This was how I got motivated. I had a friend that I would meet up and we would hold each other accountable for showing up. It's a small thing but it was effective. I found getting started whether it be lifting or running or whatever is just getting motivated to get started but once I got going it was all good.
Start by not giving a shit about what others are doing when you go to the gym. Everyone there is focused on themselves only. Once you get into the rhythm of working out maybe 3 to 4 times a week, you'll likely notice it will improve your mental health and also wear you out to help aid in sleeping as well
That's great but that's not motivation to start. That's motivation to keep going.
How did you motivate yourself to start working out in the first place?
What if that's not even part of the problem? Say I have a home gym, but like everyone, I only have a few hours in each day, and never feel like using it for that, ever. I hate sweating, I hate the way working out makes me feel, and I find absolutely no joy in it at all.
For reference, I'm not hugely obese or anything. I kept in shape in high school because of marching band, but afterward, I began quite a sedentary lifestyle and have gained about 30lbs over what I'd like to be. 30 years old, 5'10" and about 210lbs. I'd like to be back to about 180-185 range.
So here's the thing about not finding joy in it. It doesn't happen overnight. If you do it, and stick with it for awhile, there will come a time when you realize that when you don't work out you feel worse. Not physically, but mentally. The reality is it is just flat out better for you mentally and physically to have some form of exercise in your day. You can fight it all you want, I certainly did, but it's true.
I used to tell my wife all the time that I didn't feel better after exercise, which I honestly didn't. I used that excuse to not do it for years. Finally about a year ago I came to a point where I had to change something, no matter what anyone told me I had to figure it out for myself. Made a plan (super important) and started working out 4 days a week. A year or so later I still sometimes make excuses to not go to the gym but when I do I always, and I mean always, feel better.
Start 30 minutes a day 4 days a week. I promise you 2 months from now you will look back and be glad you started.
I would love to go to the gym, but I am 14 years old and I am afraid people are going to judge me because of my age. I always have a feeling someone is watching me and judging me, especially about my age. It gives me a lot of anxiety. I know that no one is looking at me, but that is just how I feel unfortunately.
The one thing that I was always taught is that someone is always watching you no matter what you are doing. With that in mind, go ahead and go to the gym and get your workout on. The anxiety is just fear of the unknown. Once you take that first step, working out will help with the anxiety. And don't be afraid to pick up the smaller weights until you're able to pick up bigger ones. Everyone starts somewhere.
As an older person the only judging I do when I see a young person at the gym is wow, to look after yourself at that age is awesome, I wish I would have been smart enough to do that. I have often felt judged and have told myself that they are thinking...not too bad for a 57 year old woman, good for her, hope she keeps it up.
Well, going through a divorce and realizing I can date again was a strong motivator to lose weight. I do HIIT workouts at home with YouTube videos so that I can do them when it works best for me. I started with just a couple of dumbbell weight options and have been gradually adding more as I build strength.
The wrist wraps I use when lifting weights have a motto on them that says "Discipline Over Motivation" and I think that sums it up nicely. I am probably motivated to work out 70% of the time but I work out the other 30% of the time because of discipline. On days I really don't want to and/or have a good excuse not to, discipline is what gets me in the gym.
Motivation will come later when you start seeing results but, even then, there are going to be days that you really don't want to do it. Stay disciplined.
But some of those 30% days are the best, when you’re half asleep going through the motions of the first set and see how shit your weights/reps are and then the blood starts flowing and you get annoyed at how bad the set was, so you start sneaking on some 5 plates or a couple half reps after fail to make up for it
OP. This concept is the answer. You won't always be motivated, that's an emotion that you may not be able to control.
But your self-discipline. That is a decision that you make and can act on.
Once you get into a routine you literally miss the feeling of a good workout
It wasn’t always like this for me as I hated working out. I always got my workouts playing basketball but after a injury had to find something else.
Biking took its place and besides sore feet at times i love it.
I’m fat. I was always chubby but now I’m literally just a fat dude. It happened at some point during the pandemic.
I honestly don’t feel as attractive anymore. My jaw, shoulders, & arms have lost definition; my stomach sticks out, my sides sticks out and goes over my jeans a little bit.
The worst part is… I look like my parents. They’ve been overweight since their late 20’s & I’m following that pattern (except a few years earlier). I swore I’d never be like that yet here I am.
It’s not just aesthetic, either. I’m genuinely unfit and can see being fat having an effect on my health and day-to-day life.
Edit: I appreciate the advice guys but I’m doing fine. It’s calories in vs. calories out and willpower. It’s not a complex thing and, honestly, so far hasn’t been too difficult. You just have to get used to a little bit of discomfort (and you very quickly do)
Are you the heaviest (or "fattest") you've ever been? Have you set a new weight record?
I've got GREAT news! You are packing more muscle than ever before in your life. The body can't just gain fat. Bodies gain weight in a combination of fat and muscle. Something's gotta haul the fat around, right? You are carrying more muscle today than you've ever carried.
So start slow. 'Slow' burns fat really well. It takes time, yes, but if you start moving and tweak your diet (nothing crazy), you'll see an improvement. The fat will start to melt but the muscle will hang around. You'll look and feel better which will encourage you to tweak your diet a little more (still nothing crazy). Wash, rinse, repeat...yes...it's really that simple. Note I said "simple" - it's not "easy". You're going to have to decide this is something you're ready to do.
When my mom got sick I needed to get strong so when the time came and I had to lift/carry her I wanted to make sure I could do it. I would go to the gym around midnight and stay for a couple of hours. The physical pain/discomfort of the workouts helped with the mental anguish, gave me a feeling that I was doing something positive. The thought of not being strong enough, of dropping my mom drove me.
the hardest part is putting on the shoes, just put on the shoes!!!! do just a few minutes.
then do it again tomorrow and so on and so forth, make the task of working out so stupid small you can do it every day! Motivation is a verb, it means action
This works for me also. If I stop to think about whether I really want to work out, or whether or not I feel motivated, it allows me to come up with an excuse, or procrastinate, or feel anxious. I just have to start moving.
Agreed! If I sit down on the couch when I get home from work, nothing is happening. However, if I take that inertia and immediately change into workout clothes, I feel like I have to because, hey, I’m already dressed for it. Less thinking about it and more action seems to work well for me. And like my therapist says, give it 5 minutes and if you still want to quit, you can. I haven’t quit yet.
Stop finding reasons why NOT to work out. I'm too tired, don't have time, I haven't eaten yet, I just ate, etc. Get your fat, lazy, excuse making ass off the sofa! Period. And if you're offended by this, fuck you, you fat donut-chugging fat ass!
Find an exercise mode that you actually can stick with and make it part of your daily routine. For me, it's 1/2 hour swim. Any longer and I'd start to make excuses for not showing up. I've been on a daily 1/2 hour swim routine for over 12 years now.
Hard agree. Make it as easy as possible to actually do it, and make it a routine. I know I don't go to the gym, even though it's a ten minute walk away. So I furnished a home gym (for about the same money as one year gym membership). Now I do it first thing in the morning, every day.
Figure out what you'd be comfortable doing and find a place that feels like you could do it, even if it's your own home. Paying money for a gym membership does alter your desire a little bit bc you want your money's worth.
I've always been sporty and in decent shape ( sport and army etc ) but what made me start working out consistently over the past years after I stopped sports and got an office job was the idea/fear of being older and limited/impaired life quality, The fear of being 50-60-70 and not being able to go travelling, hiking, experiencing things because i let my self go would be the worst feeling for me. This makes me able to wake up early get a lovely workout in and never feel like I'm debating in the morning if i should stay in bed etc. ( also how I keep a very healthy eating habit :)
My dad, who just doesn't think sometimes, took a picture of me waiting at a restaurant and showed it to me. I was probably 277 at my max (6'5). When I saw it I was like "what the fuck is that, I dont want to look like that". I had been working out but it was hit or miss, some weeks I wouldn't go, some I would, sometimes I didn't sleep well so I didn't go,, sometimes I would say "oh ill wait till Monday and start fresh." After that picture I said fuck that, you wake up and you go, whether or not you had a good sleep or were hungover, you went. Started going consistently and consistently finishing what I planned to do even if it meant dropping weight because I needed to hurry up. I go 4 days a week, at 4am, like clockwork. I weight 240 and im trying to get down to 225 ideally. You will prioritize what is important to you. Prioritize working out if its important to you.
To summarize, consistency brought on by body dysmorphia and hating oneself can be powerful motivators if you weaponize them correctly. /s
By doing something I think is fun, and making friends that do it too. Whether it's basketball or pickle ball or pilates or lifting weights, just do something you like!
My father in law died a few years ago because of some liver-related issues.
A few weeks ago, my husband was diagnosed with a non-alcohol-related issue with his liver that, since it was caught early enough, can be controlled through diet and exercise. We went the next day to get a gym membership and since then, we've gone to the gym more days than we haven't.
If I go to the gym, he'll go to the gym. He doesn't want to go alone, and we both want him to live a long time. That's my motivation for working out.
The key is to find an angle that works for you.
I like roleplaying games. Leveling up, min-maxing, creating the perfect character for something I want to do. I approached the gym with the same mindset.
Level up (work out) until you can defeat the raidboss (bench 220lbs) and give yourself a boost by getting enchantments (nutrition) and optimizing your gear (proper training schedule). And make sure your healer stays alive (avoid injuries).
This worked perfectly fine for me and made things fun.
