How to Stay Motivated to Workout

Member

By Melinda Stark
eHow Community Member

Article Rating:

(4 Ratings)

If you have trouble staying motivated to keep working out, I have some tips that can help you.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Notebook
Measuring Tape

Step 1

Keep a journal.

Write down your workouts and everything you eat everyday. This will allow you to go over and see if you need to make any changes - especially with your diet. You may not realize how bad you really are eating until you have started keeping a record of it.
Step 2

Assess your progress & make goals.

It's important to keep challenging yourself to keep your body in shape. Look over your workout journal, assess what you've done, and use the information you have in your journal to set small goals for yourself.
Step 3

Take monthly measurements.

Take measurements of areas you'd really like to improve on and measure the same place each month to determine if any changes are being made. Do not rely on a scale. You will see more changes in your measurements verses weighing yourself. Also, be sure not to measure yourself too often, because that will just frustrate you because you aren't allowing yourself enough time to notice changes. Once a month is good.
Step 4

Hang a poster.

If you have a body type or model that you want to look like, fitness wise, hang up a poster or picture of them around your house, in your car, or in your workout area. Looking at the picture every now and then will help to keep pushing yourself to improve your own body.
Step 5

Rest!

It's very important to have rest & recovery days. Your body recovers and your muscles grow when you aren't working out. Plus, if you workout too much you could easily burn yourself out and quit training all together. Be sure to have at least 1 rest day. If you prefer to workout every day, then be sure not to train the same muscle groups 2 days in a row. Muscles need time to recover and grow.
Step 6

Go shopping!

Adding a new item or two to your fitness apparel can help to motivate you to keep working out. Buy yourself a new sports bra or some brand new shiny sneakers!
Step 7

Keep your body guessing.

Always try to mix up your workouts so that you don't get bored doing the same routines day in and day out. You don't have to have a set schedule or day to do a certain activity. I have found that making up each routine as I go along, really helps to lower the boredom factor and keep my workouts exciting.