Have you lost your motivation to exercise? Let’s face it; we all get tired of exercising from time to time. One reason for a lack of motivation can be related to overtraining. Yes, you can exercise too much. On the flip side, you can also exercise too little. The trick is to find that happy medium that allows you to exercise and lose fat while retaining lean muscle tissue, energy, and drive.
Regaining Your Motivation to Exercise
The biggest mistake I witness in those who want to lose weight is that they begin full force, doing weight training and cardio for an hour each. This may make you feel like you are burning body fat and you may see the scale go down the first two weeks, but that loss was most probably from bone, muscle, and water. The weight loss actually caused you to lower your metabolism and you just held on to fat while losing other essential elements.
Not only did you keep the fat and lose the muscle, you burned yourself out and now despise exercise with an intense passion, thinking it’s evil and that you are doomed to be overweight. Sound familiar?
Creating a Balance for Motivation to Exercise
A better exercise format would be to split your weight training and cardio days throughout the week so they are balanced to prevent over taxing the body. Granted you have to work hard to lose fat, but what’s more important is working effectively. Exercise each body part only once a week. This will allow for optimal recovery. If you train a muscle group that has not completely recovered you will do more damage than good.
A Balanced Exercise Plan Would Look Something Like This:
Monday – Legs, Biceps, and Calves
Tuesday – 20 minutes of Cardio
Wednesday – Chest, Shoulders, and Abs
Thursday – 20 minutes of Cardio
Friday – Back, Triceps, and Calves
Saturday – 20 minutes of Cardio
The next week you can increase the cardio to 25 minutes and increase to 30 minutes the week after that. Hitting cardio in a progressive manner will ensure fat loss and muscle retention. The above will provide results much quicker than an hour of cardio followed by an hour of weight training every day.
Many find recording their diet and training in a journal keeps them accountable and able to see progress. It will serve as a starting point, keep you motivated, and keep you on track much better than simply winging it. A lack of motivation is simply a speed bump that you must overcome to move forward in your program. With knowledge and direction you have the power to defeat the fitness depression that will creep up on you without warning.
