When I started Ready Steady Strong in 2021, one of my first projects was a 5-part series of blogs on gym motivation. Each part in the series covered aspect of gym motivation and the mistakes I frequently see. I’m proud of the series, but in hindsight, it was a long read!
Fast-forward to 2023, and it’s time to streamline this topic with some simple solutions to your gym motivation problems. We’ve all wrestled with a lack of motivation when it comes to training. However, over 13 years of training people, I’ve see what works and what doesn’t when trying to overcoming a lack of fitness motivation.
1. You’re Not Alone
The first step in overcoming a lack of motivation is to realise you’re not alone with this problem. We tend to categorise people as either having motivation or not having it. This is incorrect! Motivation is not a resource; it’s a process that we progress through over time.
We progress and regress through different levels of motivation at different times; sometimes we need motivation from others; other times we derive motivation from our goals; other times we feel motivated by viewing the gym as part of our identity.
There’s nothing wrong with you when you’re feeling less motivated to train. It’s normal to vary the level of commitment you have in the gym when motivation is low. That being said, if you can maintain small level of gym commitment when motivation is low, you will build your motivation over time.
2. Focus on the Positive
Sometimes motivation comes from external sources. This can be your favourite influencer or brand on social media, or it can be family, friends, or anyone else. These people can have a major impact on how motivated you are to work out.
This type of motivation is a double-edged sword. Motivation isn’t always positive, and there are many external influences that can make us feel negatively about fitness and our body. This can lead to you using fitness as a way of gaining validation and acceptance, or as a way to escape these negative feelings.
There are plenty of people who would argue that negative reinforcement is a good thing so long as it produces results. However, it’s hard to be consistently motivated by negative feelings, because we don’t want to feel consistently negative about ourselves. Getting results in the gym takes time, so you have to live with those negative feelings for a long time before you see any change.
Constantly feeling negative about your appearance can lead to a number of unhealthy fitness and dietary behaviours, and it can also lead you to burn out and avoid the gym entirely. Also, it should go without saying that getting results in the gym is never a justification for feeling terrible about yourself.
It’s possible to change your body image without actually changing your body, and vice versa. So, if your motivation to train revolves around negative thoughts and feelings about your body, then you may need to work on those more than you need to work out.
3. Challenge the Narrative
We all know that everyone gives up on their new year resolutions, right? So we might as well not bother, right?
We often tell ourselves a narrative about fitness in which quitting is inevitable. We furnish this narrative with our track record of previous times where we joined the gym and then quit later. The problem with this logic is that everyone has gone through a period of quitting the gym. That includes the people who train consistently now. The fact that you quit the gym before doesn’t mean you’ll quit this time, and it doesn’t mean you won’t get the results you want.
Imagine if you actually succeeded in the gym this time. What would that look like? What results would you get? Instead of predicting that you’ll quit in the future, open your mind to the idea that this time, things will be different. Better yet, try to learn some lessons about what went wrong last time and improve on them this time.
4. Know Your Non-Negotiables
One of the reasons so many people struggle with gym motivation is to do with planning. More specifically, when it comes to making a fitness plan, they write cheques they just can’t cash. While some people succeed in making extreme changes, most people make things way harder for themselves by making all sorts of promises with very little forethought.
Worse still, people will make promises that absolutely clash with their values, leading to increased resentment of the changes being made. These values are your non-negotiables; things that can’t be changed without making you unhappy. Of course, some things do have to be changed if you want results in the gym, but you can often get results without completely forsaking your non-negotiables.
Examples of people going against their non-negotiables include:
- Swearing off alcohol despite wanting to go to work drinks every weekend;
- Promising to go running 3 times a week despite hating running;
- Committing to 6am workouts despite hating mornings.
If you struggle with gym motivation, then you need to reduce friction in as many ways as possible. If that means reducing your initial commitments and sacrifices, then so be it. Save the ambitious action plans until you know what you’re capable of.
5. Know Your Weaknesses
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Thomas Edison
This point goes hand-in-hand with point 4. One part of planning for success is acknowledging what caused you to last time. It’s important to recognise what might hold you back. Is it your work schedule? Your weekend habits? A certain training method that you really, really don’t like?
The great thing about fitness is that there are so many ways to approach it. If there’s something that reduces your likelihood of sticking to a fitness routine, then you need to address it. This means either coming up with a solution, or avoiding that pitfall altogether.
For example, let’s say that your local gym is too busy when you train after work, leading to a disrupted workout. You could either try to train at lunchtime, or focus on home workouts for the time being. The worst thing you could do would be to try and just “suck it up” and continue planning to go to the gym after work. The constant disrupted workouts will only drain your gym motivation.
Summary
Motivation is a not a switch that can be flicked on and off. People that struggle with gym motivation often need to change their approach in one of the ways mentioned above, rather than simply trying to power through. By nailing the steps above, you increase your chances of becoming one of those “gym people” that doesn’t struggle turning up to the gym. It’s certainly a complicated process, but one that’s worth the effort so you can reap all the benefits of becoming fitter and stronger. If you need help addressing your motivation issues, then get in touch below.