5 Best Tips to Get Your Workout Done

As a personal trainer, I consider it my responsibility to practice what I preach, but sometimes it can be really hard to stay motivated.

Sometimes we just don’t feel like working out. Other times, it’s too cold to go outside … we’re tired … we don’t have time … the list of excuses is limitless.

So how do you motivate yourself to work out, whether you feel like it or not?

There are many suggestions, but these are the TOP 5 MOTIVATORS:

1. Get an accountability partner - This doesn’t have to be the same person all the time, but it does have to be someone you can count on to show up for you and who also expects you to show up when you say you will. It can also be a class that you commit to showing up for.

   I really don’t like getting into the pool on a cold night, but when I’m picking up my mother or meeting my sister at the gym, I have to show up.

2. Schedule yourself - We show up for everyone else when we make commitments. If we commit to ourselves and schedule the time, let yourself show up!

3. Remember the feeling of being done - Often when we think about skipping our workout, we forget how good we feel when we finish working out. Instead, we focus on some of the uncomfortable parts and talk ourselves out of getting started. Flip that thought in your brain and you’ll always be happy that you did.

4. Get your clothes ready in advance - The less you have to think about working out, the better. You have a time scheduled, now have your clothes ready so there’s no thinking. You just do it, to use Nike’s brilliant tag line.

5. Make it easy (and fun if possible) - The hardest part of any workout is getting started. Commit to doing something easy and then do more if you feel like it. If you don’t feel like it, then be happy you got a workout in and move on. It doesn’t have to be hard.

Action Steps:

1. Think about what gets in your way when you don’t quite get to your workout.

2. Which of the tips above might be most useful to commit to?

3. Consider embracing one or more of the tips above to move more this week (and the next!).