How do I motivate myself to exercise?

It gets better and better every time. And you start to think why you've wasted your mornings without an exercise, at least a quick one

My morning dance routines are all practice for the summer camp I work at. It doesn't just benefit me to practice, it also benefits the campers I'll see next summer and fills me with fond memories of my time at camp through the years.

My goal is to strengthen my indurance in doing physical activities. If you have a goal, you will be dedicated to do exercise daily until it becomes a habit. I still have a long way to go but I'm trying to do it one step at a time.

Develop a routine that triggers the behavior.
Have a tangible goal that requires increased strength or endurance that only exercise can supply. If the goal includes others, you won't want to let them down by not completing your exercise program.
Get enough sleep. Fatigue can kill your resolve.
Decide under what conditions you can either make a workout lighter or skip it altogether. Write them down as specifically as possible. When I want to skip, check your list. Listen to your body. Lightening the workout is better than a complete skip.
Workout with a friend or trainer.
Pick activities you enjoy.

By thinking why I started to exerise. To reach my goal as well

Get an exercise app for your phone. Get dressed and choose a workout that is doable for you and not to long like 10/15 minutes. When you’re ready don’t think about it for long and just click start. Forbidd yourself to cancel the workout and fight yourself through it. Afterwards you’ll be proud of yourself and might want to boost this feeling by doing another one 🙂

You think about yourself and the benefits of exercising. You are moving your body, you are getting the blood flowing, losing calories, trying to get the body you want and trying to build a healthy lifestyle. You become more motivated after and will be happy that you actually exercised, instead of staying home and doing nothing. You are putting work in to become a better version of yourself. You keep all that in your mind and go hard.

Nike has good advice on this one: Just Do It. Motivation to exercise might not happen immediately. But just lying down on the floor. Doing a sit-up. Then another. Then another. Or just pretending to jump rope in place. Get your blood flowing. And once you start you will likely feel like you might as well keep going. Or just lace up your jogging shoes and start at a brisk walk. Then maybe pick a landmark down the road and tell yourself you’ll run to that. And then pick another and run to the next landmark. And celebrate these little wins. Try to make it a game with yourself.

The easiest way for me to exercise is turning on my favorite music and then just start dancing.

I leave my yoga mat out on the floor right by my bed so it's there when I wake up. I also love the feeling you get after exercising and once you get addicted to that feeling it definitely motivates you and makes you actually want to exercise!

Personally, I've always found motivation to be fickle and fleating, no matter what I'm trying to be motivated about: exercise, homework, cleaning my house…Instead, I recommend finding your "why". Why do you want to exercise? Why is that important to you? Really give yourself time to dig deep into those queations. For me, I want to lose weight because I'm about 60-70lbs overweight. I want to be able to walk up and down steps without my knees cracking and aching and my lungs bursting. I have some deep reasons (to combat my PTSD, anxiety and depression) as well as some more superficial ones (for example, I have a pair of really cute underwear that I love and want to fit into). I wrote 30-31 reasons as to why I want to exercise and put them into my calendar in my phone and set an alarm for them. Everyday at noon I get a pop-up of 1 reason I want to exercise. That has really helped me. Motivation will come and go, but once you make yourself deciplined and you notice any and all changes, you'll get addicted and won't even need motivation anymore 🙂

Because I want to be better. I've always wanted certain things. To be stronger. More disciplined. So by knowing even something as little as 30 pushups can get me closer to that goal, then it motivates me to keep at it. And keep going.

1) Have realistic expectations, I won't suddenly become the world's top athlete and I don't have to either.
2) Make it fun and fit it naturally into my day. Dancing around, doing some stretches, going for a little walk and just cleaning around the house are simple activities I can do any day, any time, with no special equipment for free, made even better with some music or a good podcast or audiobook.

A desire to see a better me… sharpening your skills needs a series of small steps.

