How to motivate yourself to do sports?

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Camilla Nigmatullina

Fitness beginner.

The most effective motivation is when you enjoy the process or the result. But in the gym, the coach usually makes you suffer, and at home there are a lot of distractions and self-pity. ("I have sore knees") usually leads to insufficient exercise (and therefore poor results).

If there is no strong inner desire to be healthy, athletic and strong, then you have to manipulate yourself a little. More precisely, in this case, you may have a desire, but the process itself does not inspire.

How to get more pleasure from the process?

Think about what makes you happy besides the workout itself. If we are talking about a gym, then it can be a beautiful form for classes, new acquaintances or old friends with whom you train together and communicate after class, a charming trainer, spa treatments or just a sauna in the shower, in which it is so pleasant to warm up, especially in winter, a delicious protein shake, which is sold at the bar club.

If this is home workouts, then you can involve household members for the company, shoot each other on video and post to Instagram to impress friends, make delicious smoothies as rewards, and have homework spa treatments. When your brain begins to associate training with pleasant bonuses, your legs will be more fun to run towards the club or home rug.

How to enjoy the result?

First, to clearly imagine it - in quantitative terms. It is difficult to motivate yourself to train if your goal is to be in shape. Excitement wakes up if you say to yourself: "In a month I want to learn to stand on my hands" or "In a year I want to pull up on the horizontal bar 10 times."

Secondly, choose a role model for yourself - who you want to be like and in what. For example, you stumbled upon the account of a blogger coach who started playing sports at 35, and now at 40 looks 25.

Thirdly, just often look at yourself in the mirror in your underwear, but rather take photos and compare yourself with yourself once a month - usually this is either sobering or very inspiring. Once you realize that you are happy with a photo taken in the fitting room of a swimwear store, you will want to consolidate the result. I know people who get inspired even more pragmatically: they participate in club competitions and win free months of attendance.

Finally, remember that any habit takes time to form. This means that if you regularly practice for at least a month, then continue out of habit, according to the dynamic stereotype: "And on Saturdays I always have a pool."