Why it's so hard for us to train regularly

You have already bought a new sports uniform and a fitness membership and swear that you will work out at least three times a week. And you go for a month, two, three… And then something happens, training becomes less and less frequent, you no longer fly to the gym, but crawl or throw the membership in the desk drawer until the next promise to start again.

I think this has been the case for many amateur athletes. This issue is not new, but always relevant. It’s the kind of “swing” that maybe not everyone rides, but most do.

For me, fitness is a pleasant hobby to which I am willing to devote a fair amount of time. But we are all human beings, and everyone has processes in their lives that can sometimes interfere with stability. Starting from difficulties at work or in the family, general physical and psycho-emotional state and ending with global changes like moving or the birth of a child.

At such times you have to reconsider your life schedule and make adjustments to it. Often it happens that training takes second or even third place.

Table of Contents

Three things that prevented me from going to workouts

Job Change

When changing jobs, I had no energy to make myself go to workout. The first time was just not up to it, and then I somehow got used to the schedule of classes. It was getting harder and harder to convince myself to at least go for a run. I had to turn to the coaches. And more not even to acquire knowledge and work on technique, but just to motivate myself to come to the gym. The money is paid, and they are waiting for me there at the appointed time.

In this article told about why it is so difficult for us to exercise after a working day.

Injury

A knee injury forced me to give up working out for a while. Then, on the contrary, I really wanted to go to the gym, but letting myself recover was simply necessary. The main principle of any training is “Do no harm”. It took me a long time to recover, and when I was ready to come back, another story happened.

Closure of the fitness club

Suddenly my gym closed. A sad situation, because it was close to home and was generally convenient for me. Another one was supposed to take its place, but renovation and remodeling is always a very long process. I wandered around different clubs, then talking myself into going to them, then coming to an ancient fitness center with the same ancient exercise equipment. Neither the equipment nor the gym itself appealed to me at all. I managed to train, but, as they say, “not with all my heart”. And only when someone was standing over me.

This is only a small part of stories that can happen to anyone. I will not say phrases in the spirit of “if there was a desire” or “you can make a figure with any “iron”. Yes, they have the right to exist to some extent. But psychological comfort in training is important, no matter how you look at it.

Why do we fail to train regularly? The answer is simple – because life is dynamic, just like humans. We can get tired, we can get bored, lack motivation, something hurts, and down the list. Anything can happen, and that’s normal.

At times like these, the key is to exhale and give yourself time to figure out if you’re ready to get back to regular exercise right now. If you are, great! You can resume exercising with renewed vigor. And if the answer is no, ask yourself how much you need to exercise at all and how long it would take you to get back to it. Under what circumstances would you resume them? And do you have the necessary resource to do so?

The most important thing to remember is that you are not alone and don’t try to force yourself into a sport. We train for ourselves, not because “that’s the way it is now” or “my significant other goes, am I worse?”

This article talked about how to break the habit of comparing yourself to others.

If now it does not work to normalize the schedule of classes, if you want, it will work out a little later. Or maybe you just didn’t like what you were doing before. Try shifting your focus to other types of activity – try yoga instead of strength training, and Nordic walking instead of running. Sport becomes a habit when we enjoy what we do. And how do we know what we like? That’s right, by trial and error.