No idea, it doesn't work. I really think I should, but it's cold., I'm sick (had a miscarriage), and I know sporting helps even packing my stuff is a challenge after a long day of work

First, I choose something I like doing. I like to walk outdoors and I like to dance. I started by setting my watch for 15 mins, then walking away from my house. When the timer goes off, I walk back. Once that becomes routine and easy, I change routes, and/or add 5 mins to make it 20 mins away from home, timer goes off, walk back home.
As for dancing, I just free dance (move my body to the music any way I feel like – it's fun!). I have a playlist of my favourite songs. I started with 3 songs (approx 10 mins). That's it! Each week I increased by one by one song and now doing 9 to 10 song sets (approx. 30 mins). I found that to get motivated is do what you like and you're comfortable doing. 🙂

I remind myself how good I feel after working out. My mood is always better. My energy level is always better. My day always improves and I feel accomplished.

In keeping yourself motivated to exercise, try to answer some questions. First think, "What are my goals?" Goals need to be specific, time bound and realistic. Another question to consider is, "What are some exercises I can do that target those goals?" This specificity helps you stay focused. Finally, ask yourself, "What can I do to make exercise more interesting and even fun?" This last one will ideally make you return for more.

I always focus on my future , like how I want to look in the future and how can I be satisfied about the reality.

I set my goals, i am inspired by someone. The more i think of my reasons and inspiration, the more i get to be motivated to have consistency to acheive these goals.

First, get rid of the notion that exercise equals weight-loss. Exercise is not an effect way to lose weight. Second, reprogram your thinking to see exercise as a fun way to move. Associate this fun movement with music you love or a good audio book. This way it can be more than just movement l, but recreational. When you associate thingsbyou may not be fond of with things you love it reprograms the brain to enjoy it, like a reward. The more we do it the more reward we get. Third, feel proud that you accomplished your goal every time you do it. Don't punish yourself if you forget, the lack of reward is punishment enough.

I wish I could say I've figured this one out, but I haven't. I'm currently struggling to fit everything in. I sometimes bribe myself and sometimes have to talk myself into it.

I like to set up my exercise session beforehand. Knowing what yoga sequence I want to do, setting up my mat, and laying out my clothes prevents decision fatigue and really helps me just get into it. Another thing that is important to motivate me is to work towards a concrete goal, with a definite timeline.

Generally to keep healthy and keep myself that way. Seeing unhealthy people day to day motivates me to not to revert to old habits (reformed smoker) and unhealthy lifestyle choices made in the past. I find that keeping exercise up is really improving my ability to deal with work stress.

I tie it in with what I HAVE to do. I HAVE to walk the dog so I pick a route that is uphill for an extended time period, ensuring my heart rate is up for 40+ minutes. I also make plans with friends for exercise dates which keeps me accountable and I pick exercise activities that I enjoy. Not just exercise ipsofacto.

I think two things when I motivate myself for exercise. My cyclist college professor told, "if you keep moving your muscles won't cramp." I also remind myself no one can do this for me, only I myself can do this for me. I also about exercise health benefits and use my gym's kids club to socialize my toddler. So forces me to go to the gym.

Pick someone that you don't like/intimidates you. The hotter they are the better. Think about how good it would feel the next time you see them to be in better shape. Exercise in spite of the people who thought you could never do it.

Think of exercising as a play. You will do it regularly when you enjoy it. But sometimes boredom does hit. When it does you can does change the kind of exercise activity you are doing.
I personally change my exercises every 2-3 weeks. For example I do yoga for 2 weeks, do walking/running the next 2 weeks, do dance routine the next 2 and so on and so forth.
This is very effective for weight loss as well. When you do the same exercises over and over, your body gets habituated to it. And at one point body stops losing any fat and only keeps maintaing the current weight.

Have a friend with the same goal and workout together. You can motivate each other. Also understand that exercise is one of the best ways to gain momentum when tackling the rest of your goals. A quick exercise routine in the morning will go a very long way.

