MOTIVATION TO EXERCISE: 10 TIPS THAT WORK - ARTE - 2025

Getting motivated to do physical exercise is important if you want to be constant, not give up and see the benefits that sport can do for your health. Although it seems easy to many men and women it is difficult to incorporate exercise into their daily lives and it can become a world for them to maintain it over time.

As you know, doing sports has very positive benefits for our physical, mental and social health. However, on many occasions knowing this does not create enough motivation for us to take our shoes and go for a run.

Starting exercise slowly, rewarding yourself, seeing the changes, adopting routines and habits, and setting goals are some of the best ways to avoid quitting and stay motivated.

Tips to increase your motivation to exercise

1- Reflect on what you want to achieve

You say you want to play sports but if you don't know exactly why you want to do it, no matter how hard you try, you will not have goals or objectives to meet or a reason important enough to stay active and not leave it at the first change.

Sometimes making a list of what you want to achieve with exercise helps to create enough motivation whether it is losing weight, running that marathon that we have always wanted or simply getting fitter. If you are clear about it, it will be easier for you to get up from the sofa and turn off the television.

2- Set real goals for yourself

If you are already clear about why, a good way to keep them in mind and that will motivate you even more to do them is to write them down on a piece of paper and place them in a place where you can see them continuously. This will remind you that you have to fulfill them and will give you the strength you need to fight for them.

When you manage to achieve a goal, leave it in the same paper in which you have placed the others and cross it out, this will also remind you that you should not give up because just as you can see what you have to fight for, it also makes you keep your achievements in mind.

3- Go little by little

When we embark on something new like a job or a new activity, we always start out with a lot of enthusiasm and feel tremendously motivated. Therefore, we want to do everything as soon as possible by giving of ourselves even more than we can give.

However, this, believe it or not, will only bring us problems when we do not achieve the goals we have set for ourselves or in this case, our body tells us in the form of injury that we are going too fast. We have to set goals and go little by little overcoming them and that yes, starting from the bottom.

4- Create your goals

There is no use setting goals and repeating yourself that you are not going to achieve it. That will only affect you in a negative way so you have to be positive and believe that you are going to achieve all those goals that you have set yourself from the beginning.

For this reason, you have to constantly tell yourself in front of the mirror that you can achieve it and that nothing is going to resist you, not even the push-ups that you have to do even if they cost you a lot.

5- Commit yourself

Setting goals for both short and long term as well as motivating yourself to train hard will also make you commit. It will be useless if you are motivated to achieve the goals that you have set yourself from the beginning if you do not truly commit yourself a few days a week to doing sports.

Remember that you really have to want to achieve them and you have to be aware that there will be worse and better days but if you don't commit yourself you will never know how far you are capable of going. Therefore, you have to take time to train even if it is limited.

6- Plan yourself

A good way to motivate yourself is to mark the event you want to attend and participate in on the calendar. In the event that you are starting to run, you can search what races or marathons are in the next few months and sign up. Of course, we have to be realistic and not enroll in a race that we know we will not be able to finish.

Once we have registered we have to mark that day on our calendar, so we will be more motivated in training since we will have another more marked objective in our role and this is very close, so we will have to plan and get in shape to get it.

7- Think positive

You cannot demand too much at the beginning, so you have to get to know yourself and know what little by little you can achieve with the time and dedication that you are putting into it.

That is, even if you have set some goals for that day, do not be discouraged because you have not achieved them, look at the evolution you are having since you will always have a better score than the previous day and that must be reason enough to be happy with yourself and feeling fulfilled.

8- Eliminate distractions

How many times have we wanted to exercise but have seen on television that a program or movie that we like is about to start? It has happened to me many times in which I have said good, then I exercise and finally that day I have not.

It not only happens with television but also with friendships or even video games or any other activity that you like. You have to try to eliminate all those kinds of distractions and tell yourself that the sport will last an hour at most and that afterwards you will have as much time as you want to do the other things that you like.