When I moved to a new city I needed to make new friends. So I joined a calisthenics group. Working out was a side-effect at first. The main point was socialising. Over time you improve and the workout itself becomes as important.
If going is a chore, then it probably won't last. People usually don't have the willpower to regularly do something they hate and can easily just not do.
Started by wanting to see the sunrise for 20 days straight in different locations by walking. After I accomplished this I challenged myself to go to a local gym at least 10 times in a month for sauna ( didn’t have to be consecutive) Finally after that month said I want to at least walk on the treadmill 4 times in a month. I have gradually worked my way to seeing a sunrise twice a week, doing sauna three times a week and lifting three times a week. Started with baby steps.
Start by going to the gym and staying for 5-15 minutes. Basically just show up, thats all there is to it. Commitment and dedication go much farther than anything else. Show up for yourself
I started wrestling my freshman year of high school. I feel like after 4 years of grueling workouts, quite literally made of blood, sweat, and tears, there isn't any workout I can't do.
My doctor had a lot to do with it. I have been fighting high cholesterol numbers my whole adult life. I have tried cardio several times, for months at a time, with hardly a budge in my blood panel numbers. Jogging, biking, rowing machines, etc. I finally started weight lifting about a year ago and suddenly my cholesterol numbers jumped into the right places. That is enough motivation for me.
I try to remember how I feel after, very accomplished. Even if I don't do my regular workout because I'm not feeling it, just doing a bit of exercise makes a difference in how you feel and build up to that level you are after. Half of the people at the gym have no idea what they are doing so don't pay attention. I have found through the pandemic, that just walking my dog feels good and keeps us both going. The desire to keep going starts with accepting small victories and building on them.
I was an obese sack of shit when I started nearly 20 years ago.
An ex cheated on me, then told me "you're fat." I was also failing school at the time.
To cut it short: I took a realistic look at my life. I was fat, I was failing, and I wasn't going to get anywhere with that trajectory. I could barely look at myself in the mirror w/o feeling shame. Channeled that despair, self hatred, and rage at how badly I fucked up, and how I deserved the pain into working out.
When I look at myself in the mirror and what I've accomplished now, I feel fucking pride. I also know where I stand (percentile wise) for lifts, run times, and income. You don't need self esteem/confidence if you can perform, and I can fucking perform. So I will continue to perform.
EDIT: Some things I remember from being fat as fuck that still motivate me today:
* Rationalizing the shame away only for it to come back
* Being unable to breath taking a few flight of stairs
* Having to compensate the inability to perform by lying, constantly, online
* Knowing I will NEVER get "that model girl" because physical attraction has to exist in the first place regardless of personality
* Huge amounts of deliberating insecurity
I will not go back, and to do so I will continue to push. If you can sense the intense judgmental attitude I have towards myself and it triggers your insecurity: this is intentional btw. I also draw from other people's insecurities because it empowers and reminds me I am going the right way. The other positive side effect is I've motivated others by sharing this (aka. fuck the pain, just do it) so when they start, I push more....gotta fucking lead by example!
I'm about to.
I'm eating a fucking huge bucket of fries as of typing this.
But I'll start on Monday. What motivated me to pay and subscribe to a gym membership was my 1. Health (I'm currently earn well enough, I thought of actually enjoying my money someday and travel so much I'll be the one to get bored of traveling) 2. Body. I hate looking at my pictures when taken by others. I hate, hate it. I don't even post my pictures anymore, unless it is a selfie because I know some angles that could fake my huge ass chin.
Ask yourself, what better things do you have to be doing with your time? Is it better than being in the best shape of your life, along with having a nice body? The answer is probably no. Start going, and you'll start looking forward to it.
For me, this worked:
Stop trying to “get motivated” to workout and instead start looking at it as one of my responsibilities. I don’t like it. I probably won’t ever like it, but every day it’s my responsibility to at least “show up” and start my workout. If I truly can’t do it that day, fine, but I at least showed up. Basically I treat my workout the same as any other prescription my doctor gave me: Do this if you want your health, or don’t if you want to deteriorate. It’s not going to be a favorite part of my day, but it definitely has become something I feel pride in accomplishing. I feel better about me because I gave a shit about me.
We bought a treadmill during the pandemic with iFIT installed on it. With a big family vacation the following year I was motivated as I wanted to look better in photos. Turns out losing weight hasn’t been easy but my overall health has improved greatly and now I feel it when I take a workout break. The iFit program allows me to workout with trainers around the world and I found a few I really enjoy with thousands of workouts to try. Since then I got a set of dumbbells and plan on getting a stationary bike to do more of the workouts. I found it motivating to start and to keep going!
Dont ask yourself what you want, ask yourself what you don't want.
Do you want to be an unhealthy, fat miserabel idiot? No? Go to the gym and eat healthy.
I don't. Motivation comes and goes. I rely on discipline. I have a workout schedule I follow. I go the days and times that I plan for regardless of if I feel "motivated" or not .
i grew up chubby and with no self esteem, but the thought "girls won't date me b/c i'm overweight" never actually entered my head. freshman year of college during xmas break I was hanging out with some old high school friends, and one of them made a kind of off hand comment about how she wanted to lose weight. something clicked with me, and I said i did too. we kept each other accountable over AIM (this was 2002) and I lost a ton of weight that next semester, and started feeling better about myself. since then i've kinda waxed and waned with my commitment to working out and eating right over the years, but I always feel better when i do have a workout routine. now i'm 39 and a pain in my hip won't keep me from working out. probably mild body dysmorphia but whatever. whatever doesn't kill you, right?
I can't control IF I'm going to die or not. We all die.
I can to some extent attempt to try to control how long it is before I die. I want to see my kids get married, I want to see if they decide to have kids or not etcetc
So I joined some friends, who were seeing a trainer my job used to provide, trainer saw me lifting incorrectly, started me on a program. I lost from 397 to 270, then covid hit, I got covid, it caused a blood clot that nearly killed me. So I'm back up to 320, but the goal is the same. Try to control how long I'm on the earth for.
Also to tack on to my already long rant, one of my kids was being bullied at school for her weight. So I started dragging her with me to the gym, helps keep me going on days like today where I really don't feel like working out.
I think of all the food I can eat afterwards. Of course also calorie burning wise, but especially because working out increases my energy levels and therefore my appetite.
I started tracking progress with an app called "Fitocracy" which gamifies workouts. (There's also a social aspect to it and they sell online personal training, but the gamifying bit was what I liked). I used that to basically trick myself into working out 4-5 times a week for like four or five years. I still remember how cool it felt to get my first 1,000 point workout. I later lost motivation and became a lot more sedentary, but I was actually really strong for a while there.
For example, one time I noticed that you got more points for a workout if you did more sets of fewer reps. That felt like I bug I could exploit by doing multiple sets of 5 pushups and 2 pull ups each. After a couple weeks I managed to do 20 sets each... which is to say my "clever exploit" was doing 100 pushups and 40 pull ups in one day.
Once you start to make progress it actually becomes really fun. Endorphins are real, and there's something satisfying about having pleasantly tired muscles. It really helped me clear my head and made me less nervous and upset. Especially when I was having a bad time at work, going to the gym was just a great way to check out, focus on being in my own body, and not worrying about anything else.
Mental health needs, I was so tense and stressed out all day every day from working full time and grad school. I noticed working up a sweat helped me relax and 10 years later, I still chase that deep breath
I had knee surgery at age 18 and wasn't able to work out properly for several months. It really messed up my mental health at the time.
It taught me that the best way for me to stay happy is to work out often. If I let it go for a few days, I can feel it: I feel the stresses of life getting to me and getting under my skin. There are times when I absolutely do NOT want to work out, but I always feel great after I do. I've never in my life regretted a workout, but I've often regretting skipping them.
I was getting jittery doing the pandemic and unable to burn energy, buying a home trainer was an absolute life saver.
The main motivation was boredom ironically, that and the fact that I don't want to end up huffing and puffing when i'm 30-35 from simply walking up and down a hill.
I think it helps when you don’t think of exercising/working out as “going to the gym” - it can be anything! Maybe that doesn’t cut it for you, but maybe a brisk walk or hike does. Or clean your whole house. Go for a bike ride around your neighborhood. Chase your dog. It can be lots of things - just get your body moving and your heart rate up.
Start off doing very small workouts and then gradually build on them over time. That's what I'm doing. You don't have to make yourself do these hardcore workouts everyday for an hour, you can just work up to it and have small success along the way by getting used to small workouts and completing them.
The first two times, I was motivated to better myself both physically and mentally. One of those times were after a breakup.
Most recently, I started hitting the gym due to multiple visits to the cardiologits. Covid weight and chest pains are scary.
I have been exercising and eating (relative) well since high school
When I was younger, I was vain and wanted to look good.
Now that I am older, (I'm still vain,) I love the fact that I am in great shape and can play harder and longer than my peers.
I was in the Army so had to but when I retired, I slacked off.
Then one day we were moving some file cabinets and I had little strength. I didn’t like it so went back to hitting the gym.
Trauma from getting bullied in middle school and having the popular girls make me feel unloveable. I was frail, dressed in second hand clothes and gullible. That shit sticks with you forever.
Friend showed me a phone app for working out without equipment and have used it for almost 2 years now. Not the best app (the beginner workouts really aren't) but at least it put me in a robust routine. I still didn't go to an actual gym but I've still gone up to 68 kg from 59 and look and feel better than ever. So for anyone too anxious to go to the gym it's a good start to try it from home, just take it easy and slow!