How I motivate myself to exercise is I get up drink water eat breakfast then go for my morning walks. I used to go to the YMCA.

Prepare in advance. Set your shoes and clothes out, schedule it in and make sure everyone knows it, find a time that works. Make it a priority, block your distractions and temptations. Commit. Hold yourself accountable.

The feeling of accomplishment and energy immediately after a workout is excellent motivation.

First, I think you need to find what works for you the best. For me it's mostly yoga. I think it is essential to enjoy what we do. I have to wake up really early to have approx 15 minutes for exercising, but I do it. Every single day (for more than a month now 🙂 ). I feel that this time not only improves my physical health, but my mental health too. I know and I feel that it is to my benefit, and I want to take a good care of my overall well-being.

One thing that helps is to try and go right after work before you go home, this way you don't go home and then don't feel like leaving. You could also get up around 4:00am and workout before most people are at the gym and just get it over with at the top of the day before you become drained by work and bogged down by whatever else is going on in your life.

Start small and work it into your daily routine

Make exercise fun! I love to dance or do a Zumba toning class to get my strength training done. If it's something you enjoy, you'll stick with it.

If you're having trouble getting moving, tell yourself you'll just get dressed and see how you feel, then you'll just put on shoes. Once you do that, you may as well try five or ten minutes of moving. Then you're on your way!

I clear a space in the living room before I go to bed and put the yoga mat out, I set the heating to come on for about an hour before I get up. That way I can easily get out of bed on the cold mornings and I don't have to do anything else except exercise

You just start, no matter what. The hard part about exercising is starting, not continuing. Get up every day and tell yourself you will exercise for at least 5 minutes, that way everyday, you at least start. Chances are, you'll go for longer than 5 minutes.

Keep warm and keep my self healthy and prosperous. Making sure that my body is comfortable and healthy as well as strong. Smiling often as I can. Drinking fluids. Staying full and eating when I feel hunger.

Make it easy, fit it into your current routine. For example, I catch the bus to work and I get on/off the bus one stop away from what would be closest. This adds up to ~10mins of brisk walking on my way to work. REMEMBER: the less effort a change takes, the more likely you're going to make it.
Good luck with your journey man, stick with it 🙂

It's so easy to give up. All it takes is that one day, and you realize how hard it's been for you. But, it doesn't have to be that way. Think about your body now. Now think about it a month from now. Enjoy the picture in your mind! It's ok to miss a day or two, but don't make it a habit.

I imagine the benefits of exercise, feeling better, looking better–overall being healthier

Get everything prepared early, commit in your heart that you are going to do the exercise, you must think of it as a priority. Choosing the time that fits with your type as a morning person or a night owl.
Start small until its a habit then expand. Use fabulous workouts as a beginning then you can fix your workout routine for your needs later on.
When the time that you decided on comes, just do it. Don't think about it. Just do it.

It really has helped me mentally. Raises my mood, brings me back to the present and it's the best feeling after a good run.

Instead of just walking in the morning, I walk with my partner and pick up trash in the neighborhood. After an hour, we can't see the weight we've lost, but we can see a full bag of trash and know we accomplished something.

I stay moving and I stay busy at work so that is where I get the most exercised and motivation

I have always excersised, but not every day. I have choosen a short yoga session to do, no equipment, at home and only 10 min. I always think, it's just 10 min. No excuse 🙂 I turn on a motivational speech on youtube and doing dun salutations during the speach. It is very motivating by itself.

The best way to motivate yourself (at least what tends to work for me):
1. Have a workout friend with a set time to meet. We do 5:30 am because otherwise it won't get done.
2. We exercise outdoors and I tell my friend I'll just be there (w/my big dog for protection) so if she can't make it, I'm still already up and ready to go unless I tell her otherwise
3. On the occasions when I don't get a great/good workout in, I just move on and try again the next day.
4. I lay out my workout clothes the night before and get up and listen to Pandora when I'm getting ready
5. Taking my dog makes it more fun.
6. I practice mindfulness.

