5 Simple Ways To Motivate Yourself To Exercise

It is not easy to get yourself to the gym – specially this time of year. It’s cold and dark when you leave work and all you want to do is sit on your couch and eat. I know! I used to be the same way. But once I got my priorities straight and knew that exercising is not something you do (it’s something you need), I got right on track. Here are 5 helpful tips that will get you motivated to exercise and stay on course.

1. Health Reasons

This is the first and most important reason you need to be working out! It doesn’t matter how old you are, health problems can arise at any time. Whether you walk around the block a few times or get on the stationary bike, anything you can do to get your heart rate up and blood pumping is great for your health and will lower your risk for problems such as heart disease. Exercising adds years to your life and luckily (especially these days) a lot more people are concerned with being healthy and living a better quality of life! Just a walk outside after or before work will motivate you thanks to all the people in gym clothes either coming from/going to their fitness club of choice.

2. Stress Relief

What better way to deal with your stressful day at work and sitting in rush hour traffic than to sweat it out! The longer you go without exercise, the more stressed out you will be. Not working out turns into a vicious cycle of bad habits which can lead to other health problems. No one needs that. Studies show that the treatment for stress and anxiety are not prescribed by doctors: it’s simply exercise. Stress goes down, adrenaline and endorphines go up leaving you feeling great after a workout.

3. Put Excuses Aside

You will get no where if you keep letting yourself make excuses. Give yourself a reward instead and if you make it to the gym a certain amount of days, lend yourself a treat. People who have jobs, families and other things going on make time for exercise all the time. You just have to make working out a priority instead of a chore.

4. Find a Positive Motivator

It can be really hard to motivate yourself and we all have those friends or family members who are always going to the gym. Ask them to be your motivator, try to work out whenever they do. It is much easier to work out with a partner, or group of people, than it is to do it alone. You can always cancel a work out with yourself but it is harder to cancel when someone else is involved. Plus, it’s nice to have someone there rooting you on!

5. The 5-Minute Trick

According to the Huffington Post, this trick can motivate you to do anything! Essentially all you need to do is trick your brain and tell yourself you are only going to do whatever you’re about to do for only 5 minutes. This goes for exercise, cleaning the house, doing laundry, or other chores we don’t love to do. What will happen is that when 5 minutes comes along you realize it is really not as bad as you thought and you’ll want to keep going. So simple yet so smart.

What do you do to motivate yourself to get to the gym?

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