How to stay motivated to work out

In most people the motivation to exercise does not come naturally. But saying "I don't have time", "I don't feel like it" or "I have other things to do" are not valid excuses, even if they seem so to you. If you don't have time now to take care of your health, you will have to find time later to deal with your illness, with your ailments and with the difficulties derived from lack of exercise and sedentary life.

The important thing is to love what we do. We know the benefits that exercise will bring us, so what better than to love it? Although it is true that not everyone likes the same type of sport. So, while some prefer to join a gym, others prefer to go for a walk. Any exercise is valid as long as we move our body and begin to love what makes us well.

3 strategies to motivate you to exercise

1. Don't think about it and get going

That it is necessary to exercise is clear. That it's hard for you to get into the routine is obvious, because otherwise you probably wouldn't be reading this. So don't think about it, don't make excuses, don't look for reasons, don't justify your decision. Just do it.

No matter how tired you are, no matter how cold it is, no matter how bad you look in your workout clothes, no matter how much your hair gets messed up from exercising, no matter how late or early it is, no matter how tired or sore you are. Just get going. And so on every day.

Plan it the day before, so that when the time comes you have to think as little as possible, just follow a set plan. You have many options for exercise, inside and outside the home, even at work. You can go to a gym, subscribe to one of the many on-line training platforms out there, look for videos on the Internet or follow a book.

One way or another, have your decisions made hours before going out: it's the best way to prevent laziness from creeping into your thoughts. Don't give it a chance, don't let it suggest that you're too tired or open up the possibility of procrastinating.

2. Visualize how you will be in the future without exercising.

Most people tell you the opposite: visualize how you would be after training for a few months to get closer to your goal. The problem is that many people don't care about that anymore, because they get stuck in conformity and the thought of effort and sacrifice already exhausts them.

So let's do it the other way around. Think about your current physical activity and your situation and how you will be in a few years. Look at yourself in five, ten, twenty years. Introduce yourself in seventy or eighty years (if you make it). Disappointing, isn't it? Weakness, obesity, disability, sadness, loneliness?

Visualizing ourselves in the future is an act of empathy towards ourselves. Trying to see ourselves in ten years and wishing ourselves to be healthy is an empathic work that can bring us great benefits. How will we be in ten years if we don't exercise at all? Many would probably look back and regret not having started to practice some kind of sport.

3. Think about how you will finish the next session

Instead of thinking long term, one of the main keys to motivating you to exercise is to take it one day at a time. So now think about the next session, but not about what it's going to take to get out of the house, or the laziness that pulls you to the couch. Think about how you'll feel when you're done.

Exercise releases an incredible amount of hormones that make you feel good. The most popular are endorphins, which make us feel euphoric when we finish exercising. These hormones are also a natural painkiller that reduces pain, anxiety and stress.

In addition, exercising also releases serotonin, a substance that influences mood, especially with outdoor exercise. In this sense, serotonin helps us to find calm, especially in states of anxiety and depression and also helps us to fall asleep. It also helps us to control our food intake, especially junk food.

Finally, it should be noted that exercise also releases dopamine, the hormone linked to addictions. Dopamine allows us to experience a sense of well-being after exercise, which creates a link between pleasure and activity that gets us hooked. This means that with exercise we do not need to resort to other less healthy sources of pleasure.