How to get motivated for a workout?

You'll learn about how to get motivated for a workout, whether you decide to work out at 7 am or 7 pm after a very long day at work. The time you decide to go for that run doesn't matter. What matters is that you stay motivated to workout. Here, you'll discover 10 ways to maintain motivation for fitness.

1. Create a Set Time For Your Workout

Is the only free spot in your schedule is when the kids go to bed? Give yourself thirty minutes on the exercise bike. Or go for a walk around the block with your family after dinner if your schedule is full from sun up to sundown. Whatever your favorite form of fitness, set up a time to work out and stick to it. Enlist your partner, kids, or a friend if you need additional accountability. Whatever you need to do to get yourself moving at your appointed time, do it.

2. Insert Some Variety Into Your Workouts

If you can endure six straight months of power yoga, do that. But most people need to inject at least some variety into their fitness routines. For example, mix up those power yoga sessions with pilates, weight training, jogging, or any other forms of physical activity.

It's also important to have fun as you workout. Some people like to have their favorite dance songs playing as they do sweaty cardio. Others like to occasionally change the location of their runs, workout to exercise videos with friends or family members, or even just dance to one of their favorite songs as they go about their day in their home. To stay motivated to exercise, it's important to engage in those fitness activities that you find engaging and fun.

3. Have a Goal

Do you want to run in your first marathon in a year? Maybe you want to lose 50 pounds. Or perhaps you just want to have more energy to run around with your children while they are still young. No matter why you're starting a fitness routine, having a goal and working towards it is a great way to stay motivated to workout.

You can set a daily goal such as doing ten pushups before you go to bed. Setting weekly goals might seem easier for those who are brand new to exercise. For example, you might decide that you would like to go for a morning run 3 times a week. Those who work at an office building could even set hourly goals. An example of an hourly exercise goal could be someone deciding to take a walk around the building every 60 minutes. Setting more than one fitness goal (but not too many) can help with motivation as you make progress.

4. Be Flexible

While it's important to create fitness goals, you also have to refrain from being too rigid. You might want to do 45 minutes on your exercise bike. But you also had a full day of work, made dinner for the family, and had additional work to do for your job after everyone is in bed. It's understandable that you don't want to subject yourself to 45 minutes of sweaty cardio after all that.

When going on any fitness journey, it's important to forgive yourself. You're not going to "kill it" every day. Life gets in the way too often for that. If you fall off the wagon by missing one day at the gym, don't miss three additional days. Get back to the gym the very next day. Put on your workout clothes and get to your workout as soon as possible.

5. What Is Your Why?

To stay motivated to exercise, it's important to figure out your intrinsic motivation. Why do you want to go to the gym? Why do you want to lose weight or have more energy or get those muscles?

What exactly is intrinsic motivation? When someone is intrinsically motivated, their motivation is coming from within themselves. One example could involve a mother of young children who wants to lose weight so that she can run around with her young children. This is intrinsic motivation.

Someone who is extrinsically motivated might want to lose weight so that potential dating partners could find them attractive. With extrinsic motivation, the motivation is coming from what other people might think of them. Another example of extrinsic motivation in regards to fitness could involve weight loss contents. If a person only embarks on a weight loss journey so that they can give themselves the chance to win $1,000, that's extrinsic motivation.

Studies show that people who have intrinsic motivation are more likely to meet their fitness goals than those who are extrinsically motivated.

6. Be Disciplined

To stay motivated at the gym on a daily basis is difficult. For this reason, discipline is key. Think about how you will feel after your workout. Will you feel accomplished? Energized? Relaxed? Think about the good feelings to come when you're feeling less than raring to go for leg day.

7. Don't Set Up Long Workouts for Yourself

If you're new to working out, don't set out to have three-hour gym sessions. That's the quickest way to burn out. Researchers have even found that short but intense workouts can be just as effective as longer sessions in the gym. So whether someone is working out at the gym for an hour or another person is having a brisk run-walk around their block, it's just important to have discipline and show up.

8. Try Out a Fitness Tracker

Many researchers talk today about how adults take a lot less than the recommended 10,000 steps a day. The right fitness tracker can help with that. One can easily see how they can increase their heart rate by doing everyday activities such as making their walk brisker, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or even deciding to take more walks in the first place.

Fitness trackers can even help users stay motivated to workout. For example, if one sees on their tracker that their daily steps are low, they can look for a cardio video on YouTube and get in those missing steps. With a fitness tracker, staying motivated to move can become a lot easier.

9. Work With a Personal Trainer Once in a While

A personal trainer is not only a fitness professional who knows about weight loss methods, tips for proper gym equipment usage, and the right form for different exercises. They also can serve as an accountability partner if you can't find one in a friend or family member. Personal trainers are even better accountability partners because they are not only health and fitness experts, their job is to help their clients with their expertise. So if you want a gym partner that will always be there at 6 am sharp, get a personal trainer.

10. Make Fitness a High Priority

No one will meet their fitness goals if they don't make said goals a priority in their lives. While a person could write down their fitness goals and look at them several times a day, if they put Netflix binges, naps, and random free time to do nothing ahead of losing weight or going to the gym, nothing will happen.

Anyone can say that they want to run a marathon or go to the gym five times a week. But most people won't go for a run after 10 hours of staring at a computer screen. Only a special few will drive straight to the gym after a heinous two-hour commute each way. To stay motivated to workout, make working out a high priority.

To stay motivated to workout every day, create goals but remain flexible, become intrinsically motivated as opposed to extrinsically motivated, and make fitness a high priority in your life. By doing all of this, you're improving your life in ways that extend beyond fitness.