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Motivational fitness. It is very difficult. For most of us.

What I mean is that we know how beneficial and important exercise is, but few of us commit to exercising regularly.

Or even if we commit to exercise, we drop out of the program after only 6 months…

What is the problem?

The buzzword: motivation.

We don’t have the motivation to exercise. Period.

Why?

Experts say that there are 3 types of factors that affect our motivation.

Let’s browse through them one by one.

1. Your personal factors

This has to do with you and your perception of exercise.

I could think of a list of personal factors that could affect your motivation:

• Your past experience with exercise. If it’s not good, you’ll avoid exercising. A bad experience can be because you insult yourself a lot or get “sick” after exercising
• Your feeling about the value of exercise. If you feel like it’s a waste of time to exercise, you automatically can’t get off the couch to do it.
• Your exercise technique. If you do the right technique, you feel good about the whole thing. The opposite applies if you are clumsy and do it wrong.
• Your perception of the exercise you are doing – Easy? Lasted? Uncomfortable? Nice? The way you perceive exercise can make or break your program
• Your typical barriers to exercise or should I say excuse? (such as travel, illness, weather, inconvenience, lack of gym… etc.)
• Your own personal motivation level: how motivated are you to exercise?

2. Exercise factors

This refers to the exercise itself.

Do you shudder just thinking about the exercise you are going to do?

Or are you looking forward to exercising?

Is it convenient to do the exercise? You’d be surprised if the time of day, number of sessions per week, timed programs, availability of equipment, accessibility of facilities, transportation…and so on, may or may not make you exercise.

Does the exercise offer the right level of intensity to challenge you?

Do you feel bored doing the exercise because it’s the same old kind of “week” in “week” out?

3. External factors

This relates to your external environment, for which circumstances or situations are sometimes out of your control.

External/environmental factors like these could trigger low-level motivation:

• Your comfort level with where you’re supposed to exercise
• Your ability to adapt to weather changes (for example, when bad weather hits, you can easily switch to exercising indoors instead of outdoors; exercising at home Vs exercising at the gym)
• Your support network: family, friends, exercise partners are important to provide support and “nudge”.

Of these 3 types of factors, if you can identify what bothers you, what you’re out of sync with, and what you’re not comfortable with, then I think you can reduce the odds of giving up and ultimately continuing. the right kind of physical motivation.

And exercise. And stick to the program for a long time.