How do you stay motivated during a pandemic?

It’s a question I’ve been asked a lot lately.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first began, many people stayed optimistic about fitness. They focused on the time they would save by no longer commuting, and dove into the world of Zoom workout classes and home gym setups.

But nine months later, so many of those people have lost that sense of optimisim that kept them going at the beginning, and are struggling to find the energy to stick with their goals.

Without something to train for, even athletes whose lives typically revolve around their workouts are having a hard time staying motivated right now.

And I get it. COVID has made me question my goals and priorities in all areas of my life — including my training goals. Short and long-term goals that used to feel so important no longer seem to matter as much any more.

Despite my dedication to fitness and long-term health, even I have days when I wake up and wonder why I even bother. Why put myself through the stress of a tough workout when no one knows when any of this is going to end?

Why Do You Workout?

If you also have thoughts like this, it can help to remind yourself of all of the myriad of reasons you do work out.

For example, when first asked, most people will say they work out to look a certain way, whether to lose weight, gain muscle, or both.

However, scientific research repeatedly shows that appearance is the least motivating reason most of us workout. And if we feel that there’s no real point in looking fit — we’re not going anywhere or seeing anyone, anyway — we’re even less likely to feel motivated by appearance-related goals.

If, like many people, you’re feeling less motivated to exercise than ever right now, it’s time to dig deeper and think about all the reasons you exercise, and not just those having to do with how you look.

I call this stacking your motivations — finding multiple motivators to keep you going even when you feel like there’s no real point in the moment. This is how you stay motivated to keep going long-term, even during a pandemic, even when you’re not feeling very motivated in the moment.

If you’re not sure where to start, here are several reasons to keep up with your workouts right now that aren’t related to appearance:

Exercise improves your immune system. It goes without saying that keeping our immune systems as healthy as possible is important right now. Along with good nutrition and getting outside in the sunshine and fresh air, regular exercise is one of the best ways to keep our immune systems functioning at peak levels.

Just don’t go too hard too consistently. Overtraining can lower your immune system, so do your best to avoid overdoing it.

Exercise improves your mood. Exercise helps put us in a better mood, period. Even just a little movement, whether in the form of a HIIT workout, yoga session, or even a walk, can help us feel happier, more grounded, and even increase feelings of hope and perspective. Outdoor exercise has even greater benefits.

Try it: The next time you’re in a bad mood, get some exercise and notice how you feel afterward. If you’re like me, nine times out of ten, you’ll be in a significantly better mental space than you were before exercising.

Exercise helps our brains function better. Research over the past few decades has shown that exercise has significant cognitive benefits. Even a short workout can increase focus and concentration, improve memory, and help us learn better for hours afterward. Exercise has long-term cognitive benefits, too, including increasing overall brain function and learning capabilities.

There are countless other reasons to work out consistently. A few reasons include keeping your heart healthy, staving off illness and disease, and staying independent as you age. Exercise can help you feel more mobile and comfortable in your body, allowing you to continue doing all your favorite sports and hobbies as you get older. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Try making a list of all the reasons you work out and consult that same list any time you’re not feeling very motivated or are wondering what the point is.

Motivation Hacks for When You’re Really Not Feeling Motivated

Sometimes, no matter your intentions or how many reasons you have to stay motivated to work out, you’re still not going to feel very motivated. This is normal, especially during times of stress (like now), so don’t get too hard on yourself if this happens.

I’m not a big fan of “hacks” because most of these tend to focus on the short-term rather than building a long-term habit or lifestyle. But when life is more chaotic than usual, and you’re struggling just to put one foot in front of the other, sometimes little hacks are all you need to build the momentum you need to keep going.

I’ve found that the following can help:

Schedule your workouts. This is by far my favorite hack to help ensure you fit in your workouts. Simply schedule your workouts in your calendar just like you would any other important meeting or event. If something comes up, it’s not the end of the world. Just treat them like you would any other important meeting and reschedule them.

Recruit a friend or two for a Zoom or outdoor workout. When you have someone else to help hold you accountable, you’re both less likely to skip your workout. Again, this works best when you schedule your workouts.

