Cold (in Canberra) and in need of motivation

becajb

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone has developed exercise techniques that you honestly stick to in winter?

I prefer morning exercise but when it is 0 or below it is hard to tell myself to get out of bed and do something.

Any great ideas for in the home?

gmallan

It's cold down here in Tassie too. The first thing is to find something you enjoy doing but even that sometimes isn't enough in winter. My next best strategy is to not rely solely on your own motivation to get you there. By this I mean, put in place external strategies to motivate yourself. For me this is playing Aussie Rules - If I don't train and play then I let down the team (added advantage of being social). I also have a gym buddy and there are plenty of times where we both don't feel like going and would probably bail if we hadn't made a committment to the other person.

Some other ideas include:

- Start a bootcamp. Pre-pay for sessions. I used to go to a boot camp where you had to let them know in advance if you weren't going to make a session. They would call you if you didn't show up.
- Hire a personal trainer. Pre-pay for sessions
- Workout/exercise buddy or group
- Make a bet with a friend or family member that you'll exercise x number of times per week
- Get your stuff ready to go the night before

The key is not to rely on your own motivation to get you out of bed in the morning. Make it a harder to miss a session than to get up and do it

becajb

i start yoga in a week and have paid for the whole course so i suppose that is a good start.

In terms of your other ideas...I have had a personal trainer before but after 6 months and little results she advised me to try someone else with different techniques.

Definitely like the idea of a workout buddy though - thank you!