Here at AdMac Fitness, we know that for a lot of people, the desire to exercise doesn’t come naturally. Not everyone wakes up full of enthusiasm to get out there and train. Despite that, exercise is still an important thing to do.
It’s a bit like with food… we’d all probably rather eat cake and look and feel fantastic, but sometimes it’s a case of doing what you have to, rather than what you want to.
To help you combat this, we’re going to share 5 tips that’ll help you to exercise when you have no motivation. As personal trainers, we’re experts in helping people who dread exercise get into healthy habits. Here are some great tips that are actionable and effective, helping you to exercise when you have no motivation…
Hire a Personal Trainer
Now you’d be forgiven for thinking ‘of course they’re going to say that - they’re a personal training company!’, but it’s true.
A personal trainer is a great idea for someone who lacks the motivation to exercise. Here’s a few reasons why…
You’ve made it an appointment. When you commit something to your diary, you’re more likely to stick to it. If you rely on getting yourself to the gym, there’s a good chance you’ll stay anchored to the sofa!
Money is a motivator! When you’ve paid for the session, you’ll want to make sure you get the most from it, so you’ll work harder. When you work harder, you see better results and the motivation becomes self-fulfilling!
Accountability and motivation is outsourced. When you hire a personal trainer, you’ve got someone in your corner who is trying to help you. You’ve outsourced motivation and you’ve got someone you’re now accountable to. That’s a powerful combination for getting you to the gym!
Train with a friend
Another powerful way to get you active is to train with a friend. Importantly, make it a friend who is active, ideally. That way you’re not like to skip exercise and head to the pub instead!
When you train with a friend you’re ticking a few boxes…
You’re exercising - great for your physical and mental health
You get to tick a social box - hanging out with a friend
You help to motivate each other
You have accountability - won’t want to let a friend down
You’ll find a mutual interest that deepens social relationships
By training with a friend you’re not just relying on someone else to help maintain your motivation, you’re doing everything in the list above. You’ll push each other, encourage each other and enjoy working out making yourselves fitter, healthier and happier.
Start small
There’s a seeming obsession with exercise being a brutally intensive event that takes hours and hours of your time. That needn’t be the case at all.
In fact, if you’re brand new to this, throwing yourself into a massive workout programme would be stupid. You’d be more likely to injure yourself, place too many demands on your body and ultimately, be really overwhelmed at the amount of exercise you’re forcing yourself to do.
Our advice in this case is to start small.
Maybe one personal training session per week, an exercise class and a regular walk. If that’s too much, scale it back to some simple home workouts, a couple of walks per week and some better food choices.
Basically, start where you are. Build up from there.
Pick something you love
When you can make exercise ‘accidental’, you’re onto a winner. Some people love to dance, others love to play football, some of us love to hike in the hills. Your thing might be swimming, or yoga. It doesn’t matter what activity you like to do.
Just get out there and do it.
You don’t need to be restricted by thinking all activity needs to be gym based. Instead, take the activity you love to do and do it regularly. If your reason for not exercising is because you don’t like the gym, there’s a million other options out there. Just get out and so something.
Don’t overthink exercise
If you’re new to health and fitness, you could easily be led down a confusing path… every workout claims to be the best for X,Y or Z goal. Each week a fitness magazine tells you that you need to do something new to get yourself fit and healthy.
The reality is, you don’t need to overthink exercise. Unless you’re training for a specific goal, just get yourself moving. Pick up heavy things (safely) regularly. Walk, run, swim or cycle fairly often. get up hills, in the fresh air, eat good quality protein and plenty of fruit and vegetables.
Drink plenty of water, keep booze and caffeine consumption to an appropriate level and get plenty of sleep! That sums it up in many cases.
Hire a personal trainer if you don’t know exercise technique, or you have a particular goal you want to achieve. A personal trainer is the fastest and safest way to achieve a long-lasting, genuine change in your health and fitness. It’s also a team mate and a partner with a vested interest in helping you to achieve your health and fitness goals!
So if you’re struggling to get started, follow this advice on how to exercise when you have no motivation!
AdMac Fitness Personal Training - Available in Bow and South Woodford
AdMac Fitness has been helping the people of East London transform their health and fitness for nearly a decade.
We help people using tried and tested fitness approaches. Our expert team of personal trainers, based in both Bow and South Woodford can help you get a grip of your health forever. With our guidance and experience, you can relax knowing that your fitness journey is going to be guided by some of the best personal trainers in East London.
For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
Our locations are…
AdMac Fitness Bow: Arch 457 Robeson St, London E3 4JA
AdMac Fitness South Woodford: Unit 4 Marlborough Business Centre, 96 George Lane, South Woodford, London, E18 1AD.