I just do it. No Nike intended. The "Rise & Grind" video on YouTube really helped me when I returned home from the service years ago. The idea is, that alarm goes off, don't listen to anything your mind says. Everything is against you. You need to be mindless in those first few moments you're awake. Roll out off bed and just start.

I can motivate myself by thinking the good benefits of having a constant exercise regimen every morning

I designated a workout buddy who is just as passionate as me to get fit and stick to a routine. Having a workout buddy who is equally dedicated is less likely to bail out of the routine.

Remember why you are doing it. If you dont workout you will get more used to not doing it and eventually quit. Its very easy to lose your progress and you need to keep doing it. Just like the child and sage meditation. Dont give in to the child. Keep it up and eventually you will crave working out. You will want to feel the burn.

I try to work out every day, and it was challenging at first to incorporate this into my daily routine, but as it becomes a habit the benefits become addictive! I have more energy and feel better mentally and physically. Recognizing these rewards is a great motivation especially on days when you don’t want to get out of bed and get moving and it’s often those days that the positive effects of exercise are most needed!

By telling myself to just do it. Even though so many excuses come up in my mind as to why not, I'm still preparing my mat and everything I need to perform the exercise till I end up starting without realizing it.

Just tell yourself you have to do it and tell yourself what will happen if you don't

I remind myself of all the reasons I’m choosing to exercise. I’ve laid these reasons out in advance so they are ready when I meed them. Then I choose a single one of these reasons to focus on for the exercise session.

I remind myself that I am worth the time and effort it takes to exercise. I spend time doing everything else that needs to be done that it wouldn't be fair to me not to take the time for me.

Do a 10 minute routine first thing in the morning after drinking 3 quarters bottle water but straight after getting out of bed.

I get everything I need ready and set an alarm. The alarm really helps because I don’t think . When the alarm goes off, I get up and exercise. Pavlov’s dogs never stopped to think either.

In my case, I had to motivate myself to exercise as well.
Being a student, and having a hard time accessing gyms – I had to devote myself to home training. But after cases of me not liking the workouts, I just thought working out wasn't for me. After a while, I searched up loads of workouts and made a playlist. I tried all of them to see which one I enjoyed doing, and luckily I found some that were to my level.

Depending on your fitness level – I truly believe that everyone will have a fitness routine they enjoy whether it be a light walk to an intense gym session. Customize it to your level, and focus area of your body that you want to change the most. For beginners, I recommend starting off with a light full body workout and doing that for two weeks or so until your body is used to working out.

Motivate yourself by setting up reminders. I motivated myself by putting my dream body as my wallpaper. It reminds me of my goal. It will be hard at times, but I believe the true way to motivate yourself is to say, "I will workout right now." Instead of "I should…"

Choose something you enjoy and get yourself some nice workout gear (if needed) as a treat for doing your exercise after so many days. As Sphere say, don't exercise; play!

Tell yourself that you just have to do a little bit (like only 1 minute), and force yourself to do that. Once you’ve done that much, you might want to continue or find it easier to keep going, or if you don’t then you’ve still done a minute of exercise, which is still good, and you could try to increase the amount over time.

I think the best way is to find a kind of sport you enjoy – either all by itself or because of the community and the people that you do the sport/exercises with.

If with exercise you mean workout and not sports than I think the people are still really important. But the other part still applies. If you have a sport you really like doing – say parkour – than you probably want to exercise more, in order to get better at that sport – thereby moving your motivation from external things like "exercise makes you look better" anf from distant future promises like "it's good for your health" to a intrinsic motivator (get better at the sport you love)

I focus on my future goal. That means that before I start a session a picture my goal in mind as it was already achieved. And I try feel how good you be to be there. This motivates me to do the daily exercise.

It’s difficult and I have to try different things all the time. I think two constant things would be:

1. Having a great playlist or some music to get me feeling upbeat (even if I only listen to it on my way to gym and not while I’m working out.

