Fitness Carter: 5 Tips for Fitness Motivation

Everyone, and we mean everyone, needs a little motivation from time to time. Maybe you’re coming off a month long hiatus from working out and need help getting back into a fitness routine. Maybe you’re bored with your workout routine, or you’re having a hard time committing to your current workouts. Regardless of the reason, we’ve all been there before and need a little kick of motivation to help get us going again. Here are our top five tips on how to get and stay motivated for fitness:

#1 Hire a Personal Trainer

We are bit biased with this tip, but hiring a personal trainer is an excellent way to get you motivated to exercise. By making an appointment with your trainer, you have made a commitment to yourself and to your trainer. Chances are if you have an appointment that you have paid for, you won’t break it. A good trainer will also be a great motivator by helping you set and reach your training goals, by teaching you new exercises and keeping the routines fresh and exciting, and of course, by encouraging you along the way. Are you ready to hire a personal trainer but don’t know where to start? Read our “9 Tips on How to Select a Personal Trainer”^[1] for advice!

#2 Set a Training Goal

We always recommend that our clients have training goal at all times. Your training goal can be anywhere from doing 10 pushups, running 1 or 5 miles, losing 5% of your body fat, or working out 4 days per week. When goal setting, it’s important to quantify your goal. For example, you don’t want to just become better at pushups, you want to complete 10 pushups by the end of next month. You don’t want to just increase your cardio endurance, you want to be able to run a mile without stopping within the next 6 weeks. Write down your goals as well; this will hold you more accountable seeing them in writing. Setting very specific goals will set you up to always know what you are working towards with a time frame in mind and will also help you stay motivated.

#3 Try Something New

Many people stop working out because they are bored of their fitness routine, plain and simple. It’s easy to fall into a rut if you’re doing the same workout in the gym all the time or taking the same class. If you feel this is happening, try something new! It could be anything from sampling a different class at the gym, learning some new exercises, switching your focus from cardio to weights, or completely changing your workout routine. Get excited about changing up your exercise regimen and use your newfound motivation to propel yourself forward through your workouts!

#4 Purchase Some New Gear

It may sound silly, but working out in a new top or in new sneakers for the first time is exciting. If you have a little money to spend, splurge on a piece of workout clothing or fitness accessory that gets you excited about working out. It could be a new tank top, a new pair of training sneakers, or even a new water bottle. If you could care less about new workout clothing, you can look into purchasing some new workout equipment. A kettlebell, TRX, or a new fitness DVD for your home workouts are always a great buy. If you’re not looking to spend any money, there’s nothing like a new playlist to get excited about and push yourself through your workouts.

#5 Get a Training Partner

Working out with a partner, a personal trainer, or a team is a sure way to keep you motivated to work out. A training partner can not only help hold you accountable to show up to your workouts, but can also help push you in your workouts. A training partner can be a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker, a spouse, a personal trainer, or a local weight lifting team or running club. While it is possible to train on your own, it’s likely that you will not train as hard as you will with a training partner, personal trainer, or team, who can support and encourage you, push you to reach your goals, and most importantly, hold you accountable.

From DeHenzel Training Systems: DeHenzel Training Systems is Northern Virginia’s premier in home personal training company. It was founded by Jason DeHenzel, who holds his personal training and nutrition certification from the prestigious National Personal Training Institute. Jason and his team of in home personal trainers take pride and passion in improving the quality of people’s lives by increasing physical strength, endurance, and overall sense of well-being. Read more on the DeHenzel Training Sytems blog ^[2] . You can also Like DeHenzel on Facebook ^[3] and follow them on Twitter ^[4] .