Feeling Thrown Off by All These Long Weekends and School Holidays and Social Events? Never Fear, we Have Some Tricks to Motivate you to Get Back Into the Gym!

You want to keep to your training schedule. You have the best intentions at the start of every week - but somehow that long term consistency is eluding you. How do we kick start our motivation, and when it starts to fade, hold onto it?

Here’s some proven tips and tricks for you to try…

Reward yourself

If you want to step up your motivation to train consistently, consider dangling a very big carrot in front of yourself - a beautiful handbag, a fancy dinner out, a spa treatment, a nice watch… pick something you’ve wanted for a while. Then set a training schedule (2-4 sessions a week) and at the end of each week if you’ve completed the sessions, put aside some cash for your reward.

You can scale this kind of reward up or down - try putting 1 or 2 dollars in a jar after each session and using it to buy yourself lunch after a few weeks, or go all out and book a holiday and use that date as motivation for achieving your fitness goals.

Join forces with a friend

You’ve heard it time and time again - because it’s true! If you team up with a partner, friend or colleague to hit the gym, you are much more likely to stick to it. You can keep each other accountable, remind each other of why you’re there, and complain about your sore muscles together over a coffee.

To make this even more effective, check in with your workout buddy at least once a week to see how they’re doing - lift them up when they’re not feeling it and they’ll do that for you too.

Commit to a challenge

Committing to a set period of training with specific goals to achieve can help kick start your efforts and get you in the routine of working out regularly. This is a great idea for those who want to keep themselves on track but don’t necessarily have a set idea of exactly what they’d like to focus on with their fitness. Chat to one of our Big 5 coaches aboutour upcoming challenges if you’re keen to get motivated!

Working through set tasks as part of a group gives you a sense of community and connection, and establishes an instant support network for any positive changes you’d like to make going forward. Plus, competing against others or as part of a team can make exercise feel more like a game or a social activity rather than something you “have to do”. Remember, to stick to training for the long term, you need to enjoy it! The more you enjoy something, the less it’s going to feel like a chore.