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Whether your workout routine has been derailed by a birthday, holiday, or other temptation, or you’ve always struggled with consistency, there is hope! Through careful planning and the use of scientifically proven strategies, you can get right back on track (and stay on it!) towards long-term success for achieving your health and fitness goals. Here are 5 strategies to start boosting your workout motivation today.
5 Proven Strategies for Workout Motivation
1. Link Up with an Accountability Partner
This might go without saying, but obviously, our likelihood of following through with a commitment is higher when we’re held accountable. If you often back out at the last minute or can’t find a way to stay motivated to workout regularly, find a fitness friend or partner that you can link your workout up with so you can hold each other accountable.
With this strategy, if your workout motivation is super low, the desire to uphold your commitment and not let your accountability partner down should provide the value and motivation that you need to follow-through with it.
2. Visualize the Benefits
This one is my favorite. We often forget why we choose to do things. But visualizing the benefits can be incredibly motivating. What do you want to achieve? What drives you? Remember those things however you can and visualize achieving it and what that looks like.
A vision board can be instrumental for this strategy, but you can also put sticky notes or pictures on your fridge, reminders in your phone, a picture or note on your bathroom mirror - anywhere that you’ll see it often and be reminded of your end goals.
3. Sign a Commitment Contract
There’s often no better way to hold yourself accountable to a commitment than to proclaim it publicly and/or set monetary consequences to it! This may sound aggressive, but when we announce that we’re committing to something, our likelihood of living up to our word, for fear of embarrassment or judgement otherwise, is higher.
Also, setting a self-contract that increases the cost of our decisions, literally, will also strengthen our workout motivation. Just think - if you commit to penalizing your weekend spending budget by $10 every time you miss a weekday workout, you’ll be much more enticed to stick with it!
4. Set Extrinsic Rewards
This is a classic workout motivation strategy. You want that extra hour of binging netflix? Or that deliciously indulgent smoothie? Then you better workout. Setting extrinsic rewards - external things that we want or love - in exchange for completing a workout routine can be a healthy and fun way of maintaining balance while working towards your goals.
Often, we associate workout routines with having to completely give up some of the things we love. But this isn’t true. There’s room for these things. And working for them versus just taking them will not only help you reach your long-term goals, but it will also make these things taste, feel, and seem even better.
5. Find Your Fitness Tribe
When we’re part of a group, we perform better. It’s a studied fact about us humans. No matter how many extrinsic rewards we set or how detailed our vision board is, nothing replaces the post-workout high-fives, the ‘great jobs’, or the sense of community and shared experience that results from finding your fitness tribe.
Having a regular routine with like-minded people who can help keep you connected and encouraged can be tremendous for keeping your workout motivation strong and long-lasting. If you don’t have a tribe yet, start building one! Odds are there are others like you at your gym, studio, or neighborhood who also need a tribe.
Strategies for Workout Success & Beyond
We’re talking about strategies for nurturing a strong and long-lasting sense of workout motivation, but ultimately, these strategies can be applied to many areas of our lives. Maybe it’s our workout motivation that needs a boost, but maybe it’s also our diet, our relationships, or our career.
Whatever area of your life needs a lane-switch, try applying these motivational strategies. Ultimately, everything is connected, so if something else in our life is off-balance, re-tracking just one aspect, including your workout routine, may be more difficult than it should be.
***Do you have any tips or strategies that you use? Share them in the comments! I’d love to hear how you keep your workout motivation strong!