Add in mini workouts throughout the day. If you’re busier than usual, or are feeling stressed or overwhelmed, sometimes setting aside time for a “full” workout can feel daunting (yes, even if it’s just 12 minutes). Try and get away from black and white thinking around movement and start adding mini workouts into your day.

Add in simple exercises like a quick set of push-ups, bodyweight squats, or stretches every 30 to 45 minutes when you’re at home (set a timer if you need to) and go for a short walk to take a break. It may not seem like a lot, but all these short bouts of movement throughout the day add up and will still get you many of the same benefits of a longer, harder workout.

“If you’re in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you’re still in a bad mood, go for another walk.” – Confucius

The post Staying Motivated to Work Out During a Pandemic appeared first on 12 Minute Athlete.

I never thought I would say this, but I miss gyms.

It’s not that I miss the equipment. Even when I did go to a gym before Covid, I rarely used more than a pull-up bar, medicine ball, and a plyo box. I certainly never touched the weight machines or cardio equipment (I always bring my own jump rope to the gym, anyway).

In fact, my workouts don’t look much different now than they did before the pandemic. They continue to be mostly bodyweight, with lots of sprints, calisthenics, plyometrics, and the hitting of things. And I still prefer outdoor workouts to indoor ones and get an extra dose of happiness every time I discover a new outdoor fitness park I can work out at.

But as the months have dragged on, and gyms have remained closed, I miss having a place to go.

To be able to have a dependable, separate space outside of my own home. A place free of screaming children, or lawnmowers, or gawking bystanders wanting free training advice.

Somewhere where I can walk in the door and let go of all my other worries of the day. To switch off my monkey mind, focus, and get into the zone.

I’ve realized that gyms are a place where I can get my alone time while also being inspired by those working hard around me. This is similar to how I use coffee shops as a change of scenery for work (such a typical introvert — I love being alone but together).

Without gyms, I find it easy to get distracted by the weather (what if it rains?), or other people (will I be in someone’s way or get kicked out of the tennis court?). As the days get shorter and shorter, I know this will become even more challenging. Working out at a park when it’s cold and dark outside does not sound very appealing.

In spite of my frustration, I know one thing is for sure: no matter what, I will continue to find a way to get movement in.

In my experience, there is no better way to combat feelings of depression, hopelessness, lack of motivation, inability to focus, anxiety, and lack of meaning in life than getting in some movement.

And when the gyms do open back up, and our lives return to some degree of normalcy, I will be more appreciative than ever before.

How have your motivation levels been over the past six months? Do you miss gyms at all, or are you enjoying finding other ways to stay fit?

The post I never thought I’d miss the gym appeared first on 12 Minute Athlete.

We’ve all experienced it: that initial burst of progress any time we’re starting something new, then, what seems like a lifetime of being stuck at the same level.

Plateaus happen to everyone. No matter what level you’re starting at, you will experience a plateau at some point. While plateaus are never fun, they’re a normal, albeit frustrating, part of getting better at anything.

When you reach a plateau, it’s helpful to acknowledge it, then reevaluate where you are in your journey.

Here are a few things to consider:

Training Too Much or Too Little Can Cause Plateaus

Next time you realize you’ve plateaued, first ask yourself whether you need to adjust your training level or frequency. Not training intensely or frequently enough can cause plateaus, as can overtraining.

Finding a balance between consistently working hard and getting enough rest to let your body recover is something only you can determine.

Learn to listen to your body and understand the signals of when you should push harder or give yourself a break.

Be honest with yourself: Have you been challenging yourself consistently, or are there areas where you could push harder? You don’t have to go all-out in training every single day, but make sure you’re spending at least a couple of workouts a week working above your comfort level.

If you’ve been training hard lately, try taking a few days off and doing something completely unrelated. If your goal is to hold a freestanding handstand, but your last few training sessions just left you feeling frustrated, go on a hike, surf, or take a flexibility or dance class instead.

The purpose here is to let all your hard work sink in while your mind is occupied doing something else. More often than not, you’ll find you come back from these mini-breaks feeling refreshed, getting past that previous point of frustration with ease.

