If you’re planning to start working on yourself, I invite you to check these techniques to stay motivated to work out consistently.
One of the most difficult parts of accomplishing our goals is consistency. It’s difficult to start doing things that are priorities for your life a priority.
Let’s think about the following situation:
The alarm goes off at 6:00 am. You’re super comfortable in bed. It’s cold outside, and you’re still tired.
You decided to postpone the alarm for 5 more minutes. But you finally missed your first chance to get out of bed to put into your workout in the morning.
The day is not finished yet. ‘I can do it after work’ you thought.
Bad idea.
At the end of the day, you’re probably even more tired, and hungry, making dinner for you and your family, and the only thing that you want to do is to take a shower and go to bed.
Right?
I have been in the same situation over and over again, so you’re not alone in this process. We all need to work on our motivation and consistency.
That’s why I decided to create this post to talk about motivation since it’s a great part of our personal development. As we may lose our motivation in the blink of an eye, we also need to think about consistency. These two terms must go together because when one of them is not there to help you, you can use the other one.
Ultimate Techniques: How to Stay Motivated to Work Out
NOTE: Consult your doctor before starting any exercise routine that you see online or starting any particular diet. I’m not a personal trainer nor a nutricionist, so you need an expert opinion first. This is what I do to workout at home by my own.
How do we notice that we have lost our motivation? Well, we know that we’re not motivated because we choose to do something else instead of doing what we planned to do. Right?
When we are motivated and consistent, it doesn’t matter if we’re tired or if we don’t have enough time to work out at home or at the gym. We simply go. We can at least work out for 15 minutes and we’ll be a little bit more closer to our fitness goal.
That’s the idea of being super motivated and committed to your personal growth. Doing the things that we must do without hesitation.
For those episodes when you don’t want to exercise (or don’t have enough time), I have shared these 6 short and effective workouts you can do in only 10 minutes. These routines are especially for lazy moments and will help you to feel that you’ve accomplished so much.
Besides those lazy moments, I want to help you with motivation and consistency. When you and your mind start creating doubts and excuses or thinking about working out tomorrow and stuff, you need to create a list of things that motivates you to do the change.
To make it a lot easier for all of you, I decided to create a list with techniques to help you to stay motivated to work out.
1. Have a Specific Goal
For everything that needs physical or mental effort, we need to set goals. This is a super cliche, but goals are perfect for people who lose motivation easily.
If we set up goals, even if it’s just to stay healthy, we keep our minds focused on that specific action that we need to accomplish.
Some of the goals I have for my own journey:
- Complete 3 rounds of lower body workouts three times per week
- Activate my booty muscles two times per week
- Drink two bottles of water each day
- Practice yoga one time per week
As you can see, you can have so many goals but all of them are related to each other. Fitness goals will help you to accomplish all your goals, and, most important part, help you to stay motivated to work out at home (or at the gym.)
I always recommend writing your goals on paper and putting them in a place where you can see them during the day. In that way, you’ll be able to remember why you started.
How to Set Realistic Goals to Stay Motivated to Work Out
You might be wondering how to set effective goals. For this process, you need to think about your current situation (mindset, motivation level, timeframe, skills, abilities, and issues).
After evaluating the current situation, you can start thinking about your goals. For example, I’ve been working out for a year, but not consistently because of my current physical situation. So, I cannot say that I’m going jump rope each day because I’m pregnant, and I cannot perform those types of exercises.
Therefore, my realistic goals need to be adapted to my current situation. I can work out, but the intensity should be lower.
Examples:
- Work out for 20 minutes three times a week (now I’m out of breath easily.)
- Don’t worry about weight, but try to prefer vegetables and fruits over cakes and cookies.
- Drink two bottles of water each day.
If you’re just starting your fitness journey, you have to try it slowly. Set goals that you can actually reach. Don’t feel overwhelmed, start slow and happy.
2. Make a Plan
When we have a plan for something, our mind changes and adapts its routine to the new one. If you want to work out, then a planning method will increase your success.
