We all get into those funks sometimes when we get out of the exercise habit, feel tired of our current exercise program, or feel like we can’t motivate ourselves to move at all.
Often we know moving will make us feel better, but taking that first step to complete our workout feels hard.
I’ve struggled with this in the past too, so today I wanted to share 5 strategies I have used to get out of a workout funk.
HOW I GET OUT OF A WORKOUT FUNK
1) Change it up
Sometimes I’ve found I’ve been doing the same workout (or same type of workout) too often, and have gotten burnt out. I’ve changed the location where I exercised (from gym to home or vice versa). Sometimes I’ve even exercised outside for a while if the weather was nice, and that helped.
There were times I felt tired of working out with dumbbells, so I did body weight only workouts or even just cardio workouts for a bit.
Changing the types of workouts we do, and the location where we workout, is sometimes all we need to get us out of the workout funk.
2) Choose lifestyle change over hard-core/unsustainable workouts
I really struggled with this one in the past. I would have 1-2 hour workouts in the gym, which took a huge portion of my day. Sometimes the workouts felt so intense, or required so much commitment that I couldn’t keep up what I was doing for more than a few months. This definitely put me in a workout funk, and it made me feel like my lack of motivation would stop me from doing these long workouts.
Now I make my movement plan more sustainable. I do exercise 3-5 days per week, but often only 10-20 minutes at a time. I traded out long workouts for efficient and effective moves – mostly in the form of metabolic strength workouts, which I have found to be more effective, and required less time commitment.
3) Rely on habit change instead of motivation
No one could ever “make” me feel motivated enough to exercise for life. More important, I learned motivation is NOT the holy grail to becoming forever-fit. Motivation is a buzz word and not required for long term success.
I had to learn that the secret to exercising consistently had nothing to do with my motivation. It was about building the repeatable habit for me to move my body regularly.
The more I repeated regular workouts (even if they were only 5-10 minutes a day to start) the easier it got. Exercise became a repeatable habit for me, and I didn’t have to rely on motivation to take action.
4) Know your opt-out point
Your opt-out point is the moment you give yourself a chance to opt-out of the workout. For example, one of my old opt-out points was allowing myself to sit and watch a DVR’d show or Netflix in the afternoon to relax a bit before my workout time.
I wrote a whole blog post on how I removed my opt-out point and started to exercise regularly. You can find that old blog post HERE.
5) Make it fun
Sometimes we are simply looking at exercise as a chore. I had to start picking workouts I enjoyed, and get used to moving my body in ways that felt good to me. We often get hung up on doing the “perfect” workout. The truth is consistency beats perfection every time.