So many people quit because the workouts fall out of habit, but what might be one of the causes of that? At the root, I think that it really does have to do with not having fun. Of course, there are other things that are very powerful drivers like needs for improved health or self-esteem. Those might take precedence on the 'Fitness Hierarchy of Needs', but there certainly is a place for fun on there. When it comes to a point in the early morning, how many times have we probably thought, 'dang, this going to be a serious drag' as opposed to 'Wow! Can't wait to do 5 sets of 24 lunges!' I'd like to think that the second one crosses my mind more often than not, but when the former hits my brain first, that's the sure-fire indicator that it's time to switch up what I'm doing.
Speaking personally, I find that there are a number of programs that I've simply stopped doing a few weeks in just because I got bored with all of the repetition of the same routines and lack of diversity. I'd become sluggish and generally lost any enthusiasm to wake up early to get going for the gym. To me, the best programs are the ones that keep challenging you by trying to keep the training fresh by introducing different exercise pairings, schedule variations, and more imagination and do all of this early and often. New ways of challenging me, equals continued excitement for the day's workout.
Regardless of whether or not you're a gym goer or a runner, etc., there are so many great, fun ways to keep fitness in our lives. All sorts of lower intensity activities like yoga to higher intensity activities like rock-wall climbing and whitewater rafting can be channeled to fight the good fight and incorporate physical activity into our lives. Not just any physical activity though, amazingly fun activities that challenge our minds and bodies. Sometimes the overall goal is to just keep moving, but we need to find something that charges us to move.
However, I will add that proper physical training (whether it be cardio or resistance) is certainly a force multiplier that will help you excel at the things you love to do, thereby, upping your enjoyment of the sport or activity you've been enjoying!
In my daily routines, I've found that playing on organized teams (or even with the pick-up football crew) has become a motivator for pushing hard in the gym. Once we find something that we love to do, something to apply our fitness to, it seems natural, in a way, to use our desire to excel at that activity and use it as motivation for training. The premise of this almost seems to be physical activity begets more physical activity. If so, I like that idea.
Coming full circle though, we have to find what makes us happy and what we find fun and challenging. What one person finds fun will not necessarily drive someone else. I think what I typically find fun is the general progress, the pursuit, of meeting the goals I set for myself. Setting benchmarks doesn't necessarily excite someone who finds lifting iron dumbbells completely overrated, no matter the program. This, again, brings us back to one of the above statements: just keep moving. Once we stop moving, we start regressing.
If you're at a point where you need to find a little motivation, my suggestion is to think about the physical activities that you find the most fun to do. Don't just think about how to find ways to do them, but think about how to get even better at doing them once you start (or even before you start). This is this week's main charge from Pursue Fit. We've focused on a lot of introspection this past week! My apologies for that, but the mental side of fitness is such a crucial component to your overall success, so please do find the time to think and plan out your fitness.
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