Remember to look at sport as another fun activity that you feel good about and that will bring you many benefits.

9- Surround yourself with people who motivate you

Whenever you can, surround yourself with people who love the sport you are doing or who simply like to be fit and take care of themselves. This will help and motivate you to do the same, including incorporating certain habits that these people have into your daily life.

Also, who better than them to help you get started in the world of sports? Whether it is your coach or your own gym companions, this environment of improvement and exercise will be more than beneficial for you.

10- Exercise in company

It is not the same to do sports alone than in company, since you do not always have the same desire to do the activity, however, if you do it accompanied you can motivate each other on the days when you do not feel like it.

In addition, thanks to this the activity will be more enjoyable and you can even compete with each other, thus increasing your motivation and your desire to improve.

11- Read about your sport

All sports have their own official magazine or a page where you will find everything you need to know. If you want to do things well, you should inform yourself or be aware of the news that is in it.

This will not only help you to set the objectives and goals you want to achieve, but it will also improve your motivation when discovering the celebrities who are interested in the same sport as you or even the people who lead it, what greater pleasure than knowing that there are people who one day were at the same point as you?

12- eat properly

If you want to meet the objectives and goals that you have set in the beginning, you will know that you have a better chance of achieving them if, in addition to training continuously and properly, you also take care of your diet.

Believe it or not, having a proper diet will help you feel better about yourself, so you will also see it reflected in the marks you have with the exercises you are doing.

13- Reward your effort

It's not all going to be eating right and working hard - the reward is part of the effort too! But… How can I reward myself after a hard day of training? If you like beer or ice cream, one of the best ways to reward yourself is by drinking a good glass of beer or eating ice cream.

This does not mean that we should always do it after a training session, but it does mean once a week. Another way is if you train several days a week, rest one. Everything will depend on the goals you have set for yourself and the reasons why you have decided to exercise.

14- Replace unproductive and sedentary activities with healthy activities

If we surround ourselves with sedentary people, in the end they will infect us with sedentary lifestyle, no matter how motivated we are to carry out this activity. Therefore, always keep in mind several options that you can do to avoid sitting at home.

Whether it's jumping rope for five minutes or doing push-ups, you can always do small exercises, the important thing is to be active and of course also motivated.

15- Check your progress

Is there a better way to motivate yourself than by watching your progress? Honestly from my point of view, in addition to how good you feel when you play sports, another of the things that motivates me the most is knowing that little by little I have been improving in my timestamps or in the sport that I am practicing.

Currently, there are some Apps that help you control your brands as well as motivate you to continue striving and surpassing yourself day by day, such as the Runtastic application.

16- Get adequate rest

Remember that we cannot push ourselves too hard and that we also have to rest. Our objectives have to be realistic and we have to meet them in a healthy way as well as rest.

If you practice sports tired, you will not be in top shape and that will show in your results and will make you feel discouraged, so if one day you do not feel well enough to do the training, it is preferable that you rest for the next day to be in top shape..

17- set a schedule

The best way to do sport and keep it in time is to have a schedule with the hours that you are going to dedicate each day. Either before going to work or before going to sleep you have to be constant, so it will be easier for you to incorporate it into your daily life.

In addition to this, you will be able to know what activities you will have to do and you will be able to organize yourself better and without stress.

18- Do exercises that are feasible

It is useless to start training doing exercises that the only thing they will do is stress and demotivate you. You have to start with training adapted to your level and little by little demand more of yourself.

In this way, your level of motivation will increase considerably when, over time, you can do activities that were impossible before.

19- Make time

If you have something to keep in mind, it is that in addition to being constant with sport, you also have to be motivated and have goals. If one day you cannot follow the schedule that you have established, try to do exercises of shorter duration in any space you have free.

If you do not do it especially at the beginning, you may fall into the temptation to leave it simply because one day you have not been able to continue with the planning you had planned.