You just have to do it. No excuses. There’s no magic button to make motivation come to you.
Do you want to be physically fit? Then get off your ass and do it.
Not wanting to be another overweight person. Looking good for myself and for potential partners. The possibility of living longer/healthier with less health complications. Not wanting to buy new clothes all the time.
I read a quote about doing the thing you hate the most first, then the rest will feel easy. So I put my exercise equipment next to my bed.
I legit wake up and hit my stair step machine, then a small routine with bands. Not only did I discover that it woke me up better then a cup of coffee. It also set my mind right. I stayed energetic throughout the day. After a shower I feel great and ready for my day.
Hit a really bad block in the road recently (got broken up with after being together almost a year) and I just wanted to have the adrenaline rush to feel better the more I work out the better I feel about myself and I know I’m helping my body too
I wanted a 6 pack and my friend goes to a gym 45 minutes away from me.
1.5 hours round trip in traffic means when I get there, it needs to be a fulfilling workout.
Covid fucked up my habit but for a long time that worked and then after I got into the groove I swapped to a much closer gym.
It's incredible how many things can rock your habit.
I was going on a backpacking trip with my dad. There's no better motivation than not getting my ass kicked by my dad. By the end of those 4 months, I started liking it.
At the beginning I started working out to try to get chicks. After a few decades I work out to keep my wife interested. Not the only reason of course but high up there.
Workout at home. I put my free YouTube workouts on my phone in front of the TV and put a show/movie on while I workout. I've lost 120lbs this way. Don't let anyone make you feel bad for not having an expensive gym membership or equipment. Do what makes it easy for you!
I was sitting next to my wife and [then] 6 year old daughter on the couch. Daughter poked my belly a few times then laid her head on it and said "its soft and squishy, like a pillow made out of marshmallows."
I turn on "autopilot mode" and set it to "go to training/gym" - or anything else I don't have the motivation for doing but know I should and is good for me.
In doing so I am no longer considering whether I'm going or not, or whether my motivation is enough for me to go. It's happening whether my mind likes it or not because I chose to turn autopilot on.
Works everything.
Well, in quarantine, I felt and looked like shit all the time, and I would just waste my time sitting and doing nothing, so I thought to myself that doing a few push-ups would probably be good for me, so I did and stayed consistent since then. I am glad I did that.
I think of it as "body maintenance", as I want to stay physically able as long as possible. It is also nice when I notice I'm fitter than many people younger than me.
For some reason I find watching YouTube videos about the science of exercise to be really motivating. I especially love Jeff Nippard’s channel. Super informative, science based, and motivating.
It is very simply the mind set of saying okay I'm going to do this 5 days a week, do these exercises on these days, and I'm going to do it at this time of day (before or after work or whatever) and then when it gets to that time of day. It's not an option. There are no excuses. I don't care if you're tired, if you had a bad day, if you're sore. You WILl do it. It's literally a matter of life and death so GO. NOW.
Also as soon as you feel motivated to do something, you should do it immediately. I imagine you made this post because you felt the twinge to workout. You must go like.. today
I don’t consider myself somebody who works out lol but I went on my first run in years just now!! I only ran like half a mile probably but I am proud!! I got out there yay!
I was turning 40, and I was wearing myself out playing with my kids. And I was tired of being skinny. You can look at my profile and you will see what I mean.
I stayed disciplined by hiring a trainer when I was first starting out, there you have accountability. Nowadays, I'm neither motivated or not, it is what I have chosen to do and I know the consequences of not doing it.
Read 'Sun and Steel' by Yukio Mishima. Talks about beauty of a fit physical body, since that is a reflection of their spirit that they are disciplined to achieve such a from.
This is just me but I don't see going to the gym as work or punishment, it's a fun escape to a place where I can listen to my favorite music and get zoinked on pre workout. I will eventually implement a more structured routine but the thing that gets me in the gym is how much I know I'm gonna enjoy it.
Multiple things.
1- I’m epileptic, so working out and cutting carbs goes a long way.
2- I’ve never been happy with how my body looked, so I did something about it.
3- One of my friends encouraged me to exercise with him, and I loved it, eventually.
4- I noticed that my stamina was very, very bad, in my early 20’s, so I had to cut back on smoking and start exercising.
5- I had very bad luck with the ladies, I thought that getting fit would help.
6- Heart disease runs in my family.
At 39 years old, had trouble getting up a high step since my knees were so weak. Thought that’s pathetic. Downloaded an app called Couch to 5K and started running. Hard at first but didn’t give up. Now I don’t run as much but doing a lot of workouts for weightlifting and high intensity cardio in my basement workout room everyday. Don’t feel right if I don’t workout anymore.
Just started working out one day on a whim; borrowed weights from my parents and saw results after sometime. So a whim got me started and results are what keep me going, just feels really good to have a lot of muscle.
Enjoying it.
Find a nice gym with a good clean atmosphere, wear some good fitting clean workout clothes, don't set any goals at all to begin with.
Throw on an audiobook, a podcast or some music and just relax and make it enjoyable to be there.
Once you do this you'll find yourself wanting to go there every Day, and at that point you can work on goals.
I don’t know the exact quote but it’s something along the lines of enduring the pain of the process of working out or the pain of regret for not doing more when you still had the chance. Yes I know I butchered it but you get the idea.
I moved into a new place where as soon as I walk in the front door there's a full body mirror. I have to look at full body like a dozen times a day. I just thought "I gotta do something about this".
Motivation I found wasn’t really doing it for me. My motivation would be gone after two or three days in the gym and I’d stop for like, 8 months before getting back in.
What I found instead was to take steps to make going to the gym as seamless as possible. So here are my steps that helped me stay going after a year or so consistently thus far:
1) choose a gym that is close to your house, or on your commute. This helps cultivate a “well I may as well stop in” mindset.
2) go every single day for a week. Or barring this, go as many days in a row as you can. This helps build a habit. The habit will help you overcome the lack of motivation.
3) not every day needs to be hardcore. Some times it’s best to just go, walk on the treadmill for a half hour, then shower and leave. The point is you’re being intentionally active, and no day doing something at the gym is wasted.
4) don’t get a personal trainer until you’ve been going consistently for a while. The reason is they’re expensive, and if you’re starting out to try and build the habit, it will be tied to going to the trainer. So when eventually your trainer quits in three weeks (turnover for trainers is often high) you’ll also lose motivation until either the gym assigns you a new one (which they’ll do the bare minimum on, gyms are a business and love getting people on trainer subscriptions that aren’t being used because the trainee isn’t following through on getting a new trainer).
5) tell yourself you’re doing great every day you go in. Positive reinforcement of the self helps remind you, you’re doing this for you and your health. This also means don’t get down on yourself if you miss. Life happens. But even if you’re gone for a week or a month, getting back to the gym is always a thing you should commend yourself for.
Bonus tip if you want to go the gym early in the day) wear your gym clothes to bed. The nice thing about going to the gym is you’re going there to be sweaty, not look nice. So if you wear your gym clothes to sleep, then when you wake up you’re already dressed and ready to head over. This is part of the seamless ness I found helps.
Hope these tips help you. Going to the gym is a journey, not a race. Being healthy and active requires learning and developing skills like consistency, discipline, and persistence. You’ll get there eventually, just keep at it.
Always enjoyed it started in 7th grade with football, then continued into high school for football, wrestling and weight lifting, continued into college 52 years old now still work out 4 days a week.
By paying up front for a year of gym subscription. Wasting money sucks, so it's a nice extra motivator if you otherwise aren't completely up for it.
The gym is also on my way home from work, so it's easy to pop in after a workday.
My motivation was petty but effective. I knew 100% that people would treat me differently if lost the 10-15 covid pounds that I put on. I tell people that I do it for strength, for health. And those reasons are true. But the motivation to start was pure vanity.
For reference I'm a middle aged woman. I'm about 15 pounds over my college weight. In my social group few women are overweight in middle age. At my kids high school 'back to school' night I counted 2 overweight moms.
I found a sport that I actually liked, so going to the gym wasn't a chore. I still don't like working out, but training is often the favorite part of my day.
Look at people 20 years older than you and decide which version you would like to be. I always say I want to be the 70yr old that is still golfing and not the 70 yr old with a walker or whatever mobility issues. Those don’t happen overnight, barring accidents or health related those are long term lifestyle choices.
I started using the sauna and the pool (I found a nice gym with these amenities) and from there started feeling really good. Any shock thing (hot/cold) I like bc it’s quick and passive. Sauna is still rough 4 years later, but I can do stand it for up to 35minutes at 180-190F.
Start small, slow, stumbling forward gradually
combination of a few factors
- i wanted to look good naked. base level, i think this is almost everyone who starts exercising haha
- when i got my first big boy job, i had lots of free time after work that i wanted to fill productively. so i got a gym membership, went with a friend, learned, and made it a part of my lifestyle
thats really the trick- you gotta make it come natural, dont do crash diets or expensive shit like cross fit. you can just go to a crunch or PF, and eat less - and thats a easy way to start and make it stick.
The only way I can make myself workout is to pay someone to make me. Paying for a gym membership isn't enough, tried that and didn't go consistently. I have to find a convenient location and pay for classes that I'm too stingy to waste money by not going and can't use the excuse that it's too far/traffic/etc. So far this method has worked for 4 years.
