How to Find the Motivation to Get Back into Your Exercise Routine

We all know that daily exercise is important for both your physical and mental health. Exercise has a plethora of health benefits, from boosting your mood and energy levels to helping keep health conditions and diseases at bay. But, when things get busy or motivation is lacking, it’s easy for working out to fall by the wayside.

If you’re experiencing a lull in your exercise routine and want to make it a priority once again, here is some helpful advice on finding the motivation to be active once again. Starting is always the hardest part, so once you get over this hump, you’ll be firmly back on the exercise train.

Reassess Your Goals

When you’re lacking motivation, exercise can feel like a real chore. To help give you a boost in the motivation department, it might help to reassess your fitness goals. These can change over time and if you’re trying to reestablish an exercise routine, it’s a good time to reconsider what you’re working towards.

This could be to run a certain number of kilometres, to go for a walk five days a week or to complete a certain number of reps without stopping. Setting goals helps to provide direction and focus and can give you a sense of personal satisfaction when you achieve them.

Reward Yourself

Working out to maintain your health and fitness, while important, isn’t always a big enough motivator to get moving. Try to give yourself real rewards when you achieve your fitness goals, or in the early days, even if you simply get up and move your body.

These rewards don’t have to be huge, it could be as small as making your favourite smoothie post-exercise, getting a coffee from your local cafe or watching an episode of a show you love. Knowing that you have something to look forward to on the other side of your workout can make it a little easier.

Go Easy on Yourself

If you’re just starting to get into an exercise routine, it’s important to go easy on yourself for both your physical and mental health. There’s no need to beat yourself up for taking a break from regular exercise — sometimes, despite our best efforts, life gets in the way and things slip, including working out. Feeling bad about this doesn’t achieve anything, so try to shake that off.

It’s also important to slowly reintroduce your body to movement if you haven’t been physically active for a little while. According to TIME, a study from 2015 found that taking a break from physical activity for two weeks can lead to a significant reduction in muscle strength and mass, so you can’t jump straight back into your workouts at the same speed as before.

Exercise shouldn’t have guilt attached to it, so to help increase your motivation, make sure it works for you. Choose a style of working out that you enjoy, set goals and enjoy rewards for your effort and hopefully, the motivation will follow.