Kent Sport health and fitness instructor Sarah Black offers some advice about staying motivated as the year progresses.
Am I the only one lacking motivation right now or do I have a group of fellow lagging friends that simply can’t find the determination they started with in January?
February, I feel, is always a hard month to get through without experiencing some mental/physical obstacle along the way. We put so much energy and effort into January that when the second month arrives we feel apathetic toward anything remotely healthy or energetic. Programmes turn into coasters on our dining table or gather dust in the gym. The excuses of time and availability seem to increase, questioning how we even managed to get started in the first place.
So how should we eradicate this destructive nature? Pack it up and use the gym bag as a bag for life saving us 5p at the shops? Or do we rise up to the mental challenge set upon us and change direction? I am going with the second option, as I have enough bags in my car boot for now, so here is my advice.
Set the Start – Frequency
Regularity will form habits and routines; what the mind and body is requiring at this time. Calendar in at least three visits a week. Guidelines state that 5 times a week of general activity at a low intensity e.g. vacuuming or washing the car for 60 minutes is required to achieve good health and wellbeing. If you want to achieve other goals such as weight loss/muscle gains/cardiovascular fitness, then 30 minutes of vigorous intensity 3 times a week is required. This would be classified as gym workouts that heighten the heart rate into different zones of exertion.
Sweat it out – Intensity
If you are the type of exerciser that experiences alarm and horror when they feel a sweat breaking out, then take the gym bag shopping and save yourself the 5p. We need to put in the effort to reap the results. Spending 2 hours running could burn you the same amount of calories as 20 minutes sprinting. Depending on your goals, establish the best type of exercise and decide on the volume and load. Then you will know that your time spent exercising is worthwhile and meaningful.
Tick tock goes the clock – Time
24 hours in a day, call it 16 left after our sleep is deducted; so minus one hour dedicated to your exercise, leaves you 15 hours to do whatever other duties you have planned. Analyse it that way and the excuses might start to feel inadequate or non existant. You do not need to spend hours slogging away on the treadmill, hopefully with all the tips in this article you will be clued up enough to decipher what to do with the scheduled time in your training plans. Time and effort needs to suit different goals and work alongside your desires and motives. For example if you want to run a marathon, time spent training will be incomparable to wanting to achieve a full press up?
Keep it specific – Type
The type of exercise you choose needs to tie in to the objectives of your mission. When we lack motivation the reason often lies behind lack of progression or achievement. Conclude your decision for training and then establish your programme to ensure that you target the type of exercise that will lead you towards gaining the end results. Having a goal that you can measure is always advisable. When a member says to me,” I want to get fit and healthy.” I reply, “ Define fit, define healthy?” Do you want to be fit enough to walk up the stairs without panting? Do you want to be healthy enough to see a difference in the complexity of your skin or mood? These resolutions are measurable and at least that way we can see if we need to adapt, changing the path towards reaching them, or if we are right on target? Endless ploughing with no goal in mind, is one way to snowball downhill.
It’s enlightening to query yourself at times and evaluate your choices and ponder your decisions. I find this illuminative approach will often steer your path back onto solid ground and often change your reasons for the better, uplifting your mood provide a fresh approach.
Hopefully we can get through the next few months following a more positive note. Often when we lack enthusiasm the only avenue is correcting your behaviour to avoid stagnation. It happens to everyone so do not lay victim to your own collapse and breakdown. Drive back with fight or flight. Fight being the assessment of your wellbeing, flight being the spectator to your recession.
Here are some cliché quotes that I feel are adequate at this time of reasoning that will hopefully put the success back into your schedule.
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.
Henry Ford
Go for it now, the future is promised to no one.
Wayne Dyer
Don’t watch the clock, do what it does, keep going.
Sam Levenson