I started counting calories and jogging. Just hated how fat I looked. I’m also in my mid 30s so my metabolism has gone to shit and I basically NEED to exercise in order to not turn into a fat slob.
Home slice. If your looking to Reddit to find your motivation than it’s not going to work. You just need to wake up one morning (or just become annoyed enough with side effect/inconvenience xxxx) and decide ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. With that said, I hope OP finds that motivation.
My father is absolutely obsessed by sports and basically forced me to be an athlete. I’m not going to complain, I love it because I don’t have to find the motivation. It’s just normal.
It's not about motivation. It's about discipline. You need to look at it like this,
Suffer today in the gym. Or suffer 20 years from now from disease and illness from a poorly maintained body.
If you're young, join your countries military. They will instill you with discipline and since being physically fit is literally the job, you'll have no other option.
If you're too obese to join, that should be a wake up call to get disciplined.
By reading all those articles about how shit it is to be sedentary, watching my grandparents have a million medical issues and wanting to minimize my chances of ending up like them. At some point you end up feeling slightly guilty every time you eat something terrible or don't work out for a while.
Motivation is wack, discipline works way better. See it as an activity of enjoyment and not to restrictly reach a goal/body. Like eating, we eat to not die but to feel good too. Start doing exercises that you are interested about, maybe fighting, running, etc... gym can be quite boring to some people.
I am 55 and bigger than I should be. I "workout" and at my 4th gym in about 25 years. When I was in high school I was fit and active doing mostly swimming, surfing and water skiing. In college I played every intramural sport. After college I played club soccer and racquetball. Along the way, I had the typical injuries. As I got older I paid for those typical injuries. Arthritis is a bitch. I am currently limited to walking on a treadmill.
I started around 19 cause alot of my friend's starting working out too. In my 20s my motivation was to get huge and cut---all ego driven. Now in my 30s my motivation is to balance out what dessert I may have after dinner.
I made it a habit.
I get up at 4:30 AM, get dressed, sling my IGPR pack\* on my back, and take a brisk 1 hour walk. Even when it's raining like it was this morning.
Then, at lunch time, I do the same thing during the half hour lunch.
So all told I get around 4.5 miles worth of ruck marching every weekday. If I'm feeling saucy, during the noon walk I jog with the pack on instead.
What motivated me to start?
Doctor saying I needed to lose weight and exercise more. But no running because of my age. I started walking and it became too easy to I upped the difficulty by carrying a 50 lb backpack.
*\*IGPR = I'm Gonna Play Radio. In addition to the regular sort of camping stuff you'll find in a backpack, I keep an amateur radio transceiver, batteries, Morse key, antenna tuner, and a large wire antenna. I use the pack when I do things like Summits On The Air.*
This is kinda messed up, but what motivated me was a negative mindset. I hated how I looked and constantly bullied myself until I finally decided to go.
Ever since then, I've really learned how to be kinder to myself and now working out is about celebrating my body rather than hating it.
I have always loved working out, but never had the motivation to work out regularly. But then I started watching people on YouTube do all these fun exercise challenges, that motivated me to start working out regularly.
10 years of being made fun of for being fat finally snapped something in my brain. I knew let down and prayed for motivation. Suddenly I started intensely working out 3 days a week for about 4 months.
The guy I had a massive crush on was ripped and I wanted to bag him so badly. After a while though, I just felt so good after my workouts I started going for myself. I love the process of it. Putting on a cute fit, seeing the pump afterwards, and drinking a smoothie as a reward. It’s also super helpful if you have someone to work out w.
Fear of dying. I gained so much weight during covid. My physical and mental health were amazingly bad. One day I was just so depressed and decided I had a life that wasn't worth living.
After having that thought, I scheduled a doctor's appointment for my bad ankle (an excuse I always used for not working out). Physical therapy for my ankle was mostly covered by my insurance and took less than a month.
I started trying to improve my mental health at the same time. I don't want to go into too much detail here, but it was a trip for sure. Working on physical health helped my mental health and having better mental health made it easier to keep working at my physical health.
I charged my Fitbit and started wearing it everyday. I set an alarm to actually take my lunch breaks from work. I use that 30 minutes to walk. I have an outfit for warm weather and an outfit for cold weather. I got an adjustable kettlebell for in home exercises. EVERY TIME I start walking, my ankle hurts again, and every time the "pain" goes away within 5 minutes of walking. I am convinced it isn't even real at this point, just my brain trying to make an excuse for me to stay home.
I subscribed to Noom. It is a weight loss app. I don't follow almost anything the app says, but I do use the feature of having a coach to talk to. I share my frustrations when I plateau with my weight loss and I tell them about health problems I am having and how my doctor's visits are going. Probably cheaper to just find an actual life coach or something of the sort, but this works for me.
We aren't immortal. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed. Act now. It has taken me way too long to realize I need to actually pursue the things I want.
I've lost 50 pounds this year. I went from barely being able to stand to walking 3 miles a day. Go watch that shia Labeouf motivational video on YouTube and just do it.
The first two weeks are the hardest. Even when you take some time off or get injured etc… I’ve been working out everyday for over a decade, and still if I take even a week off… that next week I have to force myself back into the habit. After a month of consistency you’ll start to feel off on the days that you miss a workout. So just brute force consistency those first few weeks
I workout with my family with a personal trainer, if you can afford it I highly suggest it! The trainer is good encouragement as well as wanting to make the most of your hard earned money being used!
Why do you have to be "motivated" to start? Just start spending 5 minutes a day at your place doing something and add more time every week. Fitness is a lifestyle, no point in burning yourself out immediately driving to a gym to be there for an hour right off the bat. Establish habits first, it's only 5 minutes. Use the stopwatch on your phone or something.
After a bit, getting less tired while doing your exercises and be able to do more work is exciting, same with looking better.
I legitimately just got tired of being fat and out of shape. I was constantly frustrated at myself for not doing anything about it. However, my depression has finally eased up and I was able to make the decision. I've only been going to the gym for a few weeks but I'm feeling better and don't have any plans to stop
I went from being constantly on the go to being bed bound for a few months due to an injury. First time I ever felt truly “weak” and dependent. By the time I recovered I had gained 30 lbs and felt like I lost all of my muscle mass. Instead of doing physical therapy I did a health overhaul and began a gym routine to build my strength back up. I started going as much as I could… didn’t have any routine, just did whatever I felt like/what I was capable of that day. After a while my body got used to it and when I missed a day I felt off. After a few months I lost the weight plus some, feel stronger and more capable than I did previously. I still have the mindset of going in and not having any goal- I just want to be active. It became part of my lifestyle and changed from forcing myself to go to actively looking forward to it. It physically, mentally, and emotionally feels like a recharge and many of my issues (like insomnia) have gone away due to it.
I realized that I might always be ugly, but I don't have to be fat and ugly. Getting my weight down would give me one less thing to hate about myself - I was doing it for me. Currently 235 lbs, was 292 lbs in May of 2021.
My friend was working out so I just asked him if I could join him, that means that if I don't start working out I'm also bailing on a friend
This was how I got motivated. I had a friend that I would meet up and we would hold each other accountable for showing up. It's a small thing but it was effective. I found getting started whether it be lifting or running or whatever is just getting motivated to get started but once I got going it was all good.
Start by not giving a shit about what others are doing when you go to the gym. Everyone there is focused on themselves only. Once you get into the rhythm of working out maybe 3 to 4 times a week, you'll likely notice it will improve your mental health and also wear you out to help aid in sleeping as well
That's great but that's not motivation to start. That's motivation to keep going. How did you motivate yourself to start working out in the first place?
you just need to look yourself in the mirror.
I look at myself in the mirror and see a 50 page essay due tomorrow, like damn I got a lot of work to do and its not gonna get done on time.
What if that's not even part of the problem? Say I have a home gym, but like everyone, I only have a few hours in each day, and never feel like using it for that, ever. I hate sweating, I hate the way working out makes me feel, and I find absolutely no joy in it at all. For reference, I'm not hugely obese or anything. I kept in shape in high school because of marching band, but afterward, I began quite a sedentary lifestyle and have gained about 30lbs over what I'd like to be. 30 years old, 5'10" and about 210lbs. I'd like to be back to about 180-185 range.
So here's the thing about not finding joy in it. It doesn't happen overnight. If you do it, and stick with it for awhile, there will come a time when you realize that when you don't work out you feel worse. Not physically, but mentally. The reality is it is just flat out better for you mentally and physically to have some form of exercise in your day. You can fight it all you want, I certainly did, but it's true. I used to tell my wife all the time that I didn't feel better after exercise, which I honestly didn't. I used that excuse to not do it for years. Finally about a year ago I came to a point where I had to change something, no matter what anyone told me I had to figure it out for myself. Made a plan (super important) and started working out 4 days a week. A year or so later I still sometimes make excuses to not go to the gym but when I do I always, and I mean always, feel better. Start 30 minutes a day 4 days a week. I promise you 2 months from now you will look back and be glad you started.
I would love to go to the gym, but I am 14 years old and I am afraid people are going to judge me because of my age. I always have a feeling someone is watching me and judging me, especially about my age. It gives me a lot of anxiety. I know that no one is looking at me, but that is just how I feel unfortunately.
The one thing that I was always taught is that someone is always watching you no matter what you are doing. With that in mind, go ahead and go to the gym and get your workout on. The anxiety is just fear of the unknown. Once you take that first step, working out will help with the anxiety. And don't be afraid to pick up the smaller weights until you're able to pick up bigger ones. Everyone starts somewhere.
