How do you keep motivated to continue working out?

[CalebRockeT]

Same exact thing here. 8 hour sitting job, and then an hour to get back home. By the time I get home, I hate the whole world and myself. But I guess that's besides the point. Gotta push through somehow.

I've been struggling with exactly this sort of thing since late January. It's only gotten more difficult, since work has grown increasingly stressful and the hours have been creeping up in recent weeks. Some days I'm fine and I can eat to plan and maybe even get some exercise in. Other days I feel overwhelmed, generally angry and without hope, so I'll binge on junk food to the tune of a couple to several thousand calories. My mindset is garbage. Meh.

 

[snoopy7548]

I've been struggling with exactly this sort of thing since late January. It's only gotten more difficult, since work has grown increasingly stressful and the hours have been creeping up in recent weeks. Some days I'm fine and I can eat to plan and maybe even get some exercise in. Other days I feel overwhelmed, generally angry and without hope, so I'll binge on junk food to the tune of a couple to several thousand calories. My mindset is garbage. Meh.

You should talk to someone about that if you haven't already. You could be headed for a breakdown.

 

[swati kulkarni]

By listening you problem, I can understand your issue as it was the same case with me. But gradually, I changed. I explained to myself that it happens in the earlier stage, but later on you can improve it. Focus on your health and just throw away or don't pay much attention to your laziness part. Gradually, you will stick to gym and can make your body fit.

 

[ibex333]

I am planning to start that thing someone mentioned earlier with the calendar, and not breaking the chain by marking red X for each day I did a workout. I'll start small with some pushups and an exercise bike and see from there. Will update my progress as I go.

 

[Trudyblammer]

The mirror is my motivation

 

[BarneyBunch]

IMO, working out the body is super important but what about woring out your brain? The two (body and brain) are connected. When I work out I'm calmer. I feel better and i'm more confident because I stuck to my goal. Now, add a 5m meditation session and I feel amazing. I'm present, and more focused. So many benefits when you add the two: working out and meditation.

Oh I definitely agree. Combining meditation and working out is extremely beneficial for one's health. I used to meditate quite a lot and thought it was really helpful, but since starting my job I have seemed to stop. I'm going to start adding meditations to my daily routine to see if that helps my motivation for working out and overall health.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

You lost me at work, it is a bad 4 letter word. I would never stick with it if it was work. It has to be play/enjoyment as a few others have mentioned. The only thing I do I don't enjoy is strength training. I enjoy it sometimes, but mostly it sux. It is the best base upon which to build all the other athletic endeavors though, so I grin and bear it.

 

[OverVolt]

You're doing the gym wrong. Life heavy ass weight.

When your body burns 2 ATP anaerobically and creates that lactic acid burn, it takes an additional 6 ATP to put the lactic acid back together into a glucose molecule. Its called the cori cycle.

FYI after about a month the soreness stops impeding your own body weight movements because they are so relatively light.

You can hit the gym VERY hard and burn out large compound muscle groups. Like squats and bench press to failure. Then dumbbell flys to failure. Drop dumbbell weight 5-10 lbs. Do until failure again. You can anaerobically burn 400 calories that way. You will be a literal furnace the following 24-hours as your liver alone consumes 1,200 calories. Probably another 400 calories of protein will be absorbed into your muscles instead.

I was on the treadmill for 15 minutes and burned 100 calories. Screw that. You can burn 1,600 in 2 hrs lifting weights. Of that 2 hours... like 1.5 hours of it is sitting on your phone between sets anyway or something.

 

[snoopy7548]

Weak. I burn 350 calories just by using the elliptical for 20 minutes.

 

[Ackmed]

That's cool. My wife does the elliptical too.

 

[RPD]

Maybe try throwing some weights, set some lifting goals and try to hit them? Working out with a friend can help as you can talk between sets as if you were normally hanging out.

 

[Muse]

I have a lot of lists, but my work out is not on them. I don't need a reminder to work out. It's the one thing I will not abandon no matter what. I show up at the gym and it's sustained me.

 

[Ackmed]

Little older pics, but like I said, I keep motivated by working out with my wife. We don't do everything together, but a fair amount. We flirt, talk about the day, etc. Its a date for us since we have so many kids and don't get that many.

And I like looking at her doing certain exercises Like the song says, fat bottomed girls you make the rockin' make the world go round.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I value consistency over intensity. On any given day I'm always willing to make my workout as easy as I need it to be to get through it. The main thing is that I get myself into the gym and do it. I never really dread a workout because I know in the back of my mind that I'm not going to do more than I feel like doing. It never feels grueling because I don't let it. If I ever start to get that feeling I dial back the reps or weight until it isn't any more.

It turns out that for me at least, dreading every workout because I have set the unreasonable requirement that I MUST increase the intensity every single time is the recipe for burnout. You just keep pushing the weights and reps up and up, and the workouts get more and more grueling, and in turn you dread them more and more until you just quit. The way to stay in it long term is to avoid that feeling.

You might think that you won't see any progress doing that, but that's not true. I still lift heavy (for me) weights. I still slowly inch the weight and reps higher as I get more capable and more willing to do it. I've seen slow and steady progress on all my lifts over the last 3-4 years. The main difference is that if I'm not feeling a workout, I just dial it back to maintenance levels so that if nothing else I don't lose anything with that workout. Instead of trying to bench 305 for a few reps I might go back to 225 and do 4 sets of 10-12. Instead of trying to row 235 for 6-8 I might row 185 for 8-10. It's still a workout, but one that's considerably less daunting to me, and if I come to the gym in a better mood next week I can still attempt heavier weights because my muscle won't have detrained. You have to listen to your body and mind and do what you have to do to keep them engaged.

The main takeaway is that there is no point in trying to rush to the finish line because there is no finish line. At no point are you going to be able to say "welp, I hit my goal weight and muscularity. I can quit working out now". Unless you're specifically looking for a very transient state of fitness, you're going to be in this for the long haul. Might as well treat it that way.