How To Keep Going, When Motivation Takes A Hike
by Karen Millard
What's the hardest thing about exercising
at home? If you're anything like me, it's simple lack of motivation. Before
I became a mother, I belonged to a gym. No matter how ambivalent I felt,
I knew all I had to do was get myself there and the instructor would take
over. Even if I was planning a weight training session, just being at the
gym surrounded by other fit and sweating bodies was enough to re-energize
me.
At home, I'm more likely to be surrounded by piles of laundry and dishes
waiting to be washed. Is it the same in your house?
So what can you do when the motivation slips and you begin to feel that simply
getting the house in shape presents enough of a challenge?
The first thing to do is figure out what's causing the problem. Burnout,
boredom and failure to see results would be the most likely culprits. Although
it's not impossible to suffer from more than one at a time, we'll deal with
them one by one.
Burnout happens when you overdo it. You dash headlong into fitness hoping
to see results fast. When you see them, you try even harder in a quest for
more visible results, greater performance. Soon, you begin to suffer niggling
little injuries, unexplained aches and pains, fatigue. Minor infections become
more frequent, last longer.Your reasoning goes askew. "I need to be
stronger," you think. "If I'm fitter, I'll stop feeling like this."
So you work out even harder.
What your body craves is rest. Even the fittest body needs time to recover.
Gauge the amount of recovery time you need based on the intensity and duration
of your workouts and your age. Your body at thirty-five will need more recovery
time than your body at twenty-five.
Here are some tips for avoiding and curing burnout:
If the symptoms are severe, start with a visit to the doctor, just to be
sure. Then, take up to a full week off. On purpose! Get a massage, go for
a stroll with an elderly relative, push a child on a swing. You won't lose
any significant ground and when you return to working out you may find your
performance is better than ever.
When you return to your workouts, be sure to vary the intensity, duration
and frequency. A simple rule is to follow a hard workout one day with an
easy one the next. "Easy" means any low intensity, low impact exercise that
still elevates your heart rate. Depending on how you're feeling, you could
also design a program that incorporates easy, medium and hard workout days.
Just be sure never to allow two hard days in a row.
Incorporate more days off into your weekly program. You can still lead an
active life in general. But your fitness won't suffer if you plan for rest
days. In all likelihood, it'll improve.
Boredom is easily diagnosed, isn't it? A ho-hum attitude towards exercise,
but a strangely undiminished desire to stay up all night eating popcorn.
Boredom, in fact, is now my biggest problem. Exercise used to be the most
important thing in my life after my family. Now it's my work. But after twelve
years, I'm no longer seeing the changes in my body that motivated me so strongly
in the early days. So how have I kept going? I follow these guidelines:
Vary the intensity, duration and frequency of your workouts, just as you
would to avoid burnout. Then vary the workouts themselves. Cross-training
remains popular because the more variety you incorporate into your program,
the more it holds your interest. When you understand that exercise is for
life, you'll understand how important it is to vary the daily fare.
Add music. Put a CD on the player and keep the beat. Music is a great way
to take your mind off the effort. Whatever music you choose, just be sure
it's something up-tempo that makes you want to move!
Exercise at a different time of day. If you usually exercise after work,
go for an early morning walk. If you're fed up with getting up early, take
a thirty minute break at lunch time, or arrange for a late supper and work
out when the kids come home from school or in the early evening. Stay flexible,
don't get hung up on routines and you'll be able to keep going day after
day.
Recruit a workout buddy. In my neighbourhood it's a common sight to see two,
three or even four ladies striding out together. Husband and wife walking
" teams" are common too. Working on their bodies, and their marriages.
Wear really great exercise gear! Look the part, even at home, alone in your
basement, and you'll soon feel the part.
Emigrate to a tropical island and spend your evenings writing and your days
swimming, surfing and running along white sand beaches... Oops! A little
fantasy crept in!
The final motivation-buster is failure to see results.
Here's where I get tough. Exercise works. If you do it right. If you eat
right so that the wonderful muscle tone isn't hidden under a layer of fat.
It's possible to eat too much healthy food!
First, check your goals. Are you aiming to lose weight? Increase cardiovascular
fitness? Tone or gain muscle? Then ask yourself some hard questions. If your
aim is to lose weight, are you exercising aerobically at least four to five
times a week for 30 to 45 minutes? How's the intensity? Strolling along,
chatting to your friend just won't do it. Pick up the pace.
Are you lifting weights? It takes a combination of diet, aerobic exercise
and strength training to develop the perfectly conditioned body. Running
six miles a day will trim fat off your belly, but it won't flatten it.
Conversely, weight-training alone won't trim fat.
If you are weight-training, are you working out each muscle group at least
twice a week, using a weight that's heavy enough to fatigue the muscle on
the last two or three reps? Are you allowing enough recovery time between
sessions?
Are you being realistic in your expectations? Exercise will make your body
the best it can be. It will not alter the basic structure of your body nor
reprogram your genetics.
How long have you been working out? Most experts agree it takes about twelve
weeks of dedicated effort before results become visible.
If you've run through this check list and are still dissatisfied, I suggest
you keep a training diary and record your progress. How long could you keep
going the day you started? How long can you keep going now?
My exercising life began with a $4.00 skipping rope. I did 25 skips and
collapsed, my lungs hurting for air, my stomach nauseated. For a whole week
I did 25 skips, and for a whole week I collapsed at the end of them. The
next week I thought, "What the heck!" and tried thirty. I still collapsed,
but I made it to thirty first! I graduated to fifty. Then a hundred. Pretty
soon I wasn't collapsing anymore and I knew I'd made significant gains.
Fitness isn't only about how you look. How you feel inside, and your body's
new capabilities are important yardsticks, too. Make exercise enjoyable,
stick with it, and pretty soon motivation won't even be an issue. Your workouts
will simply be part of your life.
About the Author:
Karen Millard is a mother of three and has been working out at home for a frightening number of years. She is a freelance writer based in Saskatoon, Canada and is currently working on a book of oral histories with co-author Maryanne Zuzak. When the stress of transcribing interviews gets too much, she puts on some very loud music and climbs aboard her cross-country ski machine.
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