How to start loving to work out?
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Many of us want to start working out. It is one of our major fitness goals, but wanting to start working out, and actually making yourself love working out are two very different things.
Every new year people join the gym with high hopes in their fitness goals, but it has been found that more than 90% of the people quit their gym membership right after 3 months.
Have you been guilty of this too? (I have)
Do you fear you might not be consistent in exercising so you don’t even care to start exercising? I have heard many people say so.
You might think you are too lazy, but it is actually not so. Let me share my simple understanding on why we quit working out.
Why we quit working out
Well, the main reason we quit working out is because we don’t enjoy working out.
We see working out as a big hard task, and as a form of punishment to our bodies, especially when we are starting.
So, the main question is,
- How can you be consistent in working out when you hate exercise?
- How can you have the motivation to workout if you just don’t enjoy working out?
The answer is, you can’t.
And even if you do, it won’t sustain long enough. (Reason why people quit after 3 months)
So how do you learn how to love working out?
In this post I share about this- how I made myself love working out, and how exercise is now a core of my daily morning routine
I hope my experience will help you to be consistent in exercising too and start your fitness journey this year.
How I made myself love working out
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1. I started with easy workouts
When I first started working out, that was back in 2013. I started only with easy workouts.
I started with extremely basic exercises like moving my arms, my hips, and legs and nothing much.
The majority of us- where we go wrong is when we start something new, we are highly optimistic and over-estimate ourselves.
As much as its good to be optimistic for a fresh start, you also need to be a little realistic, and make new habits sustainable for long.
And the only way to sustain and stick to your workout routine is first make the new habit (In this case, Exercise) really easy.
This is essential so that there is no fear or hesitation crept in you about working out the next day.
2. I stopped expecting perfection
After I started exercising, soon the perfectionist in me came up, and I expected to do hard exercises right away and expected progress too soon.
‘When will I be able to do the perfect pushup? When will I be able to do the perfect lunges’?
All this, and the result?
I stopped working out after sometime and it was a continuous on and off relationship with my workout routine until I realised that I needed to stop expecting perfection.
When I stopped expecting perfection, that’s when I took things slow, and actually started to enjoy working out.
I allowed myself to improve at my own pace and I began to love working out.
3. I focused only on moving my body
The reason why we fear or hate working out so much is because we think, ‘Either work out hard or don’t work out at all’.
But this is so wrong.
Exercise simply to move your body.
You might think it doesn’t make a difference, but most of us don’t even have the basic physical movement of raising an arm or moving our hips in our day to day life.
Once I decided to only focus on moving my body, it became more easier to make exercise turn into my habit.
As I did more body movements, I came to know that just simple body movements are also effective in improving our overall wellbeing and freshening up my mood.
Slowly I started to love working out and increase the level of my workouts.
4. I expected myself to get off track
After getting on track and off track a hundred times with my workout routine, and being discouraged about it, I found a solution.
And the solution was, I started to expect myself to get off track.
Surprisingly, when I expected myself to get off track, it actually helped me get off track for a much lesser time than I used to.
This was because my mindset became, ‘Okay this was expected. Sometime or the other again I knew I would miss a workout and not feel like working out again, but I won’t let it discourage me, because I knew this would happen. I will get back to it again’.
This understanding with my lazy self actually helped me be active and workout again.
5. I only focused on showing up for workout
The reason why we hate working out so much or dread working out is because we make it hard. And who likes to do hard things? No one.
We all hate doing hard things and you are not at fault.
We tend to think, ‘work out for 1 hour or don’t, work out with equipments or not at all.’ So we scare ourselves out from working out just by the thought of it.
What you need to do actually is first only focus only on showing up if you want to turn it into a habit.
So what I did was just keep my workout clothes ready and change into it after waking up in the morning. This way before the resistance came in, I would be working out instead.
And it turns out that once you show up, actually doing the thing is hardly a challenge.
Sometimes when I don’t feel like working out, I just say, ‘I will just put on my workout clothes’.
Then once I do, I put out my yoga mat and start exercising. Once I finish, I am actually glad that I did.
So if you want to learn to love workouts, first simply focus on showing up.
Just say to yourself, ‘I will go to the gym to 5 minutes’.
And even if you actually stay there for 5 minutes and come back, its still great. You actually showed up!
Slowly you will be there for a longer time and you will start loving it.
6. I started working out to love my body
I started to enjoy working out once I started to work out as a form of self love practice to my body.
Earlier it used to be so that I started to exercise to gain body mass. (Yes, it was different for me, since I was extremely skinny!)
Later I just stopped working out for any other reason other than just wanting to workout because I loved my body.
Please remember that you shouldn’t ever start working out because you want to lose weight, or hate your body.
It may be your goal to lose weight, but don’t give it focus. Instead workout because you love your body and want your body’s best.
Once you change the perspective, you will actually start loving and enjoying working out, because you no longer take it as a big hard chore.
And when you do this, you will automatically reach your body goals as well.
7. I only do exercises which are fun
I had joined a gym one time, and I enjoyed working out in the gym a lot, but after some time I didn’t like the fact that it wasn’t flexible.
Now since my main motive for exercise has shifted from working out to gain weight or lose weight, and only focus on moving my body, I work out at home.
I have specific workout areas for specific days like Monday is for legs/ booty, Tuesday for arms and so on, but I do exercises which are fun.
Currently I am loving Pamela Reif’s Dance workout and I’m using her app, ‘Pam Fitness and food’.
She has great workouts which are just 10 minutes long ranging from easy to hard which includes good music so I don’t have to keep on searching for the right workout song.
If you are need of some workout songs, here you can find all of her workout songs! I simply love her for making fitness doable and enjoyable for all!
8. I buy good workout clothes
Another thing which has indirectly made me love workouts is buying workout clothes.
Earlier I used to exercise wearing my usual house clothe, but now I buy good workout clothes and wearing them makes me feel good so motivated to workout!
9. I kept up until the good feeling came
Lastly, I made myself love working out because I simply stuck with it till the good feeling came.
I kept showing up, did easy workouts in the beginning, came back to exercise even after missing few workouts, and simply did not stop the habit.
Overtime the good feeling from exercise kicked in, and now it is my main reason what motivates me to workout, and why I love working out.
I have written more about this in my post, ‘3 tricks to build long lasting self discipline’.
Final thoughts on how to enjoy working out
So these were the ways I came to love working out.
If you feel now that you hate exercising, simply don’t believe in what your mind says.
Instead give your body a chance to make you feel good. Trust me, it will elevate you to higher levels.
Your body is there as the biggest source of motivation for you, and once you start loving working out, you will actually find it to be true from your own experience.
I hope you do and start your fitness journey, this time by:
- Starting with easy workouts
- Not expecting perfection
- Focusing only on moving your body
- Expecting yourself to get off-track
- Only focusing on showing up for workout
- Working out as a form of showing love to your body
- Doing exercises which are fun
- Buying good workout clothes
- Keeping up until the good feeling comes
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Related posts
- Why we fail to stick to good habits
- Why focus on quantity, not quality
- Why you must be okay with wasting time
- How to stop being a procrastinator
- Tips on how to get back on track quickly
Thank you!
Wish you a wonderful day!
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