Work Life Balance

People who exercise regularly are motivated for various reasons. Some individuals are driven by external motivation (improve appearance and/or praise for instance) while others are driven by internal motivation (health benefits, reduction in stress and/or depression, enjoyment, enhancement of self-esteem etc.). External motivation means that your motivation to attain your goal(s) comes from a source outside yourself. Motivation is a huge exercise barrier to overcome as many people find themselves thinking “why should I bother exercising?”, “I have so little energy left after work, it would be silly to waste that energy on exercise” or “I have tried to exercise so many times before and always quit…exercise must not be for me!”. Exercise barriers come in all shapes and sizes but some of the more common ones include:

• Lack of time

• Lack of energy

• Lack of motivation

These are the big ones but we also see exercise barriers like: excessive cost, illness or injury, lack of facilities nearby (transportation issue), feeling uncomfortable, lack of skill/knowledge, and fear of injury. This is not a complete list, there are others but if you have had, or are having problems getting started or staying active then you will surely be familiar with one or more of these barriers. But once sedentary people have overcome disinterest and started exercising, the next barrier they face is continuing their exercise program. Although I don´t want to frighten anybody I can safely say that maintaining a regular exercise regime is the heart of the problem….anyone with some training shoes and a spark of motivation can start exercising! But keeping that spark of motivation going and fanning it to a flame is the key. That´s where exercise consultants come in and try to help people find their motivation, solving problems like “why do I always always ALWAYS stop exercising after a few weeks and feel guilty afterwards??”. The truth is exercisers often have lapses in trying to stick to a program and possible reasons are:

• People are not ready psychologically to start an exercise program, they are just not in “the right place”

• Many exercise programs are overly restrictive and are not optimal for enhancing motivation for regular exercise

• Rigid exercise prescriptions based on principles of intensity, duration, and frequency are too challenging for many people, especially beginners!

• Traditional, exercise prescriptions does not promote self-responsibility or empower people to make long-term behavior change….there I said it!

Look for my next article where I will discuss the topic of Motivation

Astvaldur Heiðars

Sport and exercise consultant