Seek Additional Knowledge or Outside Help

If you’re experiencing a plateau, consider the possibility that you’ve reached the highest level you’re capable of getting to on your own right now and you need outside help to push past it.

I’ve experienced this countless times in my own fitness journey — from learning to box, to increasing my handstand skills, even to upping my push-up max reps. After feeling frustrated on my own for way too long, I eventually realize I’ve reached the limits of my knowledge and need to either increase my knowledge or seek outside help to continue making progress.

Luckily in the age of the internet, there are so many ways to do find additional knowledge or outside help.

The first and easiest is a simple Google or YouTube search. For example, a search for “increase push-up max” gives you pages and pages of results you can click through and determine which is the best fit.

From there, books are a good place to start. Books one of the cheapest, greatest sources of knowledge ever; many experts spend years putting all of their knowledge and wisdom into a book.

When I set out to write The 12-Minute Athlete, I condensed everything I’d learned up until that point in my fitness journey into the book. The end result is a go-to resource for HIIT training tips and bodyweight progressions.

Of course, nothing can completely replace working one-on-one or in a small group capacity with a highly skilled coach or teacher. Working with various coaches has been one of the highlights of my adult life so far; I’ve learned so much and have gotten so much better at learning and teaching in the process. If you have the opportunity to work with a coach, I highly recommend it.

It’s also helpful to remember that what works for one person won’t work for everyone. So keep experimenting, finding new resources, and working with different people until you find the right fit.

Trust the Process

We often forget that getting better at something doesn’t mean making constant progress. Instead, the path to long-term progress or mastery involves sporadic breakthroughs followed by long periods of plateaus.

Just like we need to accept that struggle is part of the process, we need to realize that plateaus aren’t something to fear — they are part of the process of growth.

If you’ve reached a plateau, it may be that your current plateau is exactly where you need to be right now so that you can further internalize your recent progress.

This is why learning to trust the process is so important. And beyond trusting the process, learning to love the process itself is essential.

When you embrace the long term journey of achieving your goals, you can actually begin to enjoy the ups and downs rather than focus only on the outcome.

It’s part of the journey to learn when a plateau is the right place to be and when it’s time to push beyond it. After all, if you want to make progress, you can’t stay on a plateau forever.

As Bruce Lee once said, “There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”

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Fitness has been my biggest teacher in life.

Through push-ups, squats, burpees, and sprints, I’ve become not only physically stronger and fitter than my former non-fit self, but mentally stronger, too.

Fitness helped me learn that I can do difficult things. It taught me patience and persistence. After spending most of my life hiding behind a wall of fear, always afraid to fail, fitness helped me learn to try.

Without the lessons I’ve learned so far in my fitness journey, I would be a shell of the person I am today. And I know I’m not alone.

I hear so many stories from others who have had similar experiences. From the lawyer who got through the hardship of her teenage years by running every day, to the scientist who learned how to deal with life’s unpredictability through skateboarding, fitness has the power to change lives.

Below are five ways fitness can teach you valuable life lessons, no matter your current fitness level, previous experience, age, sex, or genetics. These ring true whether your fitness activity of choice is lifting weights, playing pickup basketball, or going for an awe-inspiring hike in nature. Keep coming back to these and notice how you can use your workouts as a training ground for the rest of your life.

Start With a Growth Mindset

Before embarking on any new fitness journey, one thing is non-negotiable: you must believe your efforts will pay off. This is true whether you’ve committed to lose weight or want to sign up to compete in an adventure race.

This belief that your hard work and effort can make a difference is the hallmark of what psychologists call a growth mindset. The opposite, a fixed mindset, means you typically believe your abilities are set in stone, and there’s not much you can do to change them.

There’s simply no point in starting a new fitness journey without first believing that your efforts will make a difference.

Your mindset determines your actions as well. If you start out believing that you can get stronger, faster, and more athletic, you’re much more likely to put in the time and work needed to actually make that happen. On the other hand, if you start out believing that talent is innate and there’s no point in even trying, you won’t put in the work, and you won’t make much progress.

Henry Ford had it right all along when he said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right.”

This is as true with any goal in life as it is with fitness. The more you work on cultivating a growth mindset through physical activity, the more you’ll be able to shift your mindset in other areas of your life.

