I can’t be the only one who has already started to notice that summer feels like it’s starting to wind down. The mornings and evenings that are often the times of day most of us try to squeeze in a work out, are starting to get that familiar chill that attacks our motivation for exercise.
The seasons can have a massive impact on our motivation to work out. In the spring and summer evenings are light, if we’re lucky weather is warm and going out for that run or signing up to a bootcamp doesn’t seem that hard. Fast forward a few months and suddenly the mornings are dizzily and the evenings dark before you’ve even finished work. It’s not surprising that many people find their fitness drops slightly over autumn and winter and for some it stops altogether. Once you’ve got into the habit of cancelling one or two workouts it’s surprising how quickly you can go from ‘I’ll just skip this one’ to realising you haven’t worked out for a few weeks straight.
That’s why it’s really important to start thinking about engraining some good habits to boost your motivation now.
Here are 3 things that you can start to do now to help you keep motivated now autumn gets here.
ADOPT A "Just START" MENTALITY
Have you ever tried to do something for just 10 minutes? Likelihood is that once you started it didn’t seem as hard or as awful as you first thought. Applying this to your workouts, tell yourself that you’re just going to start and you can stop after 10 minutes. The likelihood is once you’ve got going and your heads in the game you’ll see the workout through. If you were right and it’s awful, hey 10 minutes is better than 0 minutes!
2. SET GOALS
If you’re riding the exercise wave at the minute, use it to your advantage. Book in some sessions or set some goals that will keep you motivated to train and workout even when the nights draw in and temperature drops. Even better would be if you sign up to something with other people like an obstacle course or night run! Having other people to train with will make it harder to skip sessions, and at least if you have to go for that run in the rain you’ll have someone to go with!
3. MIX THINGS UP
If you’re forever forcing yourself to go work out, it won’t take long before the fun gets sucked out. We’ve all had to embrace the elements from time to time but unless you're a sucker for punishment it might be a good idea to mix up what you do to keep fit. Most of our sessions are already indoors with plenty of space available due to COVID-19 rules. Alternatively, look for different things you can do that are indoors based or you're completely new to, this will help perk up your motivation to keep going. Some ideas could be; using the new swimming pool, trying indoor rock climbing in Eastleigh, booking a weekly badminton court at the lido to play with a few friends.
We hope to see you at a session soon.
Yours in fitness,
Michael
Founder/ Head Coach