20- Practice sports in different places

It can become very monotonous if you always exercise in the same place and this can wreak havoc on your motivation, so what if we change the place where we practice it? Not only will you feel better but you are also sure to meet new people while running or walking around new places.

This will also help you to set new challenges because surely the route you were taking was already getting too small for you and now you need to improve yourself and there is no better way than to do it by marking another route to travel.

21- Use new technologies to exercise

As we have pointed out before, new technologies can be of great help not only because they can control our progress but also because they can motivate us to improve ourselves.

On many occasions, using a stopwatch while we run for example, can motivate us to want to improve our brand or even reach that site in a certain period of time. So whenever possible, use new technologies to play sports.

22- Listen to happy songs

Music can be one of our great allies when doing sports since just by listening to songs with a good rhythm and catchy we get up from any sofa or chair simply to run or dance.

So it would be nice if we made a playlist with different styles of music that we can use while we are doing sports that raise our adrenaline and motivate us to continue with the exercise we are doing.

23- See how good you feel

Although at first the only thing you will feel will be discomfort due to the stiffness that you are going to have due to your sedentary life, that will be very normal but do not be discouraged. If you are constant and keep exercise in your life for a month you will see that you will feel with more energy and self-esteem, capable of doing everything you propose and above all in a very good mood.

In addition, you will see that doing sports is necessary for you because it is what eliminates the tension of daily life and makes you feel good about yourself, what better way to motivate yourself than to feel good?

24- Have fun

You have to try to see sport as a game, as something that is not being imposed on you and that is therefore not an obligation. If from the first moment you see it as a duty, you will finally end up leaving it and you will not make your motivation to exercise last more than a week.

Therefore, encourage yourself to change your perspective and see sport as a moment that you dedicate for yourself and in which you are going to have a great time because you are going to get in shape and you are going to achieve the goals you have set for yourself.

25- challenge yourself

What better way to motivate yourself than to challenge yourself to outdo yourself or a friend in the sport / exercise that you are both doing? This will eliminate the monotony and make you want to practice it more.

It is good that you do it from time to time and that way you will know how far you can go at that moment and the best of all will be that if you overcome the challenge you will feel enormously fulfilled as a person.

26- Do the same exercise in a different way

It is not only good that to combat the routine we do exercises in different places, that we use different music or that we even do it together. T

Also, always doing the same exercises or the same activity can make our new occupation become very monotonous and therefore wear down our self-esteem.

Therefore, it is important that once or twice a week we innovate in some of the exercises we do, either when warming up or even during our daily activities. For example, if we go running, why don't we use dumbbells?

27- Buy yourself new equipment

Another thing that tends to motivate us a lot is to release new training equipment. And who doesn't? It is true that it cannot be done very often because they tend to cost a bit expensive but it can also help us to improve our motivation.

Surely it has also happened to you that you were discouraged in the gym because you were not meeting your goals and you have gone to buy a new equipment and you have come back with more desire than before.

28- Talk about what you are doing to your friends

Whenever we decide to do a new activity, the first thing we do is tell the people around us and that includes our family and friends.

A good way to motivate ourselves without a doubt, since they will surely admire you for your bravery and more if they know that you have tried several times and that you are willing to make this the final one.

29- Photograph yourself exercising

Seeing yourself exercising can also motivate you not only to practice it but also to see that the goals that you had originally set for yourself are being met, especially if you decided to practice sports to lose weight.

On the other hand, if one of your goals was to participate in a race or a marathon, seeing yourself in a photograph either on the podium or running will also make you feel very good and increase your self-esteem.

30- love yourself

Finally, it will be useless to motivate ourselves to exercise if we do not want what we are doing, if we do not respect why we are doing it and do not accept that we can fulfill and achieve everything we set out to do.

The greatest motivation we can have to face a new activity is knowing that we have the capacity to achieve it.