The Art of Exercise Motivation

(and something to get you started)

One day I was talking with a friend who wanted to clean up her diet and start exercising but every suggestion I made was met with a reason why she couldn’t change. One of her issues was a “Margarita and Nachos” night she hosted every Friday for a group of friends. She didn’t want to stop hosting the night because she loved how much fun it was. On the other side of it, she always ate and drank too much and felt horrible for several days after.

I gave her my two cents: her Friday night parties weren’t wrong, they were simply a choice that yielded a certain result. Similarly, a commitment to clean up her diet and exercise wasn’t right, it was just a different choice with a different end result. We have the power to pick which action we want (and thus power over which result we get.) This is especially true where our health goals are concerned.

Sure. It’s easy enough for me to spell it out like that and harder to do. Still: people make extremely powerful choices about their physical and mental health all the time. It is doable. It’s just…do you want to do it? Sometimes a failure to commit to exercise has to start deep: looking at painful addictions or afflictions that need unearthing and addressing (and possibly even seeking support through rehabilitation or therapy.) Other times finding your exercise commitment just means getting accountability or coaching systems in place and sticking to them no matter what.

As a trainer and health coach, I help motivate people who have already made a choice to reach a fitness goal. Once someone has made their decision, I can create exercise programs to get them the results they want. But that initial choice, that initial decision to get strong and healthy, I can’t give that to any person. That decision is made within one’s self.

Here’s how I make myself exercise five or six days a week… are you ready for the big giveaway? Well, there’s not one. I just do it. I exercise when I’m not in the mood. All. The. Time. What I’ve found is that if you just keep exercising- even when you don’t want to- that defeatist part of the brain that used to talk you out of exercising eventually gets drained of power. The negative mind will grumble along as we tie up running shoes or pick up some dumbbells, but it knows it can’t stop us (that’s a great feeling by the way.)

As a simple practice in showing up for exercise, try working on a plank 4 times during the course of your week this week (4 different days.) In the following photos I’ve laid out different modifications to try. If you can only do it on your knees for 5 seconds- that’s a start! Do it a few times a day. If you can already do a forearm plank or hand plank for one minute, then it’s time to try one of the ball variations! Things to think about when you’re doing your plank:

1. Engage your core- make your tummy muscles contract as if someone is about to kick you in the stomach.

2. Stay in a straight line- don’t dip up or down through your butt or core. Ask someone to take a photo of you in your plank and then look to see if your body is in a straight line (if you are engaging your core correctly, it will be.) Even if you are doing the knee version, there should be a straight line angled from the back of the knees to the top of your head.

3. Engage all your muscles, including your thighs. RESIST GRAVITY by pushing the floor away at all times. Lift through your upper back without creating a dome. Resisting gravity is what resistance training is all about!

4. Don’t move on from a variation until you know you’ve got it nailed for one minute.

5. Enjoy! Exercise is fun!

   Knee plank - beginners version.

   

   Hand Plank- classic version.

   

   Forearm Plank- if your wrists hurt in hand plank.

   

   Forearm Ball Plank- moving into intermediate territory!

   

   Feet on Ball Plank - moving into advanced territory (and it only gets harder from there! See my pike in first photo as one of many very challenging advanced variations!)