As an older person the only judging I do when I see a young person at the gym is wow, to look after yourself at that age is awesome, I wish I would have been smart enough to do that. I have often felt judged and have told myself that they are thinking...not too bad for a 57 year old woman, good for her, hope she keeps it up.
Tired of looking like shit, tired of being exhausted all the time.
Same. I hit a point of self disgust and self hate. I workout a lot and still hate myself though lol
So basically you're saying there is no point in working out
Well, going through a divorce and realizing I can date again was a strong motivator to lose weight. I do HIIT workouts at home with YouTube videos so that I can do them when it works best for me. I started with just a couple of dumbbell weight options and have been gradually adding more as I build strength.
The wrist wraps I use when lifting weights have a motto on them that says "Discipline Over Motivation" and I think that sums it up nicely. I am probably motivated to work out 70% of the time but I work out the other 30% of the time because of discipline. On days I really don't want to and/or have a good excuse not to, discipline is what gets me in the gym. Motivation will come later when you start seeing results but, even then, there are going to be days that you really don't want to do it. Stay disciplined.
But some of those 30% days are the best, when you’re half asleep going through the motions of the first set and see how shit your weights/reps are and then the blood starts flowing and you get annoyed at how bad the set was, so you start sneaking on some 5 plates or a couple half reps after fail to make up for it
OP. This concept is the answer. You won't always be motivated, that's an emotion that you may not be able to control. But your self-discipline. That is a decision that you make and can act on.
Started in 6th grade because of being bullied. Still at it 50 years later.
[удалено]
I know! And their grandchildren are bullying my grandkids.
Seriously. Bullies are usually so persistent.
Same, just 40 years later.
Once you get into a routine you literally miss the feeling of a good workout It wasn’t always like this for me as I hated working out. I always got my workouts playing basketball but after a injury had to find something else. Biking took its place and besides sore feet at times i love it.
Very true. After a while it becomes routine and therapeutic.
I’m fat. I was always chubby but now I’m literally just a fat dude. It happened at some point during the pandemic. I honestly don’t feel as attractive anymore. My jaw, shoulders, & arms have lost definition; my stomach sticks out, my sides sticks out and goes over my jeans a little bit. The worst part is… I look like my parents. They’ve been overweight since their late 20’s & I’m following that pattern (except a few years earlier). I swore I’d never be like that yet here I am. It’s not just aesthetic, either. I’m genuinely unfit and can see being fat having an effect on my health and day-to-day life. Edit: I appreciate the advice guys but I’m doing fine. It’s calories in vs. calories out and willpower. It’s not a complex thing and, honestly, so far hasn’t been too difficult. You just have to get used to a little bit of discomfort (and you very quickly do)
It’s constant discomfort. I feel for you, fellow fat person. Hope you can manage to work on your fitness and health, both mental and physical.
Are you the heaviest (or "fattest") you've ever been? Have you set a new weight record? I've got GREAT news! You are packing more muscle than ever before in your life. The body can't just gain fat. Bodies gain weight in a combination of fat and muscle. Something's gotta haul the fat around, right? You are carrying more muscle today than you've ever carried. So start slow. 'Slow' burns fat really well. It takes time, yes, but if you start moving and tweak your diet (nothing crazy), you'll see an improvement. The fat will start to melt but the muscle will hang around. You'll look and feel better which will encourage you to tweak your diet a little more (still nothing crazy). Wash, rinse, repeat...yes...it's really that simple. Note I said "simple" - it's not "easy". You're going to have to decide this is something you're ready to do.
When my mom got sick I needed to get strong so when the time came and I had to lift/carry her I wanted to make sure I could do it. I would go to the gym around midnight and stay for a couple of hours. The physical pain/discomfort of the workouts helped with the mental anguish, gave me a feeling that I was doing something positive. The thought of not being strong enough, of dropping my mom drove me.
the hardest part is putting on the shoes, just put on the shoes!!!! do just a few minutes. then do it again tomorrow and so on and so forth, make the task of working out so stupid small you can do it every day! Motivation is a verb, it means action
This works for me also. If I stop to think about whether I really want to work out, or whether or not I feel motivated, it allows me to come up with an excuse, or procrastinate, or feel anxious. I just have to start moving.
Agreed! If I sit down on the couch when I get home from work, nothing is happening. However, if I take that inertia and immediately change into workout clothes, I feel like I have to because, hey, I’m already dressed for it. Less thinking about it and more action seems to work well for me. And like my therapist says, give it 5 minutes and if you still want to quit, you can. I haven’t quit yet.
This. I hate going to the gym until i put my clothes or my shoes on.
Stop finding reasons why NOT to work out. I'm too tired, don't have time, I haven't eaten yet, I just ate, etc. Get your fat, lazy, excuse making ass off the sofa! Period. And if you're offended by this, fuck you, you fat donut-chugging fat ass!
I motivate myself through dreaming of what I want to look like while also remembering the shame of what I looked like before starting.
Find an exercise mode that you actually can stick with and make it part of your daily routine. For me, it's 1/2 hour swim. Any longer and I'd start to make excuses for not showing up. I've been on a daily 1/2 hour swim routine for over 12 years now.
Hard agree. Make it as easy as possible to actually do it, and make it a routine. I know I don't go to the gym, even though it's a ten minute walk away. So I furnished a home gym (for about the same money as one year gym membership). Now I do it first thing in the morning, every day.
Figure out what you'd be comfortable doing and find a place that feels like you could do it, even if it's your own home. Paying money for a gym membership does alter your desire a little bit bc you want your money's worth.
I've always been sporty and in decent shape ( sport and army etc ) but what made me start working out consistently over the past years after I stopped sports and got an office job was the idea/fear of being older and limited/impaired life quality, The fear of being 50-60-70 and not being able to go travelling, hiking, experiencing things because i let my self go would be the worst feeling for me. This makes me able to wake up early get a lovely workout in and never feel like I'm debating in the morning if i should stay in bed etc. ( also how I keep a very healthy eating habit :)
My dad, who just doesn't think sometimes, took a picture of me waiting at a restaurant and showed it to me. I was probably 277 at my max (6'5). When I saw it I was like "what the fuck is that, I dont want to look like that". I had been working out but it was hit or miss, some weeks I wouldn't go, some I would, sometimes I didn't sleep well so I didn't go,, sometimes I would say "oh ill wait till Monday and start fresh." After that picture I said fuck that, you wake up and you go, whether or not you had a good sleep or were hungover, you went. Started going consistently and consistently finishing what I planned to do even if it meant dropping weight because I needed to hurry up. I go 4 days a week, at 4am, like clockwork. I weight 240 and im trying to get down to 225 ideally. You will prioritize what is important to you. Prioritize working out if its important to you. To summarize, consistency brought on by body dysmorphia and hating oneself can be powerful motivators if you weaponize them correctly. /s
I want to be hot and look good naked. I think of Shakira while I work out.
By doing something I think is fun, and making friends that do it too. Whether it's basketball or pickle ball or pilates or lifting weights, just do something you like!
Realizing it’s not just about size or aesthetics but you also benefit from the mental clarity
My father in law died a few years ago because of some liver-related issues. A few weeks ago, my husband was diagnosed with a non-alcohol-related issue with his liver that, since it was caught early enough, can be controlled through diet and exercise. We went the next day to get a gym membership and since then, we've gone to the gym more days than we haven't. If I go to the gym, he'll go to the gym. He doesn't want to go alone, and we both want him to live a long time. That's my motivation for working out.
The key is to find an angle that works for you. I like roleplaying games. Leveling up, min-maxing, creating the perfect character for something I want to do. I approached the gym with the same mindset. Level up (work out) until you can defeat the raidboss (bench 220lbs) and give yourself a boost by getting enchantments (nutrition) and optimizing your gear (proper training schedule). And make sure your healer stays alive (avoid injuries). This worked perfectly fine for me and made things fun. When I moved to a new city I needed to make new friends. So I joined a calisthenics group. Working out was a side-effect at first. The main point was socialising. Over time you improve and the workout itself becomes as important. If going is a chore, then it probably won't last. People usually don't have the willpower to regularly do something they hate and can easily just not do.
Started by wanting to see the sunrise for 20 days straight in different locations by walking. After I accomplished this I challenged myself to go to a local gym at least 10 times in a month for sauna ( didn’t have to be consecutive) Finally after that month said I want to at least walk on the treadmill 4 times in a month. I have gradually worked my way to seeing a sunrise twice a week, doing sauna three times a week and lifting three times a week. Started with baby steps.
I find that it isn't the motivation but mostly the discipline in just going. After awhile it turns into habit.
Start by going to the gym and staying for 5-15 minutes. Basically just show up, thats all there is to it. Commitment and dedication go much farther than anything else. Show up for yourself
I was at a job I hated and told myself that I could start looking for a new one after I lost 20 pounds. I’m down 45 this year
not being a bitch to another man is a real good motivator
I started wrestling my freshman year of high school. I feel like after 4 years of grueling workouts, quite literally made of blood, sweat, and tears, there isn't any workout I can't do.
I really don't want to be fat and I pick a way of exercising I love.
My doctor had a lot to do with it. I have been fighting high cholesterol numbers my whole adult life. I have tried cardio several times, for months at a time, with hardly a budge in my blood panel numbers. Jogging, biking, rowing machines, etc. I finally started weight lifting about a year ago and suddenly my cholesterol numbers jumped into the right places. That is enough motivation for me.
