11 Crafty Fitness Motivation Hacks To Try Out

The number of excuses people have for not doing workout is endless. Low energy days, busy schedules, oversized expectations. The list goes on and on for common barriers people face when trying to achieve their fitness goals. Despite knowing that routine exercise lowers blood pressure, reduces risk of heart diseases, maintains a healthy weight, and makes moving easier, people still drag their feet around this.

In order to help and ensure that you will keep showing up at a gym, here are some secrets that wellness pros and health research recommend to those when motivation is starting to decline.

Get Yourself Some New Shoes

While sticking with the shoes you got five years ago sounds great, they can actually be a source of demotivation. By this point, the shoes have been worn down that the arch support and shock absorption can lead you to hurting yourself.

Instead of using the excuse of not wanting to hurt yourself any longer, go and grab yourself some new shoes. The key is to pick out shoes that are lightweight and that fit your style. When you do that, you can always carry them in your bag and ensure that you’ll have them all the time when you hit the gym.

Do More Than Run On The Treadmill

While the treadmill is a nice piece of equipment, there is only so much that it can do.

In some cases it might be nice to break up the pace and go for a bike ride with a friend. Some other considerations are trying new exercises or taking classes that get you to do different sets of moves.

In order to keep your fitness commitment strong, you want to be doing these things, as they push beyond your comfort zone and prevent you from reaching a plateau and getting bored.

As much as exercise is a painful process, it doesn’t always have to bring you to tears.

You want to be enjoying yourself as well, whether it’s doing a fun exercise or laughing at yourself while working out.

Treat Yourself… With Money

Maybe not in the sense of gorging on something unhealthy, but one consideration that the Mayo Clinic has brought up is paying yourself in cash. A study from the Mayo Clinic looked at two groups of people – one group was paid $20 when they hit their weight loss target for the month, while the other wasn’t offered any money.

The results were that those that had money incentives lost an average of 9.1 pounds over the 12 month period of the study. Those with no incentive lost 2.6 pounds. On top of that, the study found that 62 percent of those in the cash-incentive group went to the end of the study. 26 percent made it to the end in the non-incentivized group.

Overall, this is a smart idea to keep yourself committed. Best of all, there are plenty of programs that offer this structure. One such program that comes to mind is Healthy Wage where you can bet on yourself and you can win cash if you hit your target in the period of time you assigned.