Expert tips to keep you motivated with fitness

Whether you’re a stay at home parent, student, or you lead a busy working lifestyle, making time for exercise can be a challenge for many.

Between long working days, studying for assignments and taking care of a family, it can often affect the time we have to spend on ourselves – marry this with finding time for the gym and it leaves us with pretty much no time at all.

Making exercise a habitual process in life is extremely important as it can improve health, well-being and vitality - not to mention how much it reduces the risk of developing Chronic Heart Disease and obesity.

Exercise also has reverberations on mood through the release of endorphins, giving you that feel-good factor and brain creativity, which are both things which can help to improve mental health and physical well-being.

Fortunately, the experts at Total Fitness understand how hard it can be to remain motivated and find time for fitness and are here to help.

Below, Steven Virtue, Fitness Content and Programming Manager at Total Fitness, shares his five expert tips for maintaining a fit and active lifestyle.

Join a community

Health clubs have great opportunities to get you moving in group exercise classes, which give you a community feel and comradery to help motivate you more than it would if you were exercising alone.

For those studying, I know from experience that there are plentiful opportunities to join certain sports team or functions.

If you are not a student or if your education establishment has limited opportunities, look to your wider community

Make exercise your priority

If you’re not exercising currently, you need to ask the question, is it important to you?

Chances are, not as much as you think and you may procrastinate around the thought of a healthier, happier lifestyle.

Many successful athletes and fitness enthusiasts stick to their exercise routines by making it the first thing they do for the day.

If you do this before study or work, this is one less thing to cross off the to do list and will enable you to get on with your day guilt-free, with a positive mental attitude.

Schedule your exercise like you would your work or study life

Whether you are the type of person to train early morning, afternoon or evening, scheduling into your calendar helps keep you accountable and you will be more likely to stick to a routine.

By making this part of your lifestyle, it will help with organisation outside of the gym, which can permeate across multiple functions you have to contend with, such as work or family life.

Keep moving

Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet, England (2020) found the majority of UK adults surveyed were overweight or obese – this figure stood at 67% for men and 60% for women.

It’s clear that there are too many of us are living sedentary lifestyles, even if exercise is forming part of our weekly schedule.

Long periods of a sedentary state will cancel out the hard work we do exercising but there are easy steps you can take to avoid this:

Avoid standing still for too long and aim to move throughout the day, starting with at least five minutes at the start of every hour.

Choose to walk or cycle to your destination when possible, whether that be work, the shops or an afternoon at the park.

Take the stairs instead of the lift so you can increase your step count.

If you must take the car, try to park further away from your destination so you can walk the rest of the way.

Take walks instead of snacks when you need a break from work or studying.

Exercise doesn’t have to be boring

It’s not uncommon to dread doing exercise sometimes but this should be a happy place you can de-stress, rejuvenate and energise yourself.

Making time for exercise which you enjoy will make it more sustainable and motivate you to pursue that happier, healthier lifestyle.

Here are some additional ways to help you look forward to exercise rather than fearing it:

*Exercise with a friend. Regardless of the activity, this will help motivate you and the time will always go faster.

*Create a music playlist with all your favourite songs before working out. Positive vibes will lead to a positive workout.

*Take part in group exercise classes at your local gym. Total Fitness offers a wide range of classes to suit different levels and needs.

*Hiring a personal trainer can help to keep you motivated. Trainers are specialists in their field and results are tailored specifically around your goals and lifestyle. This is a great step to making fitness a habit and helps to keep you accountable.

*Get yourself a fitness tracker. Giving yourself a move, stand and exercise goal to work with on a daily basis helps to keep you on track whilst also letting you to see the progess pulled from the data these devices house.

Total Fitness has 17 health clubs across the North of England and Wales and provide a full-service fitness offering. For more information visit www.totalfitness.co.uk.