Set and Achieve Goals

When you set out to achieve a fitness-related goal, whether it’s to do your first pull-up, run in a marathon, or reach a certain level in your sport, learning the method behind goal setting is essential to making long-term progress.

In a nutshell, well thought out goal setting looks like this:

1. Set a high, hard long-term goal.
2. Take a realistic assessment of where you’re currently at.
3. Break your high, hard goal down into chunks you can follow on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis (this step also may include finding expert instruction, reading books, taking programs, etc.)
4. Take small daily action steps toward your goal and keep track of your progress.
5. Adjust as necessary and keep going.

For example, if your goal is to be able to do a pull-up, you’ll start by assessing where you’re at in your pull-up journey. Next, you’ll break down your goal into steps, or in this case, regressions, and plan how often you’re going to train to make continuous progress toward your goal. Finally, you’ll keep track of your progress through a physical or digital notebook. You’ll then reassess every couple of weeks and adjust your plan as necessary.

Learning to chunk down and achieve fitness goals can easily transfer over to other areas of your life. Have a career or life-related goal you want to go after? Go through the same goal chunking process.

The more you practice, the better you’ll get at it.

Learn to Struggle

Most of us do our best to avoid struggling for one main reason: struggling is uncomfortable.

Whether you’re struggling through that last rep in your workout or gasping for air at the end of a run, the feeling of struggle is never fun. But most of us understand that we can’t avoid struggle if we want to reach new fitness levels.

The popular fitness slogan, ‘no pain, no gain’ might be a little too black and white—after all, pain while exercising could indicate an injury. But the underlying premise holds: if you want to get stronger, faster, and become a better athlete, you have to be willing to experience discomfort. In other words, you have to struggle.

Learning to be ok with the feeling of discomfort during your workout has undeniable carry-over effects. After all, if you’re trying to get better at anything, whether you’re working to become a better writer, want to learn how to cook, or improve your public speaking skills, the process will be the same. Each time you start something new or want to level up, you’re going to struggle.

The more you become comfortable with getting uncomfortable in the gym, the more this skill can transfer over to the rest of your life.

Build Grit

Embarking on a fitness journey isn’t easy, and no matter what your goals, you’re going to hit plateaus. Plateaus are a normal part of the process, but that doesn’t make them any easier. In his book, Mastery, George Leonard writes that for most people, “plateaus are a form of purgatory.”

This is where building grit is key.

Psychologists define grit as the passion and perseverance for long-term goals. The truest form of grit combines passion, persistence, and self-discipline in the pursuit of big goals that might take months, years, or even decades to accomplish. Back to our pull-up example, this means you’ll continue chipping away at your pull-up training even when it feels like there’s no hope of making any forward progress.

When things get hard, it’s easy to want to quit. Building grit through fitness helps you learn to stick with something when others would give up.

Failure isn’t Final

Most of us avoid failure whenever possible, except when it comes to fitness. In fact, fitness and sports are one of the only areas in our lives that we expect to fail regularly.

When you try a new skill or aim for a new PR, you don’t expect to get it right away. In the gym or on the playing field, we have a different idea of what failure is.

Pushing your limits in fitness means experiencing one failure after the next. But we learn early on in life not to accept these failures as final. Just because you don’t get the mile time you’re aiming for today doesn’t mean that if you stick with it, you never will. Keep chipping away at your goal and challenging yourself just a little more each day, and you’ll get there in time.

You can apply these same lessons from training to any area of your life. Start to treat failures as temporary setbacks, as obstacles to overcome, and you’ll open up a whole new world of possibilities.

Keep pushing forward.

“Today’s failure won’t matter in ten years, but failing to continue to go forward might.” – Jerry Lynch, Way of the Champion

The post 5 Ways Fitness is a Training Ground for Life appeared first on 12 Minute Athlete.

People always want to know the secret to getting and staying fit.

I used to look for this magic pill, too. Years after I became a personal trainer and got in reasonably good shape, I still spent way too much time and money on programs, books, and devices I hoped would finally help me build the strength and body I wanted.

It took me a long time to figure out that there is no secret to becoming fit for life.

But…there also kind of is.

Move More Than You Think You Should

To look and feel like an athlete, you have to move more than you think you do. If you want to get really good at a sport, build serious strength, or impress bystanders with your muscles on the beach, three half-assed workouts a week isn’t going to cut it.

There are always exceptions, but most of us should be doing some sort of resistance training (bodyweight training counts) at least two or three times a week. You should also include some sort of sprints or interval training, and at least a few sessions of moderate cardio training like jogging, biking, or hiking each week.

Alternatively, you can center these moderate cardio sessions around fun—think playing a sport, dancing, or running around with your kids (or dog). At least a few of those workouts should be hard enough to push you out of your comfort zone.

Move More Outside of Your Workouts

Planning a few challenging workouts a week is a solid start, but if you want to build a lifelong fitness habit, you also need to move more in your everyday life.

Unless you live in New York City or have intentionally created a lifestyle that forces you to walk a lot, you’re probably not walking near enough. The average American walks between 3,000 and 4,000 steps a day. Try and get a minimum of ten thousand steps a day, and avoid sitting too much.

Staying active becomes even easier if you find people who will do active things with you. Go on hikes, play tennis, shoot baskets together. Experiment and discover activities that feel more like play than a workout, and do those often.

Also, get outside and move as much as possible. More and more studies are showing the transformative power of outdoor exercise. Outdoor exercise can help improve your mood, lower anxiety levels, and even help you have a more positive perspective on the chaos around you. Take your workouts outdoors and do outdoor activities as much as you can.

Figure Out Your Priorities

When it comes to fitness, you need to be honest with yourself about how much of your life you’re willing to commit to your goals.

When I first started, I was in that three half-assed workouts a week crowd. Now, I work out six days a week, usually twice a day, without fail. My average step count is 20,000 to 30,000. Much of my day revolves around my training, because I’ve found that I’m happiest when I move a lot.

Most people don’t want to move this much. Maybe you have kids, or a stressful job, or let’s be honest, you’d rather do the least amount possible to maintain a certain level of fitness. If that’s you, that’s fine. No one needs to work out for hours a day. But realize that this will mean slower progress, and maybe you’ll never get to that level you would if you dedicate one to two hours of your day every day to training.

The key is to be honest with yourself and get clear on your priorities.

Healthy Eating Isn’t Really That Hard

When it comes to nutrition, healthy eating isn’t as hard as the diet industry makes it seem. As Michael Pollen says, “Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants.” Generally, your meals should revolve around protein, a modest amount of healthy carbs, and a ton of vegetables.

Low carbohydrate diets can work well for weight loss. But for most people, diets that lack carbs lead to brain fog, and are extremely difficult to do long-term. Athletes should rarely go low carb for very long—almost every study I’ve ever seen shows it will mess with your performance.

Food is more individualized than most people think, and what works for you won’t work for me. Learning to listen to your body is key. Take note of how your energy dips throughout the day, whether you feel clear-headed or foggy, how bouncy you feel at the beginning of your workout, your mood, etc.

Your ideal nutrition also depends heavily on your goals, your priorities, and where you’re at in your life. If you want to have much of a social life, you’re going to have to be more lenient about your food choices. The more active you are, the more you can eat. I’d rather work out more so that I don’t have to think as much about what I eat instead of working out less and eating perfectly clean. You might feel the opposite, and that’s just fine.

One Baby Step at a Time

When I first started my fitness journey, if you told me that I’d have to overhaul my entire life to get in the shape I am today, I probably would have quit. It would have been too overwhelming, and I would have felt defeated before I’d even started.

Instead, I needed to take the journey it one baby step at a time. Rather than trying to eat perfectly right away, I started by adding more vegetables to my meals. Instead of immediately going to two-a-day workouts, I began with a three-day-a-week workout habit.

The point is that I started small. Then I built up my habits over time as my identity slowly shifted away from someone who didn’t work out to someone who identified as an athlete. This slow, chunked down approach allowed me to try in the first place.

Identity shifts don’t happen overnight. Even David Goggins, the now recognized toughest man on earth, didn’t start out tough. To become the person he is today, he built up his toughness over time.

