8 Simple, Effective Ways to Make Working Out Worth it – struggle less, gain more, and enjoy it

Exercise is one of the best, simplest things you can do to improve overall wellbeing and increase the quality of life.

Working out will improve muscle definition, stamina, and strength, and helps you deliver nutrients and oxygen to your entire body, making the cardiovascular system stronger in the process.

And while working out may not seem like the most fun activity on earth, there are ways to motivate you to get up and start sweating.

Some of these tips will even make you, dare I say, crave working out! So use these tips to help you start working out and stay in the habit!

8 Ways to Motivate Yourself into Working Out 

 (Especially when it’s the last thing you want to do).

Here are some ways to help elevate your workout, increase your gains, and improve your fitness journey today!

1. Switch Up Your Workout

Part of working out means trying something new.

The body will get used to anything which is part of the reason the fitness journey hit plateaus, and this will make it feel like we aren’t making any progress.

The best thing to do when this happens is to either increase difficulty or attempt a new kind of workout altogether!

If you usually do strength, pause for a bit and concentrate on cardio, on improving your stamina, running faster or longer, jumping higher, swimming faster, anything!

This will force the body to use and develop different muscles and will stop the plateau from continuing.

2. No Gym Membership? No Problem

Some of the best exercises you can do not involve a gym membership. Bodyweight exercise, also known as calisthenics, is an amazing way to build up strength, stamina, and cardiovascular health.

Best of all, you can always make a bodyweight exercise move easier or harder.

Squats too easy? Try one-legged squats. Push-ups too simple? Start attempting one handed push-ups or even clap jump push-ups.

Check out a full list of calisthenics exercises here because anyone can do a push up, anyone can do a pull-up! 

3 Make Sure Your Eating Enough Protein

Protein is absolutely essential to a fitness journey, and the quality of protein affects performance and gains drastically. 

When you work out, particularly with strength exercises, you are creating micro-tears in the muscles. The body then essentially fills in the gaps, repairing and reinforcing the muscles.

This is why rest days are just as important as workout days, and why what you eat after a workout is vital as well.

Make sure you are eating high-quality protein, and supplement if needed with whey, plant-based protein, or any other high-quality alternative.

4. Try Carb Cycling

Carb cycling is the act of filling up on carbs on days when you know you will be working out heavily and reducing carbs on recovery days.

While there are many ways to carb cycle, can’t cycling ensures your body is able to use both glucose and fat as fuel and can help give you high amounts of energy when needed.

Carb cycling can help you build stamina and muscle faster and easier than other forms of eating too!

5. Find an Activity You Love Doing

Working out does not have to mean the stereotypical activities, like lifting weights or running on the treadmill.

The best part of working out, of exercising, is making your body stronger to go through life with more ease, health, and confidence.

And what better way to develop fitness habits than making it something you love doing?

If you love hiking, try to include a trail trek three times a week.

Love the water?

Make swimming a part of your workout regimen.

Dancing, something everyone can do, is an amazing workout that gets the party started and your blood pumping.

Find an activity you like to do and turn it into a workout today!

6. Try Fitness Meditation

What is a fitness meditation you ask?

Well, it is any workout that is done mindfully, usually utilizing the breath to fuel and direct movement.

The most prominent that is used today is yoga.

Yoga is moving and shifting through a variety of positions using the breath to fuel movement, stretch, and strengthen.

Yoga is a form of mindfulness that can clear the mind and increase the fitness of the body, making it a great option for individuals that don’t want to use weights or run.

Don’t think it’s easy, however! Warrior poses are no joke.

Just with other workouts, there are varying levels of difficulty, making it perfect for experienced practitioners as well as beginners!

7 No Time to Workout? No Problem!

When you feel like you have no time to work out, you can do more in less time!

Introducing HIIT, high-intensity interval training. HIIT is a workout routine that changes how hard you work through a session, alternating between intense exercise and low-intensity recovery periods, usually 45 seconds of work, and 15 seconds of rest.

HIIT workouts have been proven by science to increase VO2, the max is the ability of the body to use oxygen during an intense exercise.

This means with HIIT, you start training yourself to not run out of breath, improving your stamina, cardiovascular health, and metabolic rate.

Because the body goes through high-intensity workouts, followed by a rest, the body must work harder to stabilize, making HIIT workouts highly efficient.

40 minutes of running might be equivalent to a 20 minute HIIT routine!

8. Eat Nutritionally Dense Meals

Eating well is a part of workout recovery that cannot be ignored. Unhealthy meals might be the reason you have no energy to work out in the first place!

After any sort of workout, the body must repair and recover.

Eating highly nutritional meals with healthy carbs, protein, and fat is incredibly important and can help you see results of working out much faster.

The Takeaway

Working out can suck, but it doesn’t have to.

Finding ways to make fitness and exercise work for you is part of the process. 

You don’t need a lot of time, especially with quick HIIT workouts, and you don’t need a gym membership, not with the options of yoga and calisthenics.

Worming out is about seeing what your body can do, growing stronger, increasing stamina, and fueling your body for maximum recovery.

Wellness does not have to break the bank and fitness is for everyone.

Remember, health starts from within! Taking small steps, one day at a time leads to big changes!