How Do You Stay Motivated To Workout At Home (Or At The Gym!)
I hear people asking a lot of the time how I stay motivated to work out. How do I do it at home so consistently? Some people even say they can’t keep the motivation to work at home because they can barely summon the motivation to go to a group class workout – when there is peer pressure to show up.
It is not easy to find the motivation every day. Some days, I have no motivation to work out. But I have created an environment for myself that makes it easy just to put my shoes on and move.
To help all those with the same questions or looking to refine their motivation techniques, I put together the top things that help me stay motivated. This is part 2 of 3.
How To Stay Motivated To Workout
Part 2: Do What You Enjoy
What you see in magazines and social media may seem like that is what you need to be doing. Those people make it look like you need to chase a specific aesthetic or do a particular type of workout to get to where you want to go.
But honestly, it will never work for you if you can’t stick to a consistent routine because you don’t enjoy working out. You will be stuck in this stop-and-go situation—one step forward, two steps back. You will deal with it for a little while because you are super motivated, but then you will stop when something else becomes more appealing or you are more concerned.
To stay motivated, you need to find your thing. You need to do what you truly enjoy doing!
Here are my tips on keeping your workouts fresh and exciting.
How To Stay Motivated: Do What You Enjoy – Find Your Thing
With all the readily available resources these days, you can find what you enjoy doing more easily.
Look through Pinterest.
Countless workouts are floating around in Pinterest feeds, Everything from HIIT and Crossfit, swimming and Climbing, Tae Kwon Do, and Yoga.
And for many of these posts, chances are you can do it from home unless you need special equipment like a pool.
Through Pinterest, you can find blogs you can follow to suit your needs. If you keep hitting articles from the same blog through Pinterest, you might benefit from following them or signing up for their email list. When I started creating my workouts, I took inspiration from Pinterest all the time. I kept a journal of what I did and what I felt worked for me. I started seeing a theme in my workouts. I dug deeper into those areas once I pinpointed what I liked doing.
Other resources are books. So many kinds of fitness books are out there to help you discover what you enjoy doing. Find your nearest bookstore and browse. Chances are, what you want will jump off the shelf at you. (Not literally.)
When I decided I wanted to learn how to do Yoga. I felt like I needed a less intense piece to my routine, and even though Yoga can be VERY intense, I kept it low. I bought a couple of Yoga books to help me learn more about the anatomy and a more scientific approach to the craft. I found a channel on YouTube, Yoga With Adrienne, and started following her religiously. Before my baby, I would get up early, lay out my yoga mat, turn on a video, and follow along the best I could. I couldn’t do anything well at first. My downward dog looked more like a train crash. But with time and consistency, I was able to start forming a better shape.
And there are more than just Yoga channels on YouTube. You will find numerous workouts and demo videos to follow along with. Search for what you might be interested in, and I bet you can find something fun! Use the suggested videos, and if you keep hitting the same channel, follow them! Yoga with Adrienne has so many free videos on YouTube, but she also has weekly emails you can sign up to receive, and there is also a paid membership site that gives you even MORE! There are tons of people out there willing to provide you with as much information as you can handle.
If you see something on Pinterest and are unsure what it is, chances are there is a video on YouTube to show you how to do it. My husband bought me an agility ladder, and I used the videos on YouTube to create my agility ladder workout. Before those videos, I didn’t know many moves other than the Heisman.
How To Stay Motivated: Do What You Enjoy – Get That New New
I was speaking of the agility ladder. I wanted it because I was getting bored with my cardio routine. I tried to switch it up with a new piece of equipment that allowed me to get my heart rate up like running on the treadmill.
If you get bored with your routine, you can always switch things up and get the same effect. I also bought battle ropes to use with the same intention. I was bored of running on the treadmill, so I got my cardio using battle ropes.
Living in North Western Pennsylvania, it gets really dull in the winter. There is so much snow and so much indoor hibernating.
You can switch weights if you get unmotivated due to boredom. If you always use a barbell, challenge yourself to only use dumbbells and vice versa. The weight can be the same, but the stimulus will differ between the two pieces of equipment. So don’t be surprised if you are sore after doing a dumbbell deadlift or jerks when you are used to using a barbell for the same movements.
My most recent switch-up is a brute-force sandbag. WOW! The difference in stimulus with a sandbag is even more different than that between dumbbells and barbells. I am in love with my sandbag, and it kicks my butt regularly.
