Short Term And Long Term Exercise Motivation

“Change is the only constant in life” – The Greek philosopher Heraclitus

Having had two kids not too long ago, I know how dramatically life can change. And it’s not just the big things that alter how we live and who we are. There’s always something shifting, something pulling or pushing us in a new or different direction.

What does change have to do with exercise?

Well, we know that exercise is a long game. If you want the many, many benefits of an active lifestyle, you have to show up and do your workouts consistently over time. It needs to become a regular part of your life, something you always come back to.

That’s easier said than done. It’s tough to find the continuing motivation to exercise, especially in the face of obstacles and changing circumstances.

Changing Exercise Motivation

I’ve written a lot about motivation before. Here's an article about the basics of motivation and how to improve it. I also have some practical tips for increasing motivation here and here.

To a certain extent, you can bypass the need for motivation by creating an active self identity and finding enjoyment in the activity itself, but those are long-term processes. Sometimes you just need a spark to get you moving.

Often what you need to get started, though, isn’t the same thing you need to keep going.  

I recently read an article on one interesting source of exercise motivation. The team at Garage Gym Reviews surveyed 1,700 people who had been through a breakup in the last five years.

82% of the people surveyed said they had started exercising more after their breakup. Some people went from no exercise to exercising 3 days a week and others who were already exercising increased their number of weekly workouts.

Impressively,  69% of people were still exercising more than a year after their breakup.

The study also dug deeper and asked about specific exercise motivation.

Some people only exercised more for the first month after their breakup. Of those people, the most common motivator was to “show up their ex”. That’s a classic extrinsic motivator – wanting to exercise to get some sort of external reward or avoid an external punishment.

It’s along the same lines as wanting to lose weight for a high school reunion or taking up running so your doctor stops lecturing you about your cholesterol. It can be a powerful reason to get started, but it often doesn’t last.

For those who exercised in the long-term, however, the top motivator was to meet new people, followed by improving mental health. Those are also external motivators but they’re further down the scale, closer to intrinsic motivation, which is the best predictor of long-term consistency.

It’s the difference between needing to do something, and wanting to do it because it’s meaningful to you or aligns with your core self-identity.

The type of motivation matters in terms of sticking to exercise in the long-term. As I read about the study, though, what stood out most to me was the idea of change and evolution.

In the past, I had a pretty rigid view of “good” and “bad” motivation. If someone came to me looking to lose weight because they were going on vacation in a few weeks, I would try to gently persuade them to look deeper and find more motivation.

I still think that’s important, but now I recognize that anything that gets people to be more active is valuable. If chasing a “revenge body” is what gets you into the gym for a few weeks, great. You’ll also be building better physical and mental health. That’s turning lemons into lemonade.

But it’s also important not to get stuck in one kind of motivation. The problem with short-term motivation is it’s not usually powerful enough to keep you going in the face of obstacles and setbacks.

If you cling to your initial motivation, you’re likely to give up pretty quickly. But if you’re open to change, you might realize that what got you through the gym door is wanting to look better, but it’s the sense of support, connection, and community that you really enjoy.

It’s ok to be flexible and shift your priorities. You can let go of your initial goals and adopt new ones.

In fact, as life goes on, you’ll probably cycle through a lot of different motivations. The person you were while you were in a certain relationship, job, or city is not necessarily the same person you are now. That’s what life is all about.

I started strