It’s no surprise that staying active is necessary for living a healthy lifestyle, especially within the sports-loving community of Stripe 3. We’re all familiar with the importance of exercise, and many of us live for that rush of hitting a new PR in the weight room, or mastering a new juggling technique in soccer. Even so, no matter what kind of athletes we may be, finding this motivation can be a challenge for all of us from time to time. Fortunately, Stripe 3 has a few suggestions for how you can revive your fitness routine if you feel like you’re in a rut.
Several of the points offered in this blog post are based on evidence shared by James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits.
1. Shake it up!Sometimes, a dip in motivation may result when we’re simply bored of doing the same repetitive activity for weeks. It’s so much easier for us to stay consistent and see results if we actually like the activities we’re doing.
So, if you’re tired of walking, running, or biking the same familiar route, consider finding a new spot in your area to explore. If you lift weights, try experimenting with new exercises that target the same muscles groups. And if you play another sport, practicing new drills might be all it takes for you to fall back in love with the game. Of course, it can always be fun to pick up a completely new activity as well!
2. Grab a friend or roommate to work out with.You’re probably familiar with the idea of a “workout buddy,” which can make exercising more fun for obvious reasons. What you may not know is that having an accountability partner is a strategic way to achieve many goals—athletic or not. This person holds you accountable for a commitment you’ve made to them, such as agreeing to meet you outside of your door for a run every morning. By committing to work out with someone else, you’ll know that the person is counting on you to get out of bed and get moving, which can help boost your own motivation.
3. Listen to something new.One of the best parts about getting active is that it gives us a chance to throw in our earbuds and blast our favorite energizing tunes. After all, the right music can make or break a good workout. So, if you’re feeling slumped with your routine, it could be partly because you’re tired of listening to the same songs on repeat. We recommend taking some time to scroll through your workout playlist, removing old songs that no longer hype you up, and adding some new ones to the mix.
4. Mark your progress—and reward yourself!Another common tool for adopting positive behavior change is “habit tracking,” or noting down every time you complete your desired activity. When it comes to staying active, you can track your workouts by marking each one in your calendar, taking progress photos, or recording your achievements in your phone. The satisfaction of marking and reviewing this progress can be rewarding on its own, and hopefully, doing so will lead you to self-identify as someone who is motivated and health-oriented. However, if you need a little extra motivation at first, try pairing your workouts with a small (but healthy) reward right after. Eventually, you’ll start to associate these positive feelings with the activity itself, which will increase your motivation.
Tips:
- Track your workouts (and/or reward yourself) immediately afterward to make this positive association as strong as possible. The key is to make working out instantly gratifying!
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If you miss a workout session for any reason, get back into the habit right away. Missing one day of exercise does not define you, and it doesn’t make your entire efforts fruitless. After all, living a healthy lifestyle is about doing the best you can, not about keeping a perfect streak.
If you truly don’t enjoy working out, mustering up the will to do it anyway—even using the strategies above—can be virtually impossible. So, instead of waiting for motivation to suddenly hit you, start out by adopting an easier “gateway” habit. For example, you might add change into workout clothes to your regular morning routine. Putting on a pair of leggings and sneakers isn’t challenging, and yet once you’re dressed to exercise, you’ll feel much more inclined to do so.
Tips:
- Make sure that this gateway habit prepares you to work out, so that the act of exercising no longer feels like such a chore.
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Be consistent: designating a specific time to work out every day will make the activity come more naturally to you.
Last but not least, get yourself some new stripes! Feeling comfortable and confident makes a world of difference in having an enjoyable workout, and what better way to feel unstoppable than by rocking an outfit from Stripe 3? With a new selection of high-performance, lightweight, and stylish Adidas sportswear in your wardrobe, you’ll undoubtedly feel renewed motivation to work out.
At Stripe 3, we believe in conscious consumerism, which is why we would like to emphasize the importance of shopping sustainably when purchasing new clothes. Here at our store, many of our products are made from recycled materials, so when you shop with us, we hope you’ll feel excited about not only the quality of your clothes, but about the positive impact that you’re making on the environment as well. To find out more about our commitment to sustainability, check out our previous blog post.
All in all, increasing motivation to work out has a lot to do with making the experience as easy and enjoyable as possible. If you train yourself to like working out, your body will begin to crave exercise on its own! However, as author James Clear writes in his guide to staying motivated, “motivation is often the result of action, not the cause of it,” and taking small actions toward something like working out is one of the best ways to inspire motivation.