11), 857–865. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2017-0469
Milkman, K. L., Minson, J. A., & Kevin G. M. Volpp. (2014). Holding the Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym: An Evaluation of Temptation Bundling. Management Science, 60(2), 283–299. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1784
Schumacher, L. M., Thomas, J. G., Raynor, H. A., Rhodes, R. E., & Bond, D. S. (2020). Consistent Morning Exercise May Be Beneficial for Individuals With Obesity. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, 48(4), 201–208. https://doi.org/10.1249/JES.0000000000000226
Williams, D. M., Dunsiger, S., Emerson, J. A., Gwaltney, C. J., Monti, P. M., & Miranda, R. (2016). Self-Paced Exercise, Affective Response, and Exercise Adherence: A Preliminary Investigation Using Ecological Momentary Assessment. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 38(3), 282–291. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2015-0232
Woolley, K., & Fishbach, A. (2016). Immediate Rewards Predict Adherence to Long-Term Goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(2), 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216676480
Zenko, Z., Ekkekakis, P., & Ariely, D. (2016). Can You Have Your Vigorous Exercise and Enjoy It Too? Ramping Intensity Down Increases Postexercise, Remembered, and Forecasted Pleasure. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 38(2), 149–159. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2015-0286
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