Creating the motivation to exercise takes more than just getting excited about reaching your goals or future results. As a matter of fact, lack of motivation is often due to the exerciser not seeing results soon enough and is largely responsible for those New Years exercise Resolutions gone awry. So how can you finally learn how to create exercise motivation that will get you through the training plateaus and persevere through life’s ups and downs?

A lot of experts resort to scare tactics, telling their clients that if they don’t exercise, they’ll end up getting sick and probably dieing soon enough. Others take a more subtle approach by asking their clients if they’d like to be around long enough to see their kids grow older. I’m not against scare tactics, as they are often true statements or based on questions that touch a chord in the human psyche.

One of my favorite exercise motivators is explaining all of the benefits they’ll receive by exercising regularly. Even better, the benefits go WAY beyond just healthy outcomes. I’m taking about beneficial spill over effects that will impact your career, all of your relationships; intimate, family, friends & professional, your mood, your outlook on life, how you deal with or overcome adversity, etc. 

Five years ago when my father was tragically murdered, at first, I didn’t want to live anymore. I couldn’t imagine living life without my best friend. I could have easily retreated from life and just taken it or could have gotten myself into big trouble with by resorting to plenty of other negative outlets.

Instead, I went toward what I knew would help balance me out emotionally. It was exercise! Exercise Absolutely Saved My Life! I know that’s a bold statement, but let me explain how it did. I was very angry and quite frankly, I wanted to hurt the people who hurt my dad. I knew that if I did something stupid, I would only end up hurting my family more. Exercise became my tool to help release much of that anger. I literally took a lot of anger out on the weights. I had hundreds of late night workouts, where I cried myself through each and every set and rep. This was my way of dealing with my pain and it was in and of itself my exercise motivator. I wanted to feel less pain and by the time each workout was over, I actually felt much better and less depressed. Now if that isn’t a great motivator to exercise, I don’t know what else would be.

I forced myself to get up every morning at 5:00 am to train. I knew that starting my day with exercise would only help me feel much better for the rest of the day. That motivated be to get up and get going. I also was privileged to have the help of some good friends who held me accountable to get to the gym on time and give it all I had.       

Exercise Motivators must be developed by first answering the “Why” you want to exercise in the first place. What’s in it for you? What are the real underlying benefits you’ll gain from exercising? Just like no one just wants to accumulate money – Money is nothing more than a piece of paper or a metal trinket. It’s the value that the money brings to you that you want. Exercise works very much the same way and is worth Much more than money is. Maybe the value that you get from exercise is paid to you with the release of powerful endorphins that improve your mood and make you feel happier. Maybe it’s the confidence you gain by knowing that the workout you just completed just added some extra time to your life and how 4 workouts each week will give you a very high probability for a much longer life to spend with your loved ones. Perhaps it’s the stress release that exercise afforded you, allowing you to be more resilient, helping you come up with solutions to problems that would have bogged you down in the past. The productivity that many exercisers experience can help you navigate your way around any obstacle. These are benefits that are common outcomes from people who partake in an exercise lifestyle. Those are powerful Exercise Motivators.

It’s not just about losing weight, it’s more about fitting in your clothes more comfortably, which will boost your confidence and turn what you thought would be a tough day into one of the best days of your life. It’s not just about looking better, it’s more about being treated with dignity and commanding great respect because people see that you take pride in yourself. These are the “Why’s”. Why do you really want to exercise? Do you want to look sexier, so that you can effortlessly attract the opposite sex? That’s a “Why”. Maybe you want to appear physically stronger, as it gives the impression of leadership qualities. Don’t you think an employer would admire someone who can lead? There are many more qualities that make someone a leader than just building a great looking body, but you’d be one or several steps ahead, as the initial attention will be on you! These are investments into yourself and they are more valuable than anything else you’ve ever worked on before.

When you work on yourself through exercise, to develop a strong physical and emotional foundation (they often go hand in hand), you’ll become stronger in every aspect of your life and you’ll be in a position to take better care of those who need help, those who need you!

Here is a list of Exercise Motivators that should inspire you to get moving!

• Knowing that you’ll be doing what most people won’t take the time to do – You don’t want to be like everyone else and conform. Take the road less traveled and experience a more enriched life.
• If you follow a pre-planned workout, you should expect to see results every couple of days – Not just emotional (feeling better) results, but positive visual changes in your body!
• Exercise actually makes you smarter! There is scientific research that proves this. Imagine how much more productive you’ll be, plus you’ll have the extra energy (also derived from daily exercise) to perform your best at work & play.
• Be a better friend, lover, parent and overall person. The majority of people who exercise, feel better about themselves and have a more positive outlook on life.
• The results you’ll achieve from your exercise program, including  increased confidence, improved mood, enhanced libido, less stress, more creativity & productivity, etc. will rub off on the people around you. You can become an Exercise Motivator of your own. That’s an empowering position to be in!
• You’ll help yourself to avoid many diseases associated with lack of exercise.
• Take control over those things that you still have control over. We are all going through some tough times in world right now and I’m afraid that it will get worse before it gets better. Invest in yourself by controlling your health. When you take control of your health through exercise, you will have much greater control over all aspects of your life, period!
• Exercise doesn’t only have to be about lifting weights or taking an exercise class. Find the fun and fitness and explore the options. Listen working out is just that, hard work. It’s not meant to be easy or not hurt (in a good way), but you can mix it up by working hard and playing hard. Type the words fun fitness into a search engine and see what pops up!
• Find a sport that you enjoy and workout to improve in that sport – That’s a great motivational reason to exercise. I play Racquetball and I have become a much better player as a result of my exercise routine.
• Train with your friends. There isn’t a much better way to build a strong bond with friends than by pushing and encouraging each other to improve yourselves.
• You’re bound to get more attention from everyone. This unfortunately can offend some people, as they’ll imply that you need to be fit to fit in. All I’m saying is that people take notice of people who are in shape. It may be a matter of the fact that there are far less people in shape than there are people out of shape.
• Exercise can bring you back to you. It’s easy to get lost in a world that needs so much of our attention. It’s high time that we take some time for ourselves and this will make you more capable of taking better care of the world.
• You’ll feel better.
• You’ll look better.
• You’ll perform in all activities better and with less effort.
• You’ll begin to appreciate things more.
• You’ll look back twenty years from now and thank me!

James Villepigue CSCS