subject: Staying Motivated To Work Out On A Stationary Bike [print this page] Staying motivated during your workout to work hard can be very difficult at times. However, this is a critical element of exercising and becoming stronger, fitter, faster, or thinner.
Everyone has experienced times when it is very difficult to keep going. Those who are successful in achieving their goals are the ones who push through this lack of motivation and keep going.
Even though working out a stationary bike in your own home can be incredibly convenient, it can still be difficult to sit down to exercise. Not only that, but it can be very difficult to make what exercise you do perform on it effective and worthwhile.
For example, you may prefer to watch the TV while you ride. After a while your body gets tired and you let yourself get caught up in the show you are watching.
Bit by bit your feet start to slow down and you find that you have only performed half of the work you expected to at the beginning of your workout. The first step to overcoming this problem is to recognize that it is a problem.
When you sit down to work out, you need to decide what you are going to do to make it through the work out without becoming unmotivated.
The second thing that should be realized is that warming up is critical to your success. Many people do not realize how important warming up is.
As a result, they will sit down on their bicycle and start going with cold muscles. Exercising with cold muscles can lead to muscle cramps and other injuries that will prevent you from putting your whole effort into the work out.
There are many ways in which you can warm up and prepare for a full effort work out. The first part of your warm up should include stretching your muscles.
As you stretch your muscles you will loosen them and help the blood to get flowing to them, which will help prevent the development of cramps. Of course the muscles you should focus on stretching and warming up are those which will be used extensively throughout your bike ride.
Due to your choice of riding a stationary bike, you will need to stretch your major leg muscles. Some stretches will not push your leg muscles enough so that they will loosen up so you will want to make sure that you can feel certain muscles loosen as you stretch.
When you are ready to stretch you may want to start with your quads. A great stretch for the quads is begun in a standing position with one ankle pulled up behind you.
This stretch will also work on your ability to balance well. Throughout the entire stretch you should make sure that you are breathing deeply in and out.
After a few seconds you may be able to pull farther on the ankle for a better stretch as your muscle loosens up. Overtime, you will become more flexible and you will have to pull farther to even feel a stretch.
Stretching at the beginning of the workout should not be relaxing. You should be pushing yourself to go further and it should be slightly uncomfortable.
After you stretch, you should review your workout plan. If you do not have a workout plan it will be extremely difficult to keep your workout effective and efficient.
When you have a workout plan, you can simply follow it instead of wondering what you are going to do next. Sometimes people lack a plan because they are not sure what their body will be able to handle on a particular day.
If you have medical complications, you should definitely consult with your doctor before you exercise. Your doctor will know how hard you should push yourself.
The work out plan that you come up with should be centered on helping you to achieve your goals. If you are not working towards the achievement of your goals you will become discouraged and you will eventually stop working out.
However, you should not pile too much into your workouts either. If you wear yourself out in the first couple of weeks you will never want to see another stationary bicycle again.
When you understand why you are doing specific activities and why you are doing it at the intensity that you are doing it at working out will become much easier. It will also be much easier to stay motivated and keep working towards your goals.
