Why is it so hard to stick to an exercise routine?

Have you ever started an exercise program, and then just…stopped?

Probably not, but most people have!

Whether its kicking off your new year with “resolutions”, or saying “I’ll start it next month”, lots of people start something, only to lose motivation and momentum shortly after. Despite most people knowing that exercise is extremely beneficial to us, only around half of us actually regularly do exercise! So why is this?

Well, for starters, a lot of people don’t know how much they should be exercising, and they lose focus as a result. The recommendation is for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. This amount is enough to improve your mental and physical health, and will help to prevent long-term, chronic illnesses.

From there, it can be due to a lack of motivation. Motivation seems like an obvious one – if we had the motivation to do it, we just would, right? Lots of people don’t really give any meaning to exercise, outside of it being something that they feel like they “need to do”. Something which can really help for this, is to give yourself more “reasons”. Find something that you enjoy so that it changes from being something you need to do, to something you enjoy and WANT to do. Find someone who you can train with so that you can keep each other accountable, or even better, find a local Personal Trainer who can help to motivate you! Check out my other blog on Finding The Best Personal Trainer for finding a local personal trainer that will help you to get the results you want!

One of the biggest things that helps to keep motivated though, is to have a proper goal in place to drive your exercise! Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to get stronger? Do you want to have a clearer understanding on your meal plan for the week? These are all very important things to consider for setting your goal, and will make a world of difference once you are clear on them (and they are also things which your trainer can help make very clear and easy for you!).  It is great to have both short term, and long term goals. You might want to lose 30kg, but you also need to consider that losing 5kg is a great first step to work towards. For some people, even setting a goal to just be doing something regularly is a great first step!

Once your goals are sorted, it is on to the biggest hurdle that most people have (though often self imposed and not real) is not having enough time, and losing interest because they think their routine isn’t achievable. There are a few simple ways around this. One, which I find is the best for the majority of people, is to set your alarm 20 minutes earlier in the morning. That will give you more than enough extra time to do some sort of exercise. And if you don’t, you have an extra 20 minutes to prepare for your day! The second, and this one is usually just as achievable, is to watch just an hour less TV each week. Once you start reducing that, you will realize how much extra time you suddenly have! If you have any shops that are within walking distance, also consider walking to them rather than driving for small pickups!

Seeing a trainer is another thing that really helps for this. Not only will you get the most efficient use of the limited time that you have, but it will also help to build into your routine and make it a part of what you set out to do each day! Doing any sort of incidental walking or light exercise across the day also helps!

The last thing on the list is possibly the one that causes most people to fail, and it’s the “fear of failing again”. Lots of people have tried to become healthier in the past, but for one reason or another, it didn’t work out. This sits on anyone’s mind whenever they try to start again, and the moment something starts going wrong, it can creep further in, with the thoughts of “I knew it wasn’t going to work” and such. Having a positive mindset around this is massive, because the moment you start thinking you won’t be able to succeed, well… you are right. Being positive and working forwards is the only way this will work, and, like I have said a few times already, is something that seeing a personal trainer can help with immensely.

As soon as people start seeing the results they wanted, it suddenly makes sticking to exercise so much easier! Those first few kilos are often the hardest, but once they happen, the mindset shift makes the rest so much easier! To help make things even easier for you, and to reduce the “fear of failing”, we offer a results guarantee: get the result you want, or train for free until you do! So if you live in the Bowen Hills area or surrounding suburbs, reach out to us today to see how we can get you the results you want!