Do you still blame yourself for not exercising or exercising only occasionally? Do you have a problem with not being able to force yourself to exercise? Don’t force yourself. We know how to make it so you really want to.
Just get started
It’s been proven that the hardest thing about exercise is getting yourself to actually start it. Almost everyone can relate to this, but you also need to remember that we are only human – easily manipulated creatures. Are you a master at manipulating your friends to go out for a glass of wine in the evening? Try just as easily to manipulate yourself into exercising. It seems like a big difference, but it isn’t. If you keep saying “go for it” in your mind or calmly out loud, eventually you will actually go for it.
VIDEO TIP: How to motivate yourself to exercise? Coach Dominka Horáková answers.
Bethany Kwan, a researcher at the University of Colorado, took 98 people between the ages of 18 and 45 and had them run on a treadmill for 30 minutes. A third of them started to view running as a form of relaxation after just this one half hour. A week later they had to repeat the run by themselves. The well-influenced, who envisioned a fairly pleasant treadmill run, had admirable results, while the negatives fared poorly.
Long-term fit!
Manipulating yourself is just one of the useful points that will come in handy. It’s not acceptable in the long run to argue over and over again. Why should you do this? It is enough to simply not have a negative view. It is better not to close yourself to sweaty gyms in the beginning, but try to exercise (walking or running) in the fresh air, in a nice park, where the environment is pleasant for you. Only then try to combine it with exercise.
Get it here
It’s better in twos, it’s been said since time immemorial. Take your friend, who is just as comfortable until this moment, or the one who has been persuading you for a long time to exercise, and surprise her with your sudden enthusiasm and zeal for the cause. You are close to each other and you will not be ashamed of yourself when, for example, you run out of strength. If your girlfriend is the competitive type and you don’t like it, don’t worry – new studies have confirmed that comparing the results of exercises motivates a person to try harder, push themselves, and even to repeat the exercise more often. In addition, maybe your friend will enjoy the competitiveness so much that on other occasions, for example, in the evening at the bar, she will be completely calm and will not fight with you in other matters.
A true marathon
Of course there are plenty of lazy individuals out there. But those who say they are that way by nature are wrong. It is about getting into a certain movement pattern. People are primarily inspired by the patterns they observe around them. Sinan Aral, co-author of the MIT University study, says: “Less active people influence more active people to a greater extent, on the contrary, they are no longer so easily influenced. It’s just that slackers influence marathoners, marathoners don’t influence slackers.” When it comes to gender, men are influenced by both men and women. On the other hand, women don’t just let men talk them into something. Usually only women have an influence on the fairer sex, at least in fitness.