What I do these days is to create split my week into different types of workouts. For example:
5 Days | Split Workout
- Monday: Booty and legs + Cardio
- Tuesday: Full body
- Wednesday: Arms, shoulders, and back
- Thursday: Rest
- Friday: Upper body
- Saturday: Abs + Cardio
- Sunday: Rest
This is one of the ways that we can split our week to work out. Making a plan for your fitness journey is a must.
When you create a split workout, you need to focus on your goals so you can add more days to work on your upper or lower body. If your goal is to gain more muscles in your lower body, then you should add an additional day to work out that part of your body.
3. Surround Yourself with Inspiration
One of the best methods of keeping your motivation up is getting inspiration from your surroundings.
If you go to the gym, try to make some friends and get in touch with people who have positive energy. If you work out at home, then you can try to find some friends online. Instagram, Facebook, and Tiktok are great options.
However! You can also surround yourself with objects that inspire you. For example, paintings with positive quotes, beautiful bottles, or workout clothing that you truly love.
Modern Water Bottle
Woman Workout Clothing
4. Create a Motivational Vision Board
When I first started this era of the internet, I didn’t really know what a vision board is. If this is your case, let me explain what I’ve learned.
A vision board is a collage of images and words (mainly images) that represent a person’s wishes or goals. They are normally used as inspiration or motivation for accomplishing certain things. Therefore, they are perfect for us, right?
A vision board should be a resource that helps you to feel motivated, not to compare yourself with other people’s progress. If you want to create one of these for your fitness journey, we need to make sure that the images we select are there to inspire us. We don’t want to have the bad habit of comparing ourselves with other people.
The most important thing about this is to help you to feel more confident, strongest, and happier. So, if you want to create a vision board, you can find some inspiration on Pinterest.
5. Get Clothes that Make You Feel Confident
When we start working out, we need to have appropriate clothing for doing our routines and making us feel confident. If we try on a pair of leggings, we need to feel that we have the power to smash it, we need to feel strong.
For me, it’s super important to wear some nice clothing for every session so I can feel like the most motivated girl ever. And, let me tell you that I only work out at home.
Now that I’m pregnant, it’s super difficult to feel great in a pair of leggings, but I have the right clothing at home that allows me to perform every movement. So, don’t worry, and just choose some tops, shirts, shorts, and leggings, depending on your mood and body.
You got this, girl!
6. Make Your Workout Fun
Last, but not least, make your workout routines fun! Whenever you exercise, try to add exciting things. Add activities that you enjoy.
You don’t need to stay at home working out all the time:
- You can go out for a short or long walk, or for a run if you feel even more motivated.
- Create a playlist with songs that you enjoy and make you feel happy.
- Create new routines every single week so you don’t have the same exercises.
Feel free to create your own plan for your fitness journal. Remember that, something that works for someone might not work for you. That’s the reason why we need customized plans.
How to Stay Motivated to Work Out: Identify “Demotivating Factors”
Now, we know that we have tons of ways of keeping our motivation up, but we also have some demotivating factors. The following list has some tips for you to work on them so they don’t interfere with your progress.
Lack of Physical Change | Don’t focus your attention on physical changes only. We all know that gaining muscle and losing weight can take a lot of time and effort, so try to think that working out is a fun activity that you do for mental health.
Feeling Tired | Most of us work 5 or 6 days per week. If we pay attention to our physical tiredness, we won’t work out ever ever ever. Before going to the gym, think that working out will help you to feel more energetic.
Another great way of exercising and avoiding tiredness is by scheduling your workout sessions for those moments when you feel less tired. Right after you get up, for example.
Short On Time | We are not short on time, the thing is that we don’t know how to use our time wisely. I know, for sure, that time is not equal for everyone, and life happens. It doesn’t matter if you have to change the time of your fitness moment. The idea is that you find at least 10 minutes of your day to get to work. Your mental and body health is more important, and you have to put yourself first some times.
Motivation and consistency are the keys. Try to stay present, connect with your body and mind, and focus your thoughts on your personal goals. Your health matters and you are the only one who will take care of it. I hope you can accomplish all your fitness goals and stay motivated to work out at home or at the gym.
Workout because you love your body, not because you hate it.