No one can go from zero to epic in a short amount of time. This stuff takes time to build. If you want to become healthy and fit for life, you have to start slow. Introduce enough tiny changes over time, and you’ll experience massive, long-term results.

So—what’s the secret to staying fit? Commit to the journey. Challenge yourself. Take it one step at a time. And don’t give up.

The post Is There a Secret to Getting Fit? appeared first on 12 Minute Athlete.

“The problem human beings face is not that we aim too high and fail, but that we aim too low and succeed.” – Michelangelo

Setting big, audacious goals is important if you want to work toward fulfilling your potential in both fitness and life. But the reality check of setting such big goals can be demoralizing once you realize just how much work you have ahead of you.

That initial excitement you get from dreaming big is often followed by a feeling of overwhelm, prompting questions of self-doubt like, “How can I possibly go for a goal this big?” And, “Where do I even start?”

This is where learning to recognize small wins can motivate you to keep going, even when you have months (or years) of work ahead of you to get where you want to go.

Small wins are essentially progress points on the way to your larger goal. They remind your brain that no matter how futile your efforts may seem at times, you are making progress.

These small wins can act as a checklist en route to your bigger goals. Because while they may seem small in the moment, if you achieve enough over time they’ll add up to big results.

Here’s how to harness the power of small wins to achieve any fitness (or non-fitness) related goal.

Start With a High, Hard Goal

High, hard, ambitious goals motivate us to take action to begin with. When you decide you want to learn to do a handstand, take up surfing, or write a book, you initially get a surge of excitement and motivation.

That motivation can fade when you realize just how big and overwhelming that goal really is. Depending on where you’re starting from and how far you have to go, your new reality might mean you have months, if not years, of hard work ahead of you.

This is where many people get discouraged and give up before they even give themselves a chance to make significant progress. They let the immensity of their goal overwhelm them and decide it’s pointless to keep trying, and as a result, they end up giving up way too soon.

I see this happen over and over again with strength, skill, and weight loss goals. People start full of enthusiasm, ready to crush their goals, but by week two, much of this initial motivation has already been depleted. By week three, most people have already quit.

If you focus too much on your high, hard goal, you’ll feel like you’ll never get there. But you do have to set a goal to get started.

Chunk Down Your Big Goals

After getting clear on your long-term goal, the next step of any goal-setting process should be to chunk down your high, hard goals. This requires breaking them down into smaller, more manageable steps, or mini-goals that you can take action toward on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

Each mini goal you complete acts as a small win or a stepping stone on the path to your larger goal. 

At this stage, every action counts. For example, if you have a long-term goal of doing a pull-up, investing in a pull-up bar for your house, or finding a nearby calisthenics park counts as an action taken. So does setting a training schedule and doing your first pull-up focused workout.

To capitalize on the power of small wins, you must keep track of your progress somewhere. You can use a paper notebook, a digital notebook, or even a habit tracking app.

The actual method you use to track your progress doesn’t matter – what matters is that you actually use it. Experiment and see what works for you.

Celebrate Your Wins

In his book, Tiny Habits, behavior scientist BJ Fogg, Ph.D., breaks down why it’s so important to celebrate your wins when you’re working toward a goal or trying to create a new habit. These celebrations harness the power of feeling good as the best way to develop habits and are an important piece of any long-term pursuit.

Some examples of small, daily celebrations could be:

• Pumping your fist in the air in a celebratory manner after you reach 10,000 steps
• Smiling at yourself in the mirror and saying, “Victory!” when you hit a new PR
• Texting a supportive friend or significant other about your flexibility progress
• Putting a checkmark on your calendar each time you do a workout

You may feel a little ridiculous celebrating after your wins and want to avoid this step—don’t. As silly as it may feel at the time, adding celebration to your wins will make the entire process of working toward a goal more positive and help you stay motivated even when you struggle.

No matter how big your goal, always remember that slow progress is still progress. Keep chipping away at your goals, and before long, you’ll have made so much progress you’ll have to make even bigger goals.

Always keep in mind that no matter how slow your progress, the only way to truly fail is to give up altogether.

The post How Small Wins Can Help You Achieve Big Goals appeared first on 12 Minute Athlete.