by Ben Herd

Created on: September 01, 2010

You’re looking at those weights, or you’re looking at that exercise bike, but you just can’t bring yourself to go ahead and start exercising.  Don’t worry, you’re not alone, but how do you overcome this loathing of exercise and make it something which you enjoy?

Firstly, don’t beat yourself up.  If you are exercising just for the hell of exercising, you aren’t going to stick to whatever routine you have decided upon for long.  Also, if the exercise is too hard to start with, you will start to defeat yourself half way through whatever exercise you are doing as you start to think you can’t do it, or more likely, you don’t want to do it, because you are scared you might hurt yourself or feel pain.  The mental aspect of exercise is equally, if not more important than the physical aspect when it comes to getting yourself started.  If you are bored whilst doing a particular exercise, you won’t want to exercise when your next workout comes around.  Over time, this will cause you to make negative associations with exercise.

As such, one of the first things to do to develop a passion for exercise is to find an exercise which you enjoy.  This may sound impossible, but there are many hundreds of exercises to choose from.  There must be at least one you like.  Look in a book or on the internet, and choose the ones you like the look of. 

Think about whether you prefer to exercise outside or inside.  Outside, you may get to see some scenery, like if you go for a jog.  If this appeals to you, choose a route that you know has nice views so that you set yourself a target of getting to that spot.

If you exercise inside, make the room you exercise in a comfortable spot.  Don’t have the room too hot, or too cold, and put posters up so that you can look at something in between sets.  If these are posters of people who have a physique which you are aiming towards, this will serve to spur you on, as you want to look like that too, and will remember why you are exercising when the pain kicks in. 

Play some music, particularly if it is something which gets you fired up.  If you use something like an I-pod, you can take this with you wherever you exercise.  This will be particularly helpful for cardiovascular exercise, as you will be able to use the music to hit a rhythm. 

Place a mirror on the wall, or exercise in front of a window. 

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