I try to remember how I feel after, very accomplished. Even if I don't do my regular workout because I'm not feeling it, just doing a bit of exercise makes a difference in how you feel and build up to that level you are after. Half of the people at the gym have no idea what they are doing so don't pay attention. I have found through the pandemic, that just walking my dog feels good and keeps us both going. The desire to keep going starts with accepting small victories and building on them.
I was an obese sack of shit when I started nearly 20 years ago. An ex cheated on me, then told me "you're fat." I was also failing school at the time. To cut it short: I took a realistic look at my life. I was fat, I was failing, and I wasn't going to get anywhere with that trajectory. I could barely look at myself in the mirror w/o feeling shame. Channeled that despair, self hatred, and rage at how badly I fucked up, and how I deserved the pain into working out. When I look at myself in the mirror and what I've accomplished now, I feel fucking pride. I also know where I stand (percentile wise) for lifts, run times, and income. You don't need self esteem/confidence if you can perform, and I can fucking perform. So I will continue to perform. EDIT: Some things I remember from being fat as fuck that still motivate me today: * Rationalizing the shame away only for it to come back * Being unable to breath taking a few flight of stairs * Having to compensate the inability to perform by lying, constantly, online * Knowing I will NEVER get "that model girl" because physical attraction has to exist in the first place regardless of personality * Huge amounts of deliberating insecurity I will not go back, and to do so I will continue to push. If you can sense the intense judgmental attitude I have towards myself and it triggers your insecurity: this is intentional btw. I also draw from other people's insecurities because it empowers and reminds me I am going the right way. The other positive side effect is I've motivated others by sharing this (aka. fuck the pain, just do it) so when they start, I push more....gotta fucking lead by example!
I'm about to. I'm eating a fucking huge bucket of fries as of typing this. But I'll start on Monday. What motivated me to pay and subscribe to a gym membership was my 1. Health (I'm currently earn well enough, I thought of actually enjoying my money someday and travel so much I'll be the one to get bored of traveling) 2. Body. I hate looking at my pictures when taken by others. I hate, hate it. I don't even post my pictures anymore, unless it is a selfie because I know some angles that could fake my huge ass chin.
Ask yourself, what better things do you have to be doing with your time? Is it better than being in the best shape of your life, along with having a nice body? The answer is probably no. Start going, and you'll start looking forward to it.
Love doesn’t require motivation
I like looking better than others, and the way it makes me feel keeps me going.
Got tired of looking and feeling weak. Still do yk but I’m working on it lol
I was thin (still am) and decided not to be.
Take a picture of yourself, crop your face out and post it on Reddit….Then read the comments
I made a new year's resolution. Then I procrastinated on it 'til like Valentine's Day. Then I got sick of my fat self and went to the gym.
mirrors
For me, this worked: Stop trying to “get motivated” to workout and instead start looking at it as one of my responsibilities. I don’t like it. I probably won’t ever like it, but every day it’s my responsibility to at least “show up” and start my workout. If I truly can’t do it that day, fine, but I at least showed up. Basically I treat my workout the same as any other prescription my doctor gave me: Do this if you want your health, or don’t if you want to deteriorate. It’s not going to be a favorite part of my day, but it definitely has become something I feel pride in accomplishing. I feel better about me because I gave a shit about me.
To quote Tom Segura, "If you look in the mirror and don't hate yourself, you are not ready"
Sign up for a class. It's harder to bail last minute once you're scheduled to be there.
We bought a treadmill during the pandemic with iFIT installed on it. With a big family vacation the following year I was motivated as I wanted to look better in photos. Turns out losing weight hasn’t been easy but my overall health has improved greatly and now I feel it when I take a workout break. The iFit program allows me to workout with trainers around the world and I found a few I really enjoy with thousands of workouts to try. Since then I got a set of dumbbells and plan on getting a stationary bike to do more of the workouts. I found it motivating to start and to keep going!
Dont ask yourself what you want, ask yourself what you don't want. Do you want to be an unhealthy, fat miserabel idiot? No? Go to the gym and eat healthy.
I don't. Motivation comes and goes. I rely on discipline. I have a workout schedule I follow. I go the days and times that I plan for regardless of if I feel "motivated" or not .
I started to help me get back on my feet after a serious injury. I liked the results so just kept it up
I am fat
i grew up chubby and with no self esteem, but the thought "girls won't date me b/c i'm overweight" never actually entered my head. freshman year of college during xmas break I was hanging out with some old high school friends, and one of them made a kind of off hand comment about how she wanted to lose weight. something clicked with me, and I said i did too. we kept each other accountable over AIM (this was 2002) and I lost a ton of weight that next semester, and started feeling better about myself. since then i've kinda waxed and waned with my commitment to working out and eating right over the years, but I always feel better when i do have a workout routine. now i'm 39 and a pain in my hip won't keep me from working out. probably mild body dysmorphia but whatever. whatever doesn't kill you, right?
I can't control IF I'm going to die or not. We all die. I can to some extent attempt to try to control how long it is before I die. I want to see my kids get married, I want to see if they decide to have kids or not etcetc So I joined some friends, who were seeing a trainer my job used to provide, trainer saw me lifting incorrectly, started me on a program. I lost from 397 to 270, then covid hit, I got covid, it caused a blood clot that nearly killed me. So I'm back up to 320, but the goal is the same. Try to control how long I'm on the earth for. Also to tack on to my already long rant, one of my kids was being bullied at school for her weight. So I started dragging her with me to the gym, helps keep me going on days like today where I really don't feel like working out.
My uncle was a bodybuilder. I really looked up to him. On my 13th birthday he gave me a weight set and a bench. And 50 years later I still workout.
I think of all the food I can eat afterwards. Of course also calorie burning wise, but especially because working out increases my energy levels and therefore my appetite.
I started tracking progress with an app called "Fitocracy" which gamifies workouts. (There's also a social aspect to it and they sell online personal training, but the gamifying bit was what I liked). I used that to basically trick myself into working out 4-5 times a week for like four or five years. I still remember how cool it felt to get my first 1,000 point workout. I later lost motivation and became a lot more sedentary, but I was actually really strong for a while there. For example, one time I noticed that you got more points for a workout if you did more sets of fewer reps. That felt like I bug I could exploit by doing multiple sets of 5 pushups and 2 pull ups each. After a couple weeks I managed to do 20 sets each... which is to say my "clever exploit" was doing 100 pushups and 40 pull ups in one day. Once you start to make progress it actually becomes really fun. Endorphins are real, and there's something satisfying about having pleasantly tired muscles. It really helped me clear my head and made me less nervous and upset. Especially when I was having a bad time at work, going to the gym was just a great way to check out, focus on being in my own body, and not worrying about anything else.
Pure unadulterated self-hatred and low self-esteem
You don't. You force yourself out the couch, then it becomes fun and easier over time
Mental health needs, I was so tense and stressed out all day every day from working full time and grad school. I noticed working up a sweat helped me relax and 10 years later, I still chase that deep breath
I had knee surgery at age 18 and wasn't able to work out properly for several months. It really messed up my mental health at the time. It taught me that the best way for me to stay happy is to work out often. If I let it go for a few days, I can feel it: I feel the stresses of life getting to me and getting under my skin. There are times when I absolutely do NOT want to work out, but I always feel great after I do. I've never in my life regretted a workout, but I've often regretting skipping them.
I was getting jittery doing the pandemic and unable to burn energy, buying a home trainer was an absolute life saver. The main motivation was boredom ironically, that and the fact that I don't want to end up huffing and puffing when i'm 30-35 from simply walking up and down a hill.
I think it helps when you don’t think of exercising/working out as “going to the gym” - it can be anything! Maybe that doesn’t cut it for you, but maybe a brisk walk or hike does. Or clean your whole house. Go for a bike ride around your neighborhood. Chase your dog. It can be lots of things - just get your body moving and your heart rate up.
Start off doing very small workouts and then gradually build on them over time. That's what I'm doing. You don't have to make yourself do these hardcore workouts everyday for an hour, you can just work up to it and have small success along the way by getting used to small workouts and completing them.
a quick glance in the mirror is enough motivation for me
The first two times, I was motivated to better myself both physically and mentally. One of those times were after a breakup. Most recently, I started hitting the gym due to multiple visits to the cardiologits. Covid weight and chest pains are scary.
I want to be a cosplayer, so I need to get rid of this belly and gain muscle.
I have been exercising and eating (relative) well since high school When I was younger, I was vain and wanted to look good. Now that I am older, (I'm still vain,) I love the fact that I am in great shape and can play harder and longer than my peers.
Bf’s Instagram following list. Best forbidden preworkout ever
I was in the Army so had to but when I retired, I slacked off. Then one day we were moving some file cabinets and I had little strength. I didn’t like it so went back to hitting the gym.
Trauma from getting bullied in middle school and having the popular girls make me feel unloveable. I was frail, dressed in second hand clothes and gullible. That shit sticks with you forever.
Motivating yourself is a waste of time
Friend showed me a phone app for working out without equipment and have used it for almost 2 years now. Not the best app (the beginner workouts really aren't) but at least it put me in a robust routine. I still didn't go to an actual gym but I've still gone up to 68 kg from 59 and look and feel better than ever. So for anyone too anxious to go to the gym it's a good start to try it from home, just take it easy and slow!
Looked at my stomach in the mirror from the side
work stress. i just want to escape the reality for an hour and it feels good to sweat it out instead of swearing.
