subject: Exercise & Motivation, Part 4 [print this page] In the maintenance stage, youve been exercising regularly for long enough that its become a habit. Youve created a routine that works for you, and (if youre doing it right), youve started seeing the benefits you originally wanted in your life. There are still a few traps that can derail you, though. When this happens, and you find yourself no longer exercising, youre in Prochaskas Relapse stage. Most traps will either involve a change in your life circumstances, a change in your goals, or a combination of both so if youve been exercising regularly for a while and suddenly find motivating yourself difficult, ask yourself whats changed.
CHANGES IN CIRCUMSTANCE
If your circumstances have altered, youll usually be well aware of whats happened and how its affected your motivation. For example you might enjoy exercising in a gym, then take a sudden drop in income that doesnt allow you to keep your gym membership. Your working hours might change, making your original workout timeslot unavailable. Someone you exercise with might decide to stop, or you might injure yourself somehow. All these things will disrupt what was an effective routine, and if you dont actively plan to work around the disruption, it can sap your motivation to keep exercising.
If this applies to you, imagine you were back in the Contemplation stage, and look at the motivation suggestions for this stage. Revisit your main goal for exercising. Is it still valid? If so, move through the suggestions for the Preparation stage. Your initial how no longer works so what needs to change? If you can no longer keep the routine that used to work, what can you still do thats convenient, enjoyable and affordable? If youve kept a fitness journal, go back through the entries you made when you were setting up your routine. What did you think of to try then (and didnt end up using) that you could experiment with now?
CHANGES IN GOALS
If your circumstances havent changed, its likely your goals have. Perhaps your initial goals arent relevant any longer? If this is the case, dont beat yourself up about it instead, ask yourself what you *do* want now. Perhaps you started off enthusiastic about training for a triathlon, but quickly found the required time and effort unbalanced your life. Perhaps you began wanting to lose 20kg, then realised as you had to replace your entire wardrobe that you actually preferred being curvy now you just want to feel healthy and energetic. Remember, its your life and no-one can tell you what your goals should be. Its OK for goals to change whats not OK is to keep grimly putting time and effort into something you dont actually want any more.
Remember theres a difference between wanting to take a day off, and losing long term motivation. Part of any successful plan is allowing yourself occasional rest days. Taking one or two every week doesnt mean youve moved into Relapse in fact its necessary to avoid overtraining. Its also OK to vary your workout intensity from week to week alternating weeks of pushing yourself with weeks of coasting. This strategy (called periodisation when its done to a specific plan) is actually far more effective for reaching fitness goals than pushing yourself as hard as you can every single workout. If youre starting consistently skip workouts though, you need to figure out why and do something about it.
