10 Tips To Get Back In The Workout Groove

Sometimes you hit a rough patch. Life gets busy, the kids get sick, your husband travels nonstop or something else happens and you lose motivation to workout.

At first it’s not a big deal because you’ve only skipped a few days, maybe even a week. You know when everything calms down you will get back into the groove. Or will you? What happens when one week turns into two weeks and the trend continues. Before you know it, you’ve missed your workout for one month, two months or more.

Has your inner couch potato taken over?

You started feeling cranky and crabby long ago, but it’s been so long you forgot that your nasty ‘tude might just be stemming from your lack of exercise. Maybe your muscles have started to atrophy and your jeans are starting to get tight. Perhaps your anxiety is heightened and you’ve become resentful because you haven’t been taking care of your own needs. Now, you can’t stop eating the junk food, you feel bloated and weak and your motivation to lift heavy weights or do interval style training (workouts you know get you the fastest results) is down – I mean waaay down.

You’ve skipped so many workouts by now that the thought of grocery shopping with three screaming kids is more manageable than doing 30 lunges.

What should you do when your motivation is so low, and yet, you really miss the way you felt when you were working out on a regular, consistent basis?

Top 10 Tips To Get Back Into Your Workout Groove

Get a mental grasp on the real picture. Don’t expect to start where you left off in terms of intensity, strength or endurance. Give yourself a break and know that you don’t have to do it all today.

Strike while the iron is hot! If you have time and a sudden burst of motivation right now, do something – right now! It might be 10 jumping jacks, a 20 second plank hold or 30 squats at your bathroom sink. Like Nike says “Just Do It.”

Start slow and easy. And I mean, really easy. They say the turtle wins the race and I believe it’s true when it comes to fitness. You have your whole life ahead of you to reach your past level of conditioning or to bust through and way beyond an old plateau. Go for a walk instead of a run, workout once per week instead of six times, lift 8 pounds instead of 20 pounds, go for 5-10 minutes instead of 30 minutes. It’s okay. I like to say, “Meet your body where it’s at now!”

Be kind and forgiving to yourself. Be proud that you are recommitting to your workouts and forget the past. It doesn’t do you any good to harp on your past failures.

Make a list of all the benefits of exercise and how you felt (or anticipate feeling) when you were exercising. Put the list by your night stand and read it every single night. Seriously, this helps. Don’t miss this one!

Get support. A friend, colleague, hire someone…it doesn’t matter as long as the person is one of your biggest fans and will always say, “You Can Do It!” (Don’t pick someone who will forget to ask you how it’s going or someone who try’s to bring you down to their nonexistent level of exercise or poor eating habits.)

Lay your clothes out the night before, pack your gym bag complete with a post workout drink (try Prograde Workout FREE, just pay shipping http://personalbest.getprograde.com/workout-free-trial.html )

Start eating healthy. Sometimes when you work one part of the equation (exercise + eating healthy = fat loss and health), the other half naturally kicks into gear.

Set a timer on your phone so you stop work and start exercising.

Get outside. Nothing beats going outside for exercise. The sun and fresh air are rejuvenating.