I’ve just recently become more consistent in working out (from once ever few months to now at least once a week.) What are some tips to stay motivated and how do you stay consistent?
if you want to gain size ? you should go for at least 3 to 4 times a week at least and bulk if you’re underweight like I was (if youre already overweight then the need to bulk is practically completely negated). If you’re just trying stay kinda fit ? then keep on doing what youre doing.
Also I find that multivitamins help cause apparently you use up all your chromium and other nutrients when you engage in strenuous activity often https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/chromium/ (they have articles talking about their research on all other nutrients that we know of so you can check those out too)
Dont be afraid to use what you see or want to see in the mirror as motivation . Ive been using it for the last 5 years and it certainly motivates me. Also some people here said to use discipline as your main reason to go to workout , that might work for you or other people , I guess I can say it works for me too. I know that if I dont practice doing the splits at least 5 miuntes a week, every week for the next year or two years, as FlexyDave said, then I wont be able to do the splits ever. So I have to be disciplined to just do all the stretching each week , no matter if I see or am motivated by results or not. Same thing with when I was learning the frog stand I saw no improvement in the first few weeks of trying it but I kept at it and I can now hold it for like 20 seconds with little rocking. Maybe accountability from a training partner or a personal trainer or a training group will work for you. Different things work for different people when it comes to what spurs a person on to remain fit is what I am trying to say.
When I got a trainer, I started to exercise regularly. Accountability helps!
Make it a habit so you don’t need motivation. Set a schedule and stick to it for a month and you’re set.
Yeah I tried to find motivation as well, but true to form after working out for two months straight now I feel like I missed out if I don’t
You should make it just something you do at a certain time. I needed to wake up, drink half a liter of water and be out the door before i had time to think of excuses. After a while it becomes automatic.
Everyone is different when it comes to motivation, but here’s how I deal with it. I stay excited (most of the time) to get in the gym and see the progress I made from last time. Say last week I curled 50 for 8-7-7, can I get 9-9-9? Let’s to see! I’d do the same for cardio if I did any proper cardio lol
If it helps the OP, in my case to stay motivated, it must not be an overly repetitive or mentaly straining task.
Focusing more on walking/jogging since I’m focusing on weight loss, not building muscles just yet:
In a gym I’m always walking/jogging “on the same path”, seeing the same things. Meanwhile, doing so around my neighborhood, I can pick different paths, focus on different things, change pace without harming the activity.
Plus being a bit of a shut-in, gyms often have more people than I can handle without stress kicking in. In my neighborhood, I know where and when there’s more people so I can avoid.
For building muscles, still figuring that out since the usual method involves a lot of repetition in a place too dense with people.
But once I go back to focusing on that, what I think I could end up doing is something like marcenary, since that from what I’ve seen it seems to require some effort while having a more immediate objective which could help with motivation.
Also a bit of self-shaming with obsession in my own weight, measuring it every 1~2 days, is helping, I think. It’s not making me avoid to eat, but it helps give a boost in motivation to exercise whenever I see the numbers tick slightly up.
As malta said, don’t use motivation. In my experience and observation, motivation never lasts. If you let yourself need to feel motivated in order to work out, it will be very hard to lace up your shoes.
Discipline is a choice and it’s hard, but much more dependable than motivation
You are right.
Workout partner. The days you feel like slacking off will be when the partner coerces you to stick to it, and vice versa
Not with motivation, that thing is rather fleeting and unstable. Though not only forcing it with discipline, that’s a rather limited resource as well.
Basically using as little discipline as possible to slowly form a habit.
So now you’re going at least once a week, good work. Keep it going until it becomes a habit, few weeks to months. Once that has become a habit, add in another day and repeat the habit forming process.
It took me nearly a year to go from once a week to 5 times a week and by now during winter i can add in cardio sessions as well and up the frequency easily to 7 days a week.
