Top Tips to Stay Motivated in Sports and Fitness
We all need to exercise, but it is not always easy to get motivated to start exercising, or having the motivation to continue when things get difficult.
- Create a before picture — nothing is as motivating as seeing yourself in front of a mirror (naked is better!). Be honest with yourself and commit to making a change if you don’t like what you see. Take another picture every month and see the changes more clearly. The changes to your body with training will be gradual and it is often difficult to see day by day by just looking in the mirror.
- Do something you enjoy — Hate running? Don’t do it. Love cycling? Do that. Pick exercise modes you will look forward to doing.
- Do a fitness test — Before you start a new regime make sure you know your current state of fitness. Then, as you progress you should continue to test every month or so to monitor progress and keep motivated.
- Find a training partner — If you have someone to workout with it improves motivation, and your odds of sticking to it are greatly increased.
- Track your progress — a great way to do this is using social networking sites and mobile apps. It makes it easy to track and share your fitness goals and activities with a virtual group, and this helps keep you motivated.
Bonus Tip
- Count backwards — Count the number of repetitions from the total downwards. When you get near the end of the set, you'll think about how many you have left instead of how many you've done.
Related Pages
- More about motivation in sports
- Our collection of motivational quotes
- Goal Setting Strategies — once you've set your goal, you need success strategies to help you reach it.
- These tips are derived from just a small part of the Fitness Tips eBook 100 Essential Fitness Tips — get your free download.
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
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