How to Motivate Yourself to Work Out

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You know you need to work out, but you feel tired, lazy, busy. Or you’ll do it tomorrow (or the day after that…or the day after that). Here are some tips to get you to work out NOW.

Steps

1. Do something small, right now. Going all the way to the gym, or getting decked out in your jogging gear, or doing whatever it is you feel you should be doing obviously seems like too much work. So just do ten push-ups or jumping jacks. Easy. And usually, it’s just enough to get your heart rate going a little bit, and make you feel like a little more exercise wouldn’t be so bad…
2. Do a Full Body Workout in Less Than 5 Minutes. Kill the “I don’t have time” excuse by developing a routine that engages every muscle in your body in just a few minutes. You probably won’t Lose Weight or Build Muscle doing this, but it’s better than nothing and, more importantly, it’ll make you feel good about yourself, which will make you feel more motivated to exercise.
3. Overcome Procrastination Using Self Talk. You’re probably telling yourself something like “I should exercise right now. If I don’t work out, I’m never going to get fit.” This statement has many hidden obstacles. For one thing, feeling like you should do something makes it seem like work, or an obligation. That’s no fun. You’re also thinking about what will happen if you don’t exercise–in other words, you’re threatening yourself with punishment (the image of being unfit). Subconsciously, you’re flooding your mind with negativity. Instead, remember that exercise is a choice, and it’s about whether you want to, or not! And instead of thinking about how you’ll look if you don’t work out, think about how great you’d look if you did!
4. Get halfway there. If you want to go to the gym, but just don’t feel like it, at least just drive yourself to gym, and tell yourself that if you still don’t feel like working out, you’ll go home. Odds are, though, once you’re there, you won’t feel like driving home. (But if you do, that’s OK too. But you probably won’t.) Then tell yourself you’ll just walk on the treadmill for 10 minutes, even if your exercise routine involves much more. Just telling yourself to do one more thing, without having to commit to anything else, will make things much easier. And before long, your endorphins will take over.
   • If your form of exercise involves going outside, a good first step is to get dressed and just sit outside. A good next step is to walk. You’ll find that once you’re dressed to go and walking, exercise doesn’t seem like such a big stretch.
5. Hypnotize Yourself Using the Best Me Technique. Hypnosis is a state of intense concentration, when your mind is extremely receptive. The “Best Me Technique” is a form of hyperempiria, or suggestion-enhanced experience, which encourages you to pre-experience the accomplishment of a goal. See the video below for more insights as to how self-hypnosis can help you get motivated to exercise.
6. Trade weight for cash. A 2007 study showed that the more you pay people to lose weight, the more pounds they drop over a three-month period.[1] If there’s someone who keeps nagging you to lose weight, ask that person about paying you for every pound you lose. If your employer is self-insured, he or she might consider enlisting the services of a company that develops reward programs to encourage employees to lose weight.[2]
7. Get back on the horse. Have you not exercised for a week? A month? A year? A decade? Who cares? Don’t punish yourself. Don’t think about how hard it is to get fit. Live in the Moment. Do you want to get in shape? Then work out. Eventually, you’ll get momentum going, and you can fine-tune your routine. But that will come naturally, from feeling good about yourself and wanting to take better care of yourself. Until then, just establish in your brain that working it out is a choice, a fun choice.

Video

Interview with Debra Berndt, Clinical Hypnotherapist, on Denver’s ABC News on Saturday morning about how to motivate yourself to workout with self hypnosis.

Tips

• Have fun! For some people, this means exercising with a friend. For others, it means listening to a certain kind of music. Sometimes it means playing a game of football or soccer instead of using a machine. The biggest roadblock to working out is seeing it as “work”. So think of all the things you have no problem finding the motivation to do outside of work, and find a way to link them together. Do you love to read? Read while you ride a stationary bike. Do you love to dance? Take an aerobically intense dance class, like salsa or swing. Do you love to watch TV? Get a mini stepper to and use it during commercials. Or challenge yourself to do X push-ups or crunches before your favorite show comes back on.

Related wikiHows

• How to Cure Someday Syndrome
• How to Sustain Motivation when You’re Struggling
• How to Exercise While Sitting at Your Computer
• How to Do a Full Body Workout in Less Than 5 Minutes

Sources and Citations

1. ↑ Eric A. Finkelstein, Laura A. Linnan, Deborah F. Tate, Ben E. Birken. September 2007. A Pilot Study Testing the Effect of Different Levels of Financial Incentives on Weight Loss among Overweight Employees. Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 49(9):981-989.
2. ↑ An Economy of Scales: Paying People to Lose Weight Helps Drop Pounds and Health-Care Costs

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