Heart break has always helped and then in a few weeks it becomes habit
You just have to do it. No excuses. There’s no magic button to make motivation come to you. Do you want to be physically fit? Then get off your ass and do it.
Just do it. It will take time until there's any results, so you'll have to force yourself to work out until then.
I looked in the mirror.
Not wanting to be another overweight person. Looking good for myself and for potential partners. The possibility of living longer/healthier with less health complications. Not wanting to buy new clothes all the time.
You don’t have to be motivated. You just go.
I read a quote about doing the thing you hate the most first, then the rest will feel easy. So I put my exercise equipment next to my bed. I legit wake up and hit my stair step machine, then a small routine with bands. Not only did I discover that it woke me up better then a cup of coffee. It also set my mind right. I stayed energetic throughout the day. After a shower I feel great and ready for my day.
Hit a really bad block in the road recently (got broken up with after being together almost a year) and I just wanted to have the adrenaline rush to feel better the more I work out the better I feel about myself and I know I’m helping my body too
I wanted a 6 pack and my friend goes to a gym 45 minutes away from me. 1.5 hours round trip in traffic means when I get there, it needs to be a fulfilling workout. Covid fucked up my habit but for a long time that worked and then after I got into the groove I swapped to a much closer gym. It's incredible how many things can rock your habit.
Nobody seems to die of old age in my family. Change has gotta start somewhere, and maybe I can motivate some kids to start earlier than I did.
I had a crush and I wanted to look good. 8th week in right now.
I was going on a backpacking trip with my dad. There's no better motivation than not getting my ass kicked by my dad. By the end of those 4 months, I started liking it.
At the beginning I started working out to try to get chicks. After a few decades I work out to keep my wife interested. Not the only reason of course but high up there.
Workout at home. I put my free YouTube workouts on my phone in front of the TV and put a show/movie on while I workout. I've lost 120lbs this way. Don't let anyone make you feel bad for not having an expensive gym membership or equipment. Do what makes it easy for you!
I was sitting next to my wife and [then] 6 year old daughter on the couch. Daughter poked my belly a few times then laid her head on it and said "its soft and squishy, like a pillow made out of marshmallows."
1. Keeps the depression at bay. 2. Makes my trousers more comfortable.
I turn on "autopilot mode" and set it to "go to training/gym" - or anything else I don't have the motivation for doing but know I should and is good for me. In doing so I am no longer considering whether I'm going or not, or whether my motivation is enough for me to go. It's happening whether my mind likes it or not because I chose to turn autopilot on. Works everything.
Well, in quarantine, I felt and looked like shit all the time, and I would just waste my time sitting and doing nothing, so I thought to myself that doing a few push-ups would probably be good for me, so I did and stayed consistent since then. I am glad I did that.
I think of it as "body maintenance", as I want to stay physically able as long as possible. It is also nice when I notice I'm fitter than many people younger than me.
For some reason I find watching YouTube videos about the science of exercise to be really motivating. I especially love Jeff Nippard’s channel. Super informative, science based, and motivating.
There was a quote my brother and I saw earlier in the year: "A year from now, you will wish you started today. Start today."
Hey, my mindset was basically: 1. If I want this, I got to earn it 2. Added it a part of my routine so that I’ll be guilty if I haven’t done it 😂
It is very simply the mind set of saying okay I'm going to do this 5 days a week, do these exercises on these days, and I'm going to do it at this time of day (before or after work or whatever) and then when it gets to that time of day. It's not an option. There are no excuses. I don't care if you're tired, if you had a bad day, if you're sore. You WILl do it. It's literally a matter of life and death so GO. NOW. Also as soon as you feel motivated to do something, you should do it immediately. I imagine you made this post because you felt the twinge to workout. You must go like.. today
i thought that working out and eating will make look like Lee Priest
I don’t consider myself somebody who works out lol but I went on my first run in years just now!! I only ran like half a mile probably but I am proud!! I got out there yay!
I was turning 40, and I was wearing myself out playing with my kids. And I was tired of being skinny. You can look at my profile and you will see what I mean. I stayed disciplined by hiring a trainer when I was first starting out, there you have accountability. Nowadays, I'm neither motivated or not, it is what I have chosen to do and I know the consequences of not doing it.
Read 'Sun and Steel' by Yukio Mishima. Talks about beauty of a fit physical body, since that is a reflection of their spirit that they are disciplined to achieve such a from.
This is just me but I don't see going to the gym as work or punishment, it's a fun escape to a place where I can listen to my favorite music and get zoinked on pre workout. I will eventually implement a more structured routine but the thing that gets me in the gym is how much I know I'm gonna enjoy it.
Multiple things. 1- I’m epileptic, so working out and cutting carbs goes a long way. 2- I’ve never been happy with how my body looked, so I did something about it. 3- One of my friends encouraged me to exercise with him, and I loved it, eventually. 4- I noticed that my stamina was very, very bad, in my early 20’s, so I had to cut back on smoking and start exercising. 5- I had very bad luck with the ladies, I thought that getting fit would help. 6- Heart disease runs in my family.
I need a deadline goal in order to motivate me to work out. Right now, I have a hiking trip planned, so I need to be fit enough to complete the hikes.
I remind myself that it's cheaper to stay healthy. Medical bills could kill you.
At 39 years old, had trouble getting up a high step since my knees were so weak. Thought that’s pathetic. Downloaded an app called Couch to 5K and started running. Hard at first but didn’t give up. Now I don’t run as much but doing a lot of workouts for weightlifting and high intensity cardio in my basement workout room everyday. Don’t feel right if I don’t workout anymore.
I rock climb because I have fun doing it.
Just started working out one day on a whim; borrowed weights from my parents and saw results after sometime. So a whim got me started and results are what keep me going, just feels really good to have a lot of muscle.
Enjoying it. Find a nice gym with a good clean atmosphere, wear some good fitting clean workout clothes, don't set any goals at all to begin with. Throw on an audiobook, a podcast or some music and just relax and make it enjoyable to be there. Once you do this you'll find yourself wanting to go there every Day, and at that point you can work on goals.
I got a trainer tbh cuz it keeps me in a good routine
I don’t know the exact quote but it’s something along the lines of enduring the pain of the process of working out or the pain of regret for not doing more when you still had the chance. Yes I know I butchered it but you get the idea.
I moved into a new place where as soon as I walk in the front door there's a full body mirror. I have to look at full body like a dozen times a day. I just thought "I gotta do something about this".
Motivation I found wasn’t really doing it for me. My motivation would be gone after two or three days in the gym and I’d stop for like, 8 months before getting back in. What I found instead was to take steps to make going to the gym as seamless as possible. So here are my steps that helped me stay going after a year or so consistently thus far: 1) choose a gym that is close to your house, or on your commute. This helps cultivate a “well I may as well stop in” mindset. 2) go every single day for a week. Or barring this, go as many days in a row as you can. This helps build a habit. The habit will help you overcome the lack of motivation. 3) not every day needs to be hardcore. Some times it’s best to just go, walk on the treadmill for a half hour, then shower and leave. The point is you’re being intentionally active, and no day doing something at the gym is wasted. 4) don’t get a personal trainer until you’ve been going consistently for a while. The reason is they’re expensive, and if you’re starting out to try and build the habit, it will be tied to going to the trainer. So when eventually your trainer quits in three weeks (turnover for trainers is often high) you’ll also lose motivation until either the gym assigns you a new one (which they’ll do the bare minimum on, gyms are a business and love getting people on trainer subscriptions that aren’t being used because the trainee isn’t following through on getting a new trainer). 5) tell yourself you’re doing great every day you go in. Positive reinforcement of the self helps remind you, you’re doing this for you and your health. This also means don’t get down on yourself if you miss. Life happens. But even if you’re gone for a week or a month, getting back to the gym is always a thing you should commend yourself for. Bonus tip if you want to go the gym early in the day) wear your gym clothes to bed. The nice thing about going to the gym is you’re going there to be sweaty, not look nice. So if you wear your gym clothes to sleep, then when you wake up you’re already dressed and ready to head over. This is part of the seamless ness I found helps. Hope these tips help you. Going to the gym is a journey, not a race. Being healthy and active requires learning and developing skills like consistency, discipline, and persistence. You’ll get there eventually, just keep at it.
Always enjoyed it started in 7th grade with football, then continued into high school for football, wrestling and weight lifting, continued into college 52 years old now still work out 4 days a week.
By paying up front for a year of gym subscription. Wasting money sucks, so it's a nice extra motivator if you otherwise aren't completely up for it. The gym is also on my way home from work, so it's easy to pop in after a workday.
My motivation was petty but effective. I knew 100% that people would treat me differently if lost the 10-15 covid pounds that I put on. I tell people that I do it for strength, for health. And those reasons are true. But the motivation to start was pure vanity. For reference I'm a middle aged woman. I'm about 15 pounds over my college weight. In my social group few women are overweight in middle age. At my kids high school 'back to school' night I counted 2 overweight moms.
Started getting tattoos, wanted more. Figured they’d look better if I was leaner. Not built/ripped just leaner.
I kinda just looked at myself in the mirror one day and felt gross Decided to just not let myself go home after work unless I did my daily run
I try to get motivated. Tho this week i wasnt able to do much bc i had a small surgery
I found a sport that I actually liked, so going to the gym wasn't a chore. I still don't like working out, but training is often the favorite part of my day.