2. Measuring tiny elements to compete with myself and giving me a view of my progress even if it’s not reflected in my weight. Things like heart rate, top speed, or even just doing the same yoga routine and seeing how I’ve improved over time. Those things make me feel like I’m achieving something, even if it’s not obvious yet. I’ve done this manually with a spreadsheet before, and now have a Fitbit which is great for tracking these micro changes.

Some other things that have helped:

– Thinking about steaming after a gym session. Makes working out feel like a treat and gives me something tangible to look forward to that’s not hard work.

– Aaptiv is a really great app for fitness sessions. I’ve tried lots but this is the best because it’s entirely audio. It’s too tricky to watch videos while working out but a coaches voice guiding you is perfect.

– I can’t afford it anymore, but I did have a personal trainer before which was wonderful. A brilliant motivator.

Honestly I try new things all the time to keep it interesting – Kung fu, boxing, running, all different types of yoga, boot camps, spinning – if I find something I like, I’ll do it a lot. And then when I get bored, I look for something new.

Since I started to use Fabulous, I've begun to exercise in the mornings. I actually prefer this to exercising in the evening. I suppose for me the motivation comes from the visual ques I set up for myself. I roll out my exercise mat in front of my closet every night at the same time I fill up my water bottle and place it beside my bed. Then, the next morning, I have to exercise before I can get to my closet to get dressed. I'm still new to this, so I don't exercise a lot. Sometimes I'll do just 3 push ups, sometimes I'll do yoga, or sometimes I'll just put on my favourite song and move to the beat. I find that the variety helps to keep me from getting bored, which means I get to keep looking forward to exercising. I also give myself a lot more time than I need. At this point my exercise duration is at 15 minutes, but I've never exercised for longer than 5-6 minutes. For me, having the extra time take the pressure off. If I try to plan every second of the time I give myself, I get stressed, start to associate exercising with negative thoughts, and then lose my motivation to continue. Sorry for the long answer. Hope this helps.

Pair it with an activity you enjoy. For example, I am much more motivated to go on the elliptical if I decide I’m going to watch my favorite show on Hulu while pedaling.

Just get going! Personally I know I’m terrible with exercise so as soon as I get out of bed I dance to the shower, dance carefully in the shower, dance to dry myself, dance while I’m getting ready, and eventually I stop dancing in the car to work haha!

Watching inspiring YouTube videos usually gets me going.

Create a short term goal that motivates and start so small it is "absurd" to not follow through.

I exercise for mental health. I get motivated to run when I give myself the option of: "I can either keep lounging around feeling sorry for myself or I can do something I know will help me." Running is very hit or miss when it comes to how much I enjoy it. Some days my head is just not in it. But I'd rather run during these times than feel like I have no control over my moods and sink deeper in. And even if I didn't enjoy a particular run, I usually feel better after it. So it really comes down to: "If you want to feel better for the next few hours, go run now."

You motivate yourself by putting your mind on your goal. When starting to excerise make sure to have a goal, once you have it you think of it and motivate yourself to do it. Keep in mind how happy you will be and how different everything will be.

Think of the big picture. What do I hope to accomplish? Why the sacrifice? What will I look like? How will I feel? Consistency will bring results. First and foremost, put self first!

Because my mood always effects weather or not I'm productive what motivates me changes day by day. If I'm struggling with depression, that day I will take things easy and do my workout before bed or whenever I get the energy. That gives me motivation because I dont feel too pressured or like a failure reminding myself to take my time because it's important for my mental health. On days I'm just pur lazy, i think about my future goals and where i want to be and knowing that just doing the bare minimum in a workout is better than nothing. Again i dont feel pressured so it doesnt seem like a chore and I can get it done faster. On regular days when I'm upbeat I'm excited for workouts. I'm excited for every part of my day and life so my motivation is my natural energy and excitement to take on the day because I woke up feeling hopeful happy and confident.