How do you avoid skipping exercises and workout plans?

CheesyPurritoCat
CheesyPurritoCat Posts: 7 Member
in Motivation and Support
How do you motivate yourselves to keep going and not skip workouts??? It's very hard for me to keep up with my workout schedule as I follow it for 3 days then stop :s
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Replies

  • __TMac__
    __TMac__ Posts: 1,665 Member
    I started counting a streak. Every time I missed one, it reset. After a while of getting to 5 or 6 days, I got tired of resetting. And now the number is so high that I CAN'T miss!

    It also had to be a workout I enjoyed and that I wanted to get better at. It had its own reward built in. I do it 3 days a week, cross-train 3 days, rest 1.
  • christys03
    christys03 Posts: 22,783 Member
    I also made a counting streak....
    And it's the first thing I do when I roll outa bed every day....even weekends. If I don't.....3 kids demand all my time after that & it doesn't get done. Plus I work full time, & im dead in the afternoon....
    Friends on here also help....make a deal with someone....buddy up. They help keep you motivated, & accountable....
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    I heard something somewhere about forming habits and how doing something for a certain amount of time makes it a habit. I know there are books out there about this, but I found that I didn't need one.

    I simply set it in my mind, when I first started, that I was all about forming a habit, so I committed to exercising on a schedule for a month. It worked. By the end of that month, it was a habit, and I felt weird not doing it after that point. I had never regularly exercised in my life and now, over two years later, I still have the habit.
  • Treehugger_88
    Treehugger_88 Posts: 207 Member
    edited March 2017
    This may sound really weird, but I only allow myself to shower after a workout. I workout every other day, then shower. If I'm feeling too lazy for a workout, then I just think of how gross I'd feel the next day before my workout then shower. I've missed a few days and I do feel pretty gross on day 3. Its worked for me for a few years! I think people shower too much anyways, I might be a bit of a hippie...

    I also think of how great I feel after HIIT or a kettlebell workout, or Insanity...energized and more alert.
  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
    On days I don't feel like it, I make myself get up and go. I tell myself I'll just do it for 15 minutes. Then I usually complete my workout. I also give myself a couple of rest days.
    Also if you don't like your routine you may want to find something you like better.
  • jbee27
    jbee27 Posts: 356 Member
    i try to make it as easy as possible for myself, and remove any 'barriers' to not going. Meaning, pack my bag the night before and put it in the car.

    I also do the ClassPass workout app, that if you cancel a class with less than 12 hours notice, you get charged for it anyways, and I hate wasting money, so that's a good motivator not to bail :-)
  • Gondowolf
    Gondowolf Posts: 26 Member
    Take preworkout or caffeine
  • andrea4736
    andrea4736 Posts: 211 Member
    I do it first thing in the morning and take a pre-workout. Once I'm up and energized, it's way more difficult to talk myself out of it.
  • Geocitiesuser
    Geocitiesuser Posts: 1,429 Member
    obsession.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    Find something you actually like doing for your exercise. You'll probably be likely to not skip it, if you like it.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    edited March 2017
    CheesyPurritoCat wrote: »
    How do you motivate yourselves to keep going and not skip workouts??? It's very hard for me to keep up with my workout schedule as I follow it for 3 days then stop :s

    I keep a spreadsheet of weekly minutes. That way if I do half a workout (short on time, whatever)......I get the rest of the week to make it up.

    Mark your workouts on a calendar.....put in in a public place. Whatever you choose, find a way to make yourself accountable.

    I agree with @TR0berts......maybe you don't like your current exercise. Keep trying new things.
  • Nikki10129
    Nikki10129 Posts: 292 Member
    For me it was about creating the habit of course, but slowly introducing exercise into my everyday. For most people if you start out hard going to the gym for 1h+ a day you'll burn out fast, that's what I always found used to happen to me. I started out just doing something little a couple of times a week, usually some sort of 30 min workout, either yoga, body weight or running. I didn't have a program just did something a couple of times a week. I increased the days as I began to enjoy how I was feeling, and now I actually follow a training program! Lots of baby steps and you end up with huge changes you don't even realize happened
  • RavenLibra
    RavenLibra Posts: 1,737 Member
    Maybe this might come across as discouraging... From the day I decided enough was enough and I signed up a gym membership ( my first cardio workout lasted 12 minutes) to when I felt bad about missing a workout it was almost 5 years...starts and stops... medical issues...and every excuse to skip a workout, then it hit me... exercise.. unless you earn a living doing manual labour of some kind (which I done in my youth) is as necessary as eating, drinking (water) and breathing, BY NOT exercising on a regular basis you are creating physical and emotional difficulties later in life.

    I see it this way... WE as a species developed over many millennia a need to hunt and forage and later farm in order to "live" As first world inhabitants we have robbed ourselves of that (those) task(s). and by not engaging in those tasks our bodies have begun to deteriorate far quicker than they ought to. bad knees, hips, backs, cancers, fatigue, depression, anxiety... ALL this can be fixed or at the least controlled with increased meaningful physical activity... I exercise because I want to be happy... I exercise because I want to have energy, because My life is a better place with me in it... I want to be a participant... I want to look in the mirror and like who I see smiling back... THAT only happens when I have hit the gym and walked out with a sense that I did my best...

    YOU want to create the positive habits... be your best... and wake up every morning telling yourself you will do your best... then day by day... workout by workout... you will begin to move the needle towards that goal... exercise is as important as eating, drinking, and breathing... begin to understand thatand you will create the good habits that will see you striving to be the best version of you.
  • fitin50s2
    fitin50s2 Posts: 111 Member
    For me… I don’t avoid it and I don’t make excuses.

    I enjoy the activities I do enough to keep it fun, interesting and challenging. If I didn’t like what I did or found it any of them to be a chore, I’d find something else to do in their place.

    The “why” is the payoff from doing it. I feel better overall as a middle-aged guy. I recall how it feels to NOT do it. To NOT exercise and eat right. That in and of itself is highly motivating and eliminates my need to “avoid” my plan.

    Part of the plan though is taking a break which helps to provide balance.
  • PaulGDuncan
    PaulGDuncan Posts: 5 Member
    I set aside a fixed block of time every day. This is my workout time. It's on my personal/business calendars so nobody gets that time. Generally works.... :)

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