What else keeps me motivated is buying a new outfit! I have pieces I ONLY wear to work out, so I know when I put those clothes on, it is time to move. I keep separate pieces for only lounging in. The mental aspect of having different outfits is enormous. Next time you need a motivation boost, buy a new outfit and plan only to wear it during workouts.
So, if you are bored and unmotivated, try a new piece of equipment and wear a new outfit. It will get you to want to workout, refresh your routine, and even provide a butt-kicking workout.
How To Stay Motivated: Do What You Enjoy – Switch It Up
Are You Unmotivated Because You Don’t Know What To Do? Like I said before, with all the free content on Pinterest and videos on YouTube, as many paid memberships will provide you with daily workouts, you won’t need to develop them on your own. You won’t have to get stuck with the “What do I do now?”
Throughout my journey, I have been a member of multiple programs. Mostly trying to find ‘my thing.’
My journey started with just straight bodybuilding. I was lifting for sets and reps of a few movements. It gave me a solid foundation of beginning strength. I was learning about the mind-muscle connection. Focusing on the muscles, specific movements were supposed to work.
I followed Dana Linn Bailey (and still do) closely. The way she trains is so impressive.
I joined Nicole Wilkins’s membership site. I wanted to compete in figure competitions for a while, and she is incredible. She is so knowledgeable about competing, and her membership site is full of all the information you need, including her workouts, meal plans, and how to prep.
Even though I love bodybuilding, I felt like I needed more. That’s when I found Hannah Eden and her High-Intensity Interval Workouts in the form of a membership program. Daily workouts that bring an impressive intensity to each workout. Her workouts are ass-kickers, and I get an amount of sweat that makes me happy. After learning more about her, I found that she came from a background in CrossFit, which was new to me then.
I started following and learning more about CrossFit and following the program on the CrossFit Main site. It provides free workouts daily with rotating rest days. I would switch out Main site workouts with CrossFit Linchpin workouts I came across on Instagram. Linchpin now has a paid membership with extra details for the day’s workout. From here, I decided that CrossFit was for me—a perfect mixture of High-Intensity Interval Training and bodybuilding. I also started following CompTrain, a program for individuals wanting to compete in CrossFit. Not nearly ready to compete, I needed more basic foundational strength and movement training.
That is when I found Street Parking.
Street Parking is the perfect program for me right now.
They provide daily workouts, so I don’t need to think about it for myself. Accessory workouts complement the daily workouts, so I still get to do some bodybuilding. They have a ‘maintenance’ section where they have yoga videos to follow along with for most situations. And the online community they have is incredible. Working out from home can get lonely, but a whole support system is built into the membership.
If you are unmotivated because figuring out how to work out on your own is a problem, find a membership, a group, or a workout program to keep you going and accountable.
How To Stay Motivated: Do What You Enjoy – Be A Kid
Maybe you are unmotivated to work out because you think of it as work.
Kids will run and play outside. At a playground. With their friends. For hours! And it is primarily active, working out. Go to a playground and watch how many toddlers have meltdowns because they are being told to leave – that they have to stop playing, which is essentially a workout out.
Adults would not cry because someone told them they had to leave the gym or couldn’t go.
Be a kid again. Change your mentality on what ‘fun’ is. Fun could be walking with a friend or climbing a mountain. Take a spin class with your best friend and hacompeteith, who can go faster.
My kid ‘workouts’ with me. He will run around and copy any jumping I am doing. I used his little dumbbells or barbells to try to copy my movements. He swings from a rope and hangs from a bar. He doesn’t think of it as work. To him, it is fun! It is playing with mommy and enjoying being active.
Find new motivation by changing your mindset. Be a kid and have Fun. Exercise is meant to be fun!
How Do You Stay Motivated To Workout At Home (Or The Gym!)
Part 2: Do What You Enjoy
- Find Your Thing. Use the internet to help you find what you like to do. Create your routines with the movements you enjoy doing. Pinterest, YouTube, and Books are great resources to help you get going.
- Get That New New. If you become unmotivated due to boredom, buy a new piece of equipment or a new outfit specifically for working out. These will make you want to get to your next workout as soon as possible.
- Switch It Up. Tired of your routine? Find a program to alleviate that. There are plenty of programs out there that will fit you and your routine. Don’t be afraid to try something new.
- Be A Kid. Change your mentality, and have Fun. Working out doesn’t have to feel like a job. Find the Fun in the activity and play!
Next, in ‘How Do you Stay Motivated To Workout At Home (Or The Gym!) Part 3: ‘Give Yourself Something,’ I will give you tips to keep you wanting to get back to working out.