How to Motivate Yourself to Exercise

Posted on January 12, 2010 by Kate

Develop a knowledge base. Understanding the need for exercise, as well as the associated health-related benefits, is a sufficient stimulus for some people to act. Knowledge provides a rationale for an active life, and for those who respond positively to cognitive information, it might be a key motivator.

For many people, however, knowledge about the beneficial health effects of exercise usually is not enough of a motivator. Even though most people know that exercise is good for their health, most don’t participate. Knowledge is simply not sufficient to stimulate most people to make positive behavioral changes. For instance, millions of people know that smoking cigarettes is harmful to their health, yet they continue to smoke. Other motivators are needed.

Set realistic goals. Goals for exercise should be specific and attainable. They should address the major accomplishments you will attempt to achieve. Goals might be to control weight, develop muscles, increase energy reserves, manage stress, reduce serum cholesterol or blood pressure, prevent chronic disease, or compete in road races. Walking and jogging, or a combination of the two, are effective exercise modalities for achieving all of these goals.

Novices might walk for 20 to 30 minutes per day, four or five days per week. Beginning joggers should jog for about 20 minutes per day three times per week. This does not include the time required for warming up and cooling down. Beginning joggers should ease into jogging by combining it with walking to diminish the musculoskeletal and cardiorespiratory stress. As fitness improves, walking time should be reduced while jogging time is increased progressively to fill the entire 20 minutes. Speed should not be increased during this time. Jogging every other day will result in enough rest between exercise sessions for the body to fully recover.

As fitness improves, walkers can exercise more often (frequency) and for a longer time (duration). Because walking is a low-impact activity, it imposes less demand than jogging upon the musculoskeletal system. The intensity of walking, however, should reflect a pace that is well tolerated and enables recovery from one workout to the next. Reasonable exercise and health goals should be selected within these parameters. Exercisers should be patient and not attempt or expect too much too soon. Exercising beyond one’s capacity will produce discomfort and pain and could produce an injury – any or all of which could easily lead to discouragement, and ultimately to dropping out.