Where do we find exercise motivation? There are many areas from which we can draw motivation. We just tend to forget about them. For a young adolescent boy, exercise motivation comes in large part from a desire to attract the girls. Honestly though, that can apply to any age or to either gender. However it does seem to be a bit more prevalent for a boy to want to attract a girl with his muscles. Not only that, but he wants to impress her with his muscles. In his daydreams, he might imagine her staring at his fit body in wondrous awe and admiration. That’s a nice aspiration, but I think that there should be more to it than that… But not that much more.
Those immediate and somewhat selfish drives are what get the ball rolling. When I first started, I admit that I had the occasional thought about impressing girls. However, most of my initial motivation came from somewhere else. At the time I was 12 years old, and not enjoying the way that my body was developing. I wasn’t very gifted athletically, so I became more sedentary. A poor excuse. With my athletic hobbies recently decreased and my dietary habits worsening, I ended up growing a spare tire. A little belly buddy of sorts. It went with me wherever I would go.
At first I tried to laugh it off. But it didn’t come off. I would make jokes at the expense of myself and my chubbiness. That can be fun, especially when you make others laugh. But then I noticed that I felt differently when others started to make jokes. I’ll have to write about the entire experience another time, but to make a long story short, I developed anorexia. My driving motivation to exercise and diet as well, was driven by a need for control over my body. I was young, and didn’t feel that I was particularly good at anything, so this was the thing that I could be good at. At the time, I just wanted to be healthy, fit, and strong. Looking back now, I see that I had an even stronger motivation of obtaining control of my body.
In some ways, I think that the desire to attract the opposite sex is actually healthier than what I was doing. Don’t get me wrong. It’s good to take charge of our lives and our bodies, but not to the point of control freak. I lost out on a lot of good times as a kid, because of the need I felt to control my body. Fortunately, I was able to overcome my anorexia with the help of family, friends, and my physician. Within a few years, I worked up to a healthy and fit weight. One of the things that helped me overcome anorexia was my exercise motivation.
My goal was to be healthy, fit, and strong. After so many people telling me this, I finally realized that I wasn’t living a healthy, fit, and strong lifestyle. My actions and my motivation didn’t line up. Even though, I had thought that they did. I had to change some things in my life to become healthy, fit, and strong. Underneath that motivation I had more specific sub-motivations. Things like, I want to be able to lift heavy objects, and I want to play a sport without feeling severely winded. Eventually I moved further forward to include things like, wanting a clear mind to focus on tasks, and wanting be a better person in all areas of my life.
On my website, I have an article that focuses on the six dimensions of health. I truly believe that improvement in one area can help the others. I also believe that too much focus in one area can be detrimental to the others. It’s best to use these six areas to complement each other. The mind is a very powerful tool, and should not be neglected when it comes to exercise. My opinion is that working out should become a part of everyone’s life. Not just something that they just do, and often despise doing. That’s not to say that the degree should be the same for everyone.
Of course there will be people that have working out as a much larger focus of their lives than others do. A History Professor doesn’t need to learn as much as a professional athlete, or a personal trainer, but he should know what’s going on with his workout program. He should know why he is going to the gym 3 or so days a week. He should make physical exercise a part of who he is. It may not be the most important part, but it should be an important part.
Whether we have a personal trainer or not, we as individuals must bring ourselves to the iron game. Make your diet and exercise personal. If you have a trainer, they can help you with this. If having a big banana split once a week is something that motivates you to follow a diet and exercise program for the rest of the week then do it. Cardio can be a rough endeavor. Make it better by bringing music that you love. Music that is important to you. Try different types of cardio. Gyms have a bunch of different machines, and many of them have pools. You could even have your trainer attend a zumba class with you.
Little things are just as important as big things, and remember, they’re both important. Don’t discount something because you think it is silly. If it means something to you then it is extremely important. And yes, it is important to work hard and have intense workouts, but don’t be afraid to back off. Light workouts can be very beneficial, especially for the brain and nervous system. Lifting weights, and working out properly takes a lot of focus so try to include recreational activities that are physical in nature. These don’t have to be as intense as your regular workouts. Just have fun with them.
In closing I just want to reiterate that exercise and diet motivations can vary greatly. They can be as small and silly as taping a picture of your face to the picture of a model’s body, or as valuable as a grandpa being able to keep up with his grandchildren. Finally, I would love to hear about the different ways that each of you use to motivate yourselves for working out. I find that I often draw inspiration and motivation from others who share similar goals as mine. I think that we can all learn a great deal from each other.
