Whats your motivation to exercise?

There are so many motivations that get us going, when it comes to exercising. In todays world many of these motivations come in the form of outside gadgets and things that take your mind off of the exercise session itself. I recently heard about a new spinning bike that has a completely electronic screen that you can watch as you cycle across various terrains. It even has other computer generated cyclists competing against you. The bike even bounces and vibrates with the electronic visual that is being followed. Its pretty cool stuff and I, just like everyone else, love to try all these things out when I get the chance too. My question today is where should your motivation to exercise come from?

The gadgets are cool and the external motivations are entertaining, but are they what it honestly takes to achieve success in health and fitness? I say no! The motivation for exercise and health must start inside of you and not be dependent on external things. I know that many people fall victim to this problem, which results in not achieving what they want with their bodies and health.

One of the biggest motivations for indoor cardiovascular exercise is having a television in front of your favorite machine. What a better way to kill two birds within one hour, exercise and watch your favorite show. Research shows, that the addition of a television to an exercise session does not produce better results with your exercise outcome. It might make you actually do your exercise, but it doesnt make you do that exercise well. Longer, yes. Better, no.

Its the same with reading a book or a magazine. Its an outside stimulant that takes your mind completely off the exercising that is being done. I know, I know; thats the whole point! Yet, its not! When you take your mind away from your exercise session, you are losing! You lose a huge opportunity to get better results. You lose an opportunity to get faster results. You lose focus on what your body is doing. You lose that mind-body connection. Research has shown that if you allow your mind to get in a zone of reading (or watching) and just exercising, the results will not be as good as what happens when you turn off the T.V. or close the book for short bouts of focus on your exercise time. If you put your mind into your exercise and onto the muscles that you are working you will get better results!

Another gadget that is getting some recognition is that calorie burning portable computer that you wear on your arm every day. Its supposed to assist you in how many calories you burn throughout the day, by monitoring your heart rate. Very cool! Yet, again you are paying for a really fun device that does exactly what your brain cells are totally capable of doing. The only thing that devices like this do is to give us another excuse to take the power of our own brain cells out of the personal health equation. Remember, Im not saying that its not cool; Im just saying that its just a fun gadget.

There is one outside motivational tool that has been proven through research to be a better choice, and thats the use of music. Particularly, music that you enjoy! Music has a way of working with you, by using its tempos, rhythms and beats. Research shows that when the music is faster individuals tend to walk faster which results in greater cardiac output. Even when music is used as a secondary focus (back ground music), research has shown that exercise performance is often better. However, its still an external motivational device.

So what happens when the batteries go bad or the cable goes out, will you still exercise? Will that motivation still be there? I challenge you to dig deep and to find an internal motivation. Depending on external gadgets and motivations will not get you the results you want and need. You need to dig deep within yourself and find those needs, wants and desires. Once youve found those, you will get the results that you want with your exercise program!

 

Deborah Holmes

April 21, 2009