Exercise Motivation
Struggling for motivation to exercise can be something we all experience from time to time. There are those days where we just don’t want to do anything, let alone exercise.
A discussion about exercise motivation should start with a clear and simple definition of what motivation is.
Motivation can be simply defined as “the reason for people’s actions, willingness and goals”.
Essentially, motivation is why people act or want to act a certain way and in this blog it is specifically related to exercise.
Our reason or motivation for exercising will come from one or both of the following broad categories. These sources are (1) intrinsic motivation and (2) extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation relates to exercising for the inherent pleasure of the activity. Someone or something else will not instigate your participation. Rather, your engagement in exercise will come from an internal personal reason. For example, you may exercise because you really enjoy it or try a new sport because you like learning new skills.
Extrinsic motivation relates to when your exercise engagement is dependent on external factors. There is a means to an end. You might engage in exercise to gain a certain reward or benefit from it. Or you might exercise to avoid some sort of negative consequence. An example of this would be exercising to lose weight for an event such as a wedding.
The quality of our motivation for exercise can be described on a continuum of self-determination. Intrinsic motivation is placed on the higher end of the continuum and extrinsic motivation is placed on the lower end. Intrinsic motivation is seen as a better quality of motivation than extrinsic motivation.
Think about the person who exercises for the sole reason of losing weight for a wedding. They are extrinsically motivated. Once they lose the weight for the wedding, they will have no reason or motivation to continue exercising, unless there is a change in their motivation. In contrast, the person who exercises for enjoyment (intrinsic motivation) will have a greater likelihood of long-term, consistent exercise behaviour. The intrinsically motivated person initiated their own exercise engagement, whereas the extrinsically motivated person was initiated into exercise by the wedding, an external factor.
Here are some factors that contribute to being intrinsically motivated:
- Engaging in exercise where we feel competent and confident in our ability to perform well.
- Having autonomy over what we do and perceiving we are acting according to our own volition and have options to choose from. We are not being forced or coerced into it.
- Being socially connected to others through the activity, where the relationships are supportive and respectful.
At this point there may be some of you who are still thinking:
“I just don’t like exercising”.
“I don’t have time to exercise”.
To the first thought, I would encourage you to reflect on why you don’t like exercise. There are many different reasons why you may not like exercise. We certainly weren’t born not liking exercise, so this is a learnt attitude. Also, there are many different forms of exercise or physical activity, so there would be activities that you like more or less than others. There would not be the same level of dislike for all forms of physical activity.
Some different forms of exercise include:
Dancing
Swimming
Running
Bike-Riding
Sport
Hiking
Walking
Weight lifting
Stretching
Balance exercises
Athletics
Rowing
Cheerleading
Aerobics
Pilates
Yoga
To the second thought I would say that lack of time is an excuse and not the real reason why you don’t exercise. It is a matter of priorities. If something is of high importance to you and therefore a priority, time will not be an issue.
So, if you don’t exercise, why not? What’s the real reason?