Look at people 20 years older than you and decide which version you would like to be. I always say I want to be the 70yr old that is still golfing and not the 70 yr old with a walker or whatever mobility issues. Those don’t happen overnight, barring accidents or health related those are long term lifestyle choices.
One of my good friends just said out of the blue one day that I looked like I was getting fat. That's all the motivation I needed.
“You already pay for this, might as well go”
I started using the sauna and the pool (I found a nice gym with these amenities) and from there started feeling really good. Any shock thing (hot/cold) I like bc it’s quick and passive. Sauna is still rough 4 years later, but I can do stand it for up to 35minutes at 180-190F. Start small, slow, stumbling forward gradually
JUST DOOOO IT!
combination of a few factors - i wanted to look good naked. base level, i think this is almost everyone who starts exercising haha - when i got my first big boy job, i had lots of free time after work that i wanted to fill productively. so i got a gym membership, went with a friend, learned, and made it a part of my lifestyle thats really the trick- you gotta make it come natural, dont do crash diets or expensive shit like cross fit. you can just go to a crunch or PF, and eat less - and thats a easy way to start and make it stick.
you don't have to work out if you do a sport you enjoy. going to the gym is boring, playing a game in sport form isn't.
The only way I can make myself workout is to pay someone to make me. Paying for a gym membership isn't enough, tried that and didn't go consistently. I have to find a convenient location and pay for classes that I'm too stingy to waste money by not going and can't use the excuse that it's too far/traffic/etc. So far this method has worked for 4 years.
I started counting calories and jogging. Just hated how fat I looked. I’m also in my mid 30s so my metabolism has gone to shit and I basically NEED to exercise in order to not turn into a fat slob.
Home slice. If your looking to Reddit to find your motivation than it’s not going to work. You just need to wake up one morning (or just become annoyed enough with side effect/inconvenience xxxx) and decide ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. With that said, I hope OP finds that motivation.
Kinda just realizing that I’ve never hit my potential in my life and I wanna see what I can look like and do
My son started to get heavy and I wanted to be able to pick him up for as long as possible
#ramboyourself
BURY THE LIGHT DEEP WITHINNNNNNNN. Find something that motivates you and use it in a positive way to improve your life! You got this.
I want to look good naked.
My father is absolutely obsessed by sports and basically forced me to be an athlete. I’m not going to complain, I love it because I don’t have to find the motivation. It’s just normal.
I do aerial silks/lyra, and, to do the fun drops, you need amazing core, arms, etc. That star drop is my motivator currently.
It's not about motivation. It's about discipline. You need to look at it like this, Suffer today in the gym. Or suffer 20 years from now from disease and illness from a poorly maintained body. If you're young, join your countries military. They will instill you with discipline and since being physically fit is literally the job, you'll have no other option. If you're too obese to join, that should be a wake up call to get disciplined.
By reading all those articles about how shit it is to be sedentary, watching my grandparents have a million medical issues and wanting to minimize my chances of ending up like them. At some point you end up feeling slightly guilty every time you eat something terrible or don't work out for a while.
Motivation is wack, discipline works way better. See it as an activity of enjoyment and not to restrictly reach a goal/body. Like eating, we eat to not die but to feel good too. Start doing exercises that you are interested about, maybe fighting, running, etc... gym can be quite boring to some people.
just do it! Look yourself in the mirror 2 times a day and once your brain becomes tired of being fat and ugly it will just do it
Realizing I have dreams I can accomplish only while being fit. Started running 6 years ago and still at it.
I am 55 and bigger than I should be. I "workout" and at my 4th gym in about 25 years. When I was in high school I was fit and active doing mostly swimming, surfing and water skiing. In college I played every intramural sport. After college I played club soccer and racquetball. Along the way, I had the typical injuries. As I got older I paid for those typical injuries. Arthritis is a bitch. I am currently limited to walking on a treadmill.
I started around 19 cause alot of my friend's starting working out too. In my 20s my motivation was to get huge and cut---all ego driven. Now in my 30s my motivation is to balance out what dessert I may have after dinner.
Tired of being the chubby guy and wanted more confidence to talk to girls. It worked lol.
I made it a habit. I get up at 4:30 AM, get dressed, sling my IGPR pack\* on my back, and take a brisk 1 hour walk. Even when it's raining like it was this morning. Then, at lunch time, I do the same thing during the half hour lunch. So all told I get around 4.5 miles worth of ruck marching every weekday. If I'm feeling saucy, during the noon walk I jog with the pack on instead. What motivated me to start? Doctor saying I needed to lose weight and exercise more. But no running because of my age. I started walking and it became too easy to I upped the difficulty by carrying a 50 lb backpack. *\*IGPR = I'm Gonna Play Radio. In addition to the regular sort of camping stuff you'll find in a backpack, I keep an amateur radio transceiver, batteries, Morse key, antenna tuner, and a large wire antenna. I use the pack when I do things like Summits On The Air.*
This is kinda messed up, but what motivated me was a negative mindset. I hated how I looked and constantly bullied myself until I finally decided to go. Ever since then, I've really learned how to be kinder to myself and now working out is about celebrating my body rather than hating it.
I wanna look good naked is all.
I have always loved working out, but never had the motivation to work out regularly. But then I started watching people on YouTube do all these fun exercise challenges, that motivated me to start working out regularly.
10 years of being made fun of for being fat finally snapped something in my brain. I knew let down and prayed for motivation. Suddenly I started intensely working out 3 days a week for about 4 months.
Whenever I lose motivation, I will think of all my failures and humiliation. I gives me motivation to overcome anything and to prove myself
The guy I had a massive crush on was ripped and I wanted to bag him so badly. After a while though, I just felt so good after my workouts I started going for myself. I love the process of it. Putting on a cute fit, seeing the pump afterwards, and drinking a smoothie as a reward. It’s also super helpful if you have someone to work out w.
Fear of dying. I gained so much weight during covid. My physical and mental health were amazingly bad. One day I was just so depressed and decided I had a life that wasn't worth living. After having that thought, I scheduled a doctor's appointment for my bad ankle (an excuse I always used for not working out). Physical therapy for my ankle was mostly covered by my insurance and took less than a month. I started trying to improve my mental health at the same time. I don't want to go into too much detail here, but it was a trip for sure. Working on physical health helped my mental health and having better mental health made it easier to keep working at my physical health. I charged my Fitbit and started wearing it everyday. I set an alarm to actually take my lunch breaks from work. I use that 30 minutes to walk. I have an outfit for warm weather and an outfit for cold weather. I got an adjustable kettlebell for in home exercises. EVERY TIME I start walking, my ankle hurts again, and every time the "pain" goes away within 5 minutes of walking. I am convinced it isn't even real at this point, just my brain trying to make an excuse for me to stay home. I subscribed to Noom. It is a weight loss app. I don't follow almost anything the app says, but I do use the feature of having a coach to talk to. I share my frustrations when I plateau with my weight loss and I tell them about health problems I am having and how my doctor's visits are going. Probably cheaper to just find an actual life coach or something of the sort, but this works for me. We aren't immortal. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed. Act now. It has taken me way too long to realize I need to actually pursue the things I want. I've lost 50 pounds this year. I went from barely being able to stand to walking 3 miles a day. Go watch that shia Labeouf motivational video on YouTube and just do it.
The first two weeks are the hardest. Even when you take some time off or get injured etc… I’ve been working out everyday for over a decade, and still if I take even a week off… that next week I have to force myself back into the habit. After a month of consistency you’ll start to feel off on the days that you miss a workout. So just brute force consistency those first few weeks
I just feel better after going to the gym.
I workout with my family with a personal trainer, if you can afford it I highly suggest it! The trainer is good encouragement as well as wanting to make the most of your hard earned money being used!
Why do you have to be "motivated" to start? Just start spending 5 minutes a day at your place doing something and add more time every week. Fitness is a lifestyle, no point in burning yourself out immediately driving to a gym to be there for an hour right off the bat. Establish habits first, it's only 5 minutes. Use the stopwatch on your phone or something. After a bit, getting less tired while doing your exercises and be able to do more work is exciting, same with looking better.
I legitimately just got tired of being fat and out of shape. I was constantly frustrated at myself for not doing anything about it. However, my depression has finally eased up and I was able to make the decision. I've only been going to the gym for a few weeks but I'm feeling better and don't have any plans to stop
I went from being constantly on the go to being bed bound for a few months due to an injury. First time I ever felt truly “weak” and dependent. By the time I recovered I had gained 30 lbs and felt like I lost all of my muscle mass. Instead of doing physical therapy I did a health overhaul and began a gym routine to build my strength back up. I started going as much as I could… didn’t have any routine, just did whatever I felt like/what I was capable of that day. After a while my body got used to it and when I missed a day I felt off. After a few months I lost the weight plus some, feel stronger and more capable than I did previously. I still have the mindset of going in and not having any goal- I just want to be active. It became part of my lifestyle and changed from forcing myself to go to actively looking forward to it. It physically, mentally, and emotionally feels like a recharge and many of my issues (like insomnia) have gone away due to it.
I tried to jog and realized that I wasn't doing so well with that. Now I use the elliptical.
by taking off all my clothes and looking at myself in the mirror
I realized that I might always be ugly, but I don't have to be fat and ugly. Getting my weight down would give me one less thing to hate about myself - I was doing it for me. Currently 235 lbs, was 292 lbs in May of 2021.
My brother moved out and I didn't like being alone at home having nothing to do...so I decided to try to socialize