Mental Hacks 101: How to Get Motivated to Work Out
Committing to a regular fitness routine is often easier said than done. While it can be fun to plan out your workouts and put together a great home gym, actually using that gym and performing the workouts can be difficult and overwhelming. Whether you’re dealing with a packed social calendar, struggling to balance work and family obligations or simply see exercise as more of a boring chore than it’s worth, there are many factors that can get in the way of maintaining an exercise program.
The best way to overcome these challenges is to find fitness motivation that works for you. While finding the motivation to work out can be hard, it’s well-worth the initial effort you have to put in. When you find the fitness motivation strategies that inspire you, you’ll also find the drive to truly commit to your exercise routine and make progress towards all of your workout goals.
This is our guide on how to get motivated to work out. We’ve put together a list of all of the best fitness motivation tips to help you get started. Read on to figure out which ones work for you so you can get motivated to work out and kickstart your fitness journey.
Challenge Yourself with Goals
One important tip for how to get motivated to work out is making the most of goals. If you are approaching exercise without any specific objective in mind, you will likely find it difficult to maintain your fitness routine. Setting goals allows you to have a clear purpose for your workouts that can guide your exercise efforts and inspire your fitness motivation. Your fitness goals are also an opportunity to challenge yourself to work hard to meet them, which can keep you motivated in the long-run.
To make your goals as effective as possible, try setting both short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals can be as simple as kicking off your fitness routine by committing to working out 10 minutes at a time, and exercising two or three days a week. Longer-term goals could be working up to exercising 30 minutes a day four or five days a week. They could also focus on real-world experiences that you hope to experience by improving your fitness efforts like running a marathon or going rock climbing with friends.
Commit to a Schedule
Once you’ve decided what your individual fitness goals are, one useful way how to get motivated to work out and meet your goals is to set out a clear exercise schedule for yourself. Decide which days of the week you will work out and what general time of day you will exercise, and then stick to that schedule. You could also give yourself a timeframe for meeting certain fitness objectives. For example, you might start exercising in March and have your eye on running a marathon in November. You could then plan your exercise efforts for the months ahead accordingly, increasing the length and intensity of your sessions over time, to help prepare yourself to meet your goal.
Adjust Your Fitness Mindset
Adjusting your fitness mindset is a key part of how to get motivated to work out. The way that you think about exercise has a huge impact on how likely you are to maintain a regular workout routine, and how much enjoyment you can expect to get out of your fitness efforts. Luckily, there are plenty of strategies you can try to adjust your outlook on exercise.
For example, if you struggle with fitness motivation because you think of exercise as a chore that you dread having to complete, try viewing it as a hobby instead. Put it in the same category as other self-care activities you enjoy on a regular basis, such as listening to music, doing yoga, trying out different healthy recipes and spending time in nature. Thinking about exercise as something you choose to do as an investment in your health might help you view it as a beneficial part of your life that you look forward to.
And, instead of focusing on potential negative parts of exercise like feeling sore afterwards or feeling tired, think about all of the positive benefits of working out that you’ll get to enjoy in the long run, like improved strength and muscle mass, boosted energy and mood, weight control, improved sleep quality and a reduced risk of certain chronic health issues. Remind yourself that feeling tired or sore is only temporary, while these fitness benefits are much longer lasting and worth all of the effort you will go through to get to them.
Reward Yourself
While there are certainly many benefits of regular exercise, many of them can take a long time to actually see in your own life. In the meantime, it can be helpful to use rewards as a strategy for how to get motivated to work out. If you’re considering food rewards, try to make them healthy post-workout snacks like smoothies, protein shakes or your favorite fruit. Another way to reward yourself is to do something you enjoy after a successful workout, like watching an episode of your favorite TV show, browsing at the bookstore, making plans to meet up with friends or visiting the local coffee shop.
Rely on a Support System
When you first embark on a fitness journey, it’s easy to feel like you’re all alone in your exercise efforts. Once you hit a roadblock, you can easily feel like giving up if you don’t have someone to work through it with. This is one serious issue that gets in the way of figuring out how to get motivated to work out. The best way to overcome this barrier to fitness motivation is to rely on a support system.
Try to find a friend or family member who also has fitness goals so you can both hold each other accountable along the way. When you have a fitness buddy, you can also compare solutions for any issues you might encounter as you make progress — like sharing tips for making your workouts more challenging or swapping healthy recipes to complement your efforts in the gym.
Another great way to feel like you’re part of a community when working out is to join fitness classes with other people. This could mean in-person classes at your local fitness or community center, or virtual classes where you can interact with other participants from the comfort of your own home. When you exercise with Aeroski, you can enjoy live streamed classes through the Aeroski app led by expert coaches where you can feel like you’re a true part of the Aeroski community.
Choose Fun Exercise with Aeroski
One final important tip for how to get motivated to work out is to pick a fun type of exercise. It can feel almost impossible to find motivation to exercise when you don’t enjoy working out or are bored by your fitness routine. When you actually like and have fun with exercise, you’re much more likely to want to keep working out over time and to make real progress toward your fitness goals. When you’re searching for a fun workout strategy, Aeroski is a great choice.
When you combine any of the fitness motivation strategies described above with the unique Aeroski experience, it’s sure to pay off. Aeroski’s dynamic motion makes fitness fun and keeps you engaged during every workout. It also allows you to work out from the comfort of your own home, giving you the flexibility to exercise on your own terms and customize your workouts. Choosing exercise that is both fun and effective is a surefire way how to get motivated to work out. Luckily, Aeroski delivers on effectiveness too — it’s a full-body workout that targets all of the major muscle groups in the body during each fitness session.
Enjoy fun, unique exercise that will help boost your fitness motivation when you choose Aeroski!