Movement is damn good for us, there’s no doubt about it. Then why do we always come up with so many good reasons not to do sports? Now research says: With a few simple tricks you can persuade yourself to exercise more.
A study that promises that just five minutes of exercise a day keeps us healthy is causing a storm of joy. Just don’t move too much, it seems to have become the karma of our time. Exercise is so good for us in the right dose. It clears the head, we straighten up, pain disappears, diseases are kept away. Every child knows that today. So much for the theory. The reality is different. Instead of just moving around and giving our organism the necessary space to exercise, we haggle over every minute. Why do we keep lying to ourselves?
Everything used to be easier. Of course, memories are beautiful. But the matter of motivation and movement was different. Because the world of work was different. Physical work was simply part of many professions. So you had moved a lot until the end of the day and then you could flop down on the sofa. Today we mostly sit in front of the computer in everyday life, we are creative, but we hardly move. The physically demanding jobs have become much, much rarer. When we come home in the evening, our longest way was often from the desk to the printer. We also went to work by car, train or bus. Sitting is, as we have known for a long time, extremely unhealthy. And one of the most important triggers for a multitude of lifestyle diseases.
So far so bad. Because our everyday office life is still exhausting. After eight hours at the desk with 1,084 phone calls and an infinite number of e-mails, we are of course exhausted. The only problem we have is that we still haven’t challenged our organism sufficiently. We still have the body of a hunter-gatherer. And that needs a run-off in order to function properly. But in the evening? When it drizzles Is it so terribly cold? Is it already dark? Of course, we find it damn difficult to put on our running shoes again and start running.
Five minutes of exercise a day is not enough
But we shouldn’t fool ourselves any longer. Because five minutes are not enough. So: Get off the sofa, into your sports shoes! If you pay attention to your emotions, you get into step faster, as researchers have proven. When it comes to motivation, our emotions are one of the most important success factors. They are central to what we do – or what we don’t. Feelings can’t just be crushed, that only makes them stronger. This is why the experts agree that this is exactly where the key to motivation lies.
It all sounds terribly theoretical. True, but there are three simple steps that can go a long way.
1. Small goals, great fun
When are we the laziest? In what mood do we prefer to postpone running training to the next day? Of course, when we’re in a bad mood, when the day in the office was stressful and dumb. And when are we most productive? When we enjoy something and are happy. When it comes to exercise, we can easily influence this feeling by choosing the sport. If we find a sport that we enjoy, we are eager to do it. Then we look forward to training more than to the sofa. If we then manage to set small goals and enjoy these progress, that is an important step towards regular training.
2. Reward yourself!
Sometimes we humans are so beautifully simple. Those who regularly reward themselves are much more motivated and train better. This has also been proven by numerous studies. The type of reward doesn’t matter: it can be new running shoes. Or a great CD. Or a new pair of pants that suddenly fit us with the new sporty figure. You can of course also give your best friend 100 euros, which you get back when you have successfully trained for a 5-kilometer competition.
3. Team spirit makes you fast
Then there is the good old peer pressure. It always helps, and that has also been scientifically proven. Those who train in a running group are more motivated because they don’t want to let the others down. It is also a good opportunity to maintain social contacts on the side. If you join a group, you will experience how sport can change lives. You hear the success stories of the others. How they got lighter, faster, fitter. That motivates our subconscious immensely. There are even studies that say that in one training group we automatically adopt the habits of the others. For example, we adapt our eating habits and follow the same health rules. Sometimes we even align our career goals.
