Most everyone these days understands, at least to some extent, that exercise is essential to overall health. And yet for many, it remains only a vague surface awareness—one of those things you know you should be doing, but never seem to get serious about. If exercise motivation is a barrier for you, this article will help you gain a new awareness of and appreciation for what science says exercise can do for you, which will get your moving in all the right ways.

Exercise Motivation: A Magic Bullet?

Let’s begin with a bold statement you may have heard before: Exercise is medicine. If your current perspective on exercise is only that vague notion of knowing it’s something you should be doing but never get around to doing, understanding the full extent of what’s wrapped up in those three simple words is essential: Exercise is medicine. Judy Foreman, an investigative health journalist,recently wrote a book with those three words as its main title.¹ But the subtitle of the book is also revealing: How physical activity boosts health and slows aging. She dug deep into the scientific studies and research about exercise, and what she found prompted her to say the following early on in the introduction of her book:

“Exercise is the closest thing there is to a magic bullet for preventing disease and disability, maximizing health, and prolonging life. The data are overwhelming.”

Let this sink in for a moment. It’s a bold statement. She goes on to document this claim with study after study throughout her book. And the research she cites isn’t the kind of crackpot, click-bait science you see out there on the internet. No, she’s citing only well-designed scientific studies that have been through rigorous peer review by other experts. Let the power of this statement and the science behind it be your exercise motivation. Exercise is medicine. And if you want to learn all the ways this simple statement has been proven to be true, grab a copy of this book and read it—you won’t be disappointed.

The Many Barriers that Kill Exercise Motivation

While a fuller understanding of just what exercise can do for your health is essential, it may not serve as a strong enough exercise motivation. There are still many barriers conspiring against you, preventing you from taking the important step of getting enough exercise. Here are four of the main culprits:

I don’t have time to exercise

Everyone is busy these days, and it’s true there are only 24 hours in each day, no matter who you are. And you’ve got to spend a good third of those hours getting an adequate amount of sleep, which is also essential to overall health. This means you must be very intentional about how you spend this most precious of all resources: Time. But if exercise really is medicine, what you’ve got to do is turn this “not having time” barrier on its head. Can you really afford NOT to make time for exercise? The science cited in Judy Foreman’s book will help you realize this and overcome this barrier. It’s also important to realize we’re talking about marathon workout sessions. You can literally gain all the benefits with just 30 minutes of moderate activity five days a week. If you want to do more than that, all the better.

After a long day, I don’t feel like exercising

If your days are full with work and other activities, you’ll likely not feel like exercising. In this case, your best bet is to make sure you get to bed early enough that you can get up and put in your 30 minutes of exercise before you start your day. This also has an added benefit in terms of turbo-boosting your focus, energy, and performance in everything you do throughout your day. Read this article about how One Small Change Turned These 19,000 Students Into the Fittest and Smartest in the US.² And the one small change was having students do a workout at the beginning of the school day—simple and incredibly powerful results that can be realized at any age.

I don’t know what I want to do or what I like for exercise

Here’s the good news: You don’t have to go to a gym if you don’t like that environment. You don’t have to lift weights if you don’t want to. All you have to do is find a physical activity you like that works for you. The options are truly endless. Running, walking, swimming, cycling, dancing, team sports, jumping rope—even mowing the lawn and gardening can count. Keep trying things until you find the one that sparks your interest and motivation, then go with it. Or mix it up with continual variety in what you do. All that matters is that you get moving. If you need structure, plan your workout for the next day before going to bed, or join a fitness program that meets on a regular basis. Whatever it is, you’ll be more successful at doing it if it’s something you enjoy.

I’m not good with accountability on this sort of thing

It’s hard for a lot of people to make regular exercise a habit. We get it. This is when it can be useful to have an accountability partner or fitness buddy—someone who will help hold you accountable by participating in your exercise with you. It’s harder to hit the snooze button on your alarm and skip exercise if you know your fitness buddy is waiting for you outside, or will call you to find out where you are. An accountability partner can be that extra nudge you need when you’re in the formative stages of trying to solidify a new healthy habit. And if you’re a social person (and we all are to some extent), your exercise will be more enjoyable with a partner.

As you can see, overcoming the hurdles of exercise motivation to reap the incredible health benefits of exercise doesn’t require you to make earth-shattering changes in your life. All you need to do is get moving for 30 minutes a day on at least five days of each week as your starting point. And isn’t your health worth that much effort?

Coronavirus/COVID-19 Update

With the social distancing and stay-home guidelines during the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, group exercising at gyms and fitness boutiques as well as group sports are off the table entirely. But in most locations you’re still allowed to get outside for fresh air and exercise as long as you maintain social distancing guidelines. This means not flocking to popular sites for hiking and walking, where you might encounter crowds of people. When looking for a place to exercise, take your cue from the last two lines Robert Frost’s famous poem,The Road Not Taken: “I took the one less traveled by,and that has made all the difference.”

REFERENCES

1. Foreman, Judy (2020). Exercise is Medicine: How Physical Activity Boosts Health and Slows Aging. New York: Oxford University Press.
2. Freishtat, Alan (2012). “How One Small Change Turned These 19,000 Students into the Fittest and Smartest in the US,” Orthodox Union,retrieved from: https://www.ou.org/life/health/one-small-change-turned-these-19000-students-into-fittest-smartest-us-alan-freishtat.