6 Biggest Fitness Motivation Killers and Easy Solutions

There is a reason why you find so many posters, sayings, tweets and Facebook statuses focused on fitness motivation – you need to be living a very healthy and physically active life in order to get the sexy body and physical prowess that most people desire. The hardest thing about that is staying motivated to keep working hard abstaining from plenty of hedonistic pleasures. A lot of people start making positive changes, but then stall and give up when they don’t see the results they were expecting. There are several big motivation killers that will keep most people from working out, and once you miss two or three workouts, it’s easy to slip back into a sedentary lifestyle. However, these motivation killers all have some easy fixes.

1. You’re too hungry

This is a fairly common excuse for avoiding a workout session, and it does have some merit. If you look at it logically, you can’t give 100% on an empty stomach. The thing is, as soon as you stuff yourself full of food, you can’t work out for another 2 hours or you’ll throw up. The best solution is to schedule your workouts and your meals effectively and to always train at the same time of day. Since a lot of people won’t be able to do that, here’s a simple cheat. Get yourself some protein powder and a couple of bananas and have them by your side. A scoop of protein powder and a banana will give you a quick boost of energy and they won’t fill up your stomach to the point where you can’t train. You can have another banana and a sport drink during your workout if you feel you lack the energy – tennis players do it all the time during matches.

2. You only have 30-40 minutes before you have go somewhere

Here we have another seemingly valid excuse – I have to be out the door in half an hour and I don’t have the time for a full workout and a shower. If you train three times a week you are already skipping every other day to allow your body to rest, it’s easy to get into a habit of skipping workouts and end up having only 1-2 workouts per week. You can always squeeze in a quick and dirty workout just to keep your muscles active and spark some growth. Focus on 3-4 compound movements and do 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions. If you don’t have the exercise equipment at home, just do body-weight exercises and adjust the difficulty by using different variations.

Squats, a couple of push up variations, pull-ups and sit ups should be enough to pump you up a little bit. A pull-up bar and a pair of dumbbells with a decent amount of weight won’t cost you much, but will allow you to do some great emergency home workouts. You can also fill a backpack with something heavy and add resistance to a number of exercises or have someone help you by climbing on your back or just pushing you.  

3. Video games and TV

There’s nothing wrong with watching TV or playing video games. If it helps you relax after a long day, go right ahead. It can be difficult to pry yourself away from the computer or TV sometimes though, especially when the alternative is going for a run. An easy and incredibly effective fix is to invest in a decent stationary bike. You can sit down and

4. Hanging out with friends

From time to time, you’ll need to spend a bit of time just having fun with your friends. Some see this as an opportunity to call off a workout, but no one said that you can’t all go and do something that is both fun and physically challenging. Go play some basketball, go to a swimming pool, go to a dancing class, go hiking, go cycling, join a boxing gym or get a punching bag and some gloves and call them over to train a few times a week. Even if you’re not that great at sports and you don’t like outdoors activities, you can still invite them over to play some games and hop on the stationary for 20 minutes.  

5. Spending quality time with your partner

For most people, their partner takes top priority. Very rarely will someone blow off their girlfriend or boyfriend to go pump some iron or run for an hour. Well, again there are tons of fun and exciting date ideas that will give your body a great work out as well. Rock climbing, dancing, swimming, cycling and hiking are all great ideas. Alternatively, if you were planning on staying at home and watching some movies, you can get in a quick workout with the help of your partner. They can provide some resistance by pulling, pushing or leaning against you and you can both break some sweat. Afterwards, you can shower together and give each other a relaxing massage.

6. You are out of town for the holidays

This is the biggest motivation killer of all. When people go on vacation or off to spend the holidays with their family, they just drop all form of exercise and eat like crazy. A lot of people will easily put on 5 pounds on a vacation. The trick here is to force yourself to keep working out regularly, even if it isn’t at full intensity or if you can’t do all the exercises you normally do. MacGyver yourself some basic home equipment – sandbags, plastic jugs filled with water, two chairs that serve as a dip station, etc.  - and do what you can. You can also get your partner or friends to help you out – as described in the previous two paragraphs.