10 ways to train yourself to exercise regularly

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Try these approaches and you won't have to force yourself anymore.

1. Find your love

I train three times a week and only skip workouts if I really get very sick. Even when I broke my little finger on my right hand, I continued to go to the gym: pulling up with a barbell strap and doing burpees on one hand (it was tin!).

I am not a professional athlete, I do not prepare for competitions and I never force myself to go to the gym because “it is necessary”. It's just that I love CrossFit so much that I gladly come to workouts. This does not mean that CrossFit is so good that it will definitely make you love the sport. On the contrary, it will terrify many.

Try as many sports as possible until you find yours. Don't stop - it definitely exists.

Before finding CrossFit, I tried dancing, running, karate, yoga, swimming, cycling, rock climbing, strength training in the gym. There was something attractive everywhere, but in the end it got boring. So if you've only tried running or strength training and are not thrilled, keep looking.

2. Practice in good company

Getting started with friends is much easier and more fun. All uncomfortable moments will become a reason for laughter, you will feel more confident and freer.

Not only will you keep each other busy between sets, you will have additional motivation. Once you've agreed to meet at the gym, you can't just go and go.

If you don't have friends who would like to play sports, find a coach.

3. Find a coach

If you find your coach, he will not only follow the technique and help you achieve your goals, but also chat with you in between sets. Companionship and fun is a huge bonus that will make you come to workouts.

In addition, you may be ashamed of skipping workouts. Even if the coach doesn't yell at you like a corporal from American films, you will still feel some commitment.

You don't feel so well without training. Well, if you don't come once or twice, then either the coach will remind you, or your teammates (I am engaged in a team sport).

Sergey Varlamov Head of Distribution Department of Lifehacker

Advice: find out if the coach has a higher special education or if he just took a two-week course, what length of coaching experience, if there is any merit in sports. You must know who you trust your health to.

If you are determined to do without a coach, make a training program before going to the gym.

4. Make a training program

Most beginners just walk back and forth, sometimes grabbing the shells that caught their eye: approach here, approach there. Beginner runners do not warm up, run as long as they can, and then, out of breath, with a heart rate of under 180, stop and just stand with their hands on their knees.

Any training is a new world with its own characteristics and rules. Before entering it, get the information you need.

Come to the gym with a ready-made program and basic knowledge of technology, to the stadium or to the pool - with a warm-up and cool-down performance. Be sure to keep your goal in mind when designing your workout program. This will help hold out until the first results.

5. Define your goal

Once you've found a sport that inspires you, figure out what you want to achieve. If this is a strength sport, you can set yourself a weight goal, for example, do deadlifts for 100 kilograms, if CrossFit - exits on rings, 10 meters walk on your hands, if running - run 10 kilometers or 100 meters in 10 seconds.

Your goal can be about waistbands, distances, looks - whatever. Just set specific goals.

• Badly:lose weight, build up, become healthy and strong.
• Good:lose 5 kg, perform a squat with a barbell of 100 kg, perform at the Open.

6. Buy clothing specifically for your workout

Buying sportswear and equipment is not trying to force yourself to exercise, sparing the money spent. This does not work.

Sportswear is needed to:

• to provide comfort in training and make it more enjoyable for you;
• tune you in the right mood, even when you are studying at home.

The real torment is swimming without good glasses, exercising in sweaty cotton clothes, and constantly straightening an unsuitable bra. At the end of the workout, you will curse the most beautiful, but interfering clothes.

Even if you are exercising at home, sportswear can help make your workout routine. Spend a few sessions in it, and things will begin to be associated with physical activity. Now, to get ready for your workout, you just need to put on your sports outfit.

7. Hold out until the first results

Everyone knows exercise is good for your health, but it's not very motivating. When you are young and feeling well, possible health problems are not particularly touching: you cannot post stamina and heart health on Instagram, you don’t even feel them really, at least at rest.

Appearance is another matter. This is what brings most people to gyms and stadiums. If you, like almost everyone, want to look good, hold out until you see the first results, and then you will have a strong motivator.

The state of health and mood is better, tone, cheerfulness, thinking is clearer. Gamification: goal setting and achievement is excitement. Measure the bituha with a centimeter - it heats up. Look in the mirror and say to yourself: "Wow, healthy!" - also nice. Well, without training, it seems like it starts to break.

Sergey Suyagin Lifehacker creator

8. Find the perfect time to exercise

The human body is subject to biorhythms, and each has its own. Some people like to work out in the evenings, after work, while others are more suited to morning workouts. Try both.

If work doesn't allow you to exercise in the morning or afternoon, try on a weekend. Perhaps Saturday workout will be your favorite.

9. Create a gathering ritual

Small rituals help strengthen the habit. From the very first lesson, create your own packing ritual: charge your phone, create a playlist with music for your workout, put your things and a flask of water. The next time you don't feel like going to workout, just do your packing ritual and your mood will change.

10. Start moving

If you still don't feel like going to class after packing, promise yourself to work out for just 10 minutes. Only 10 minutes, and then you will go home with a sense of accomplishment, because a short workout is better than no workout.

Go with this promise, and you are guaranteed to work out the usual 40-60 minutes. The main thing is to drag yourself into the gym or pull yourself out into the street, and then you will find yourself in the stream and the body itself will want to train further.

At first, you just go to classes for some purpose, and then you just can't help but train.

Firstly, if I don't go to training for a long time, my back hurts. Well, when it hurts, you go like a sweetheart. Secondly, if I do not exercise regularly, an aggravation of depression flies to me faster. Therefore, when I safely crawl into remission, I am so afraid that depression will return, that I am ready to go anywhere and whatever.

Anastasia Pivovarova author of Lifehacker

The main thing is to hold out for the first two or three months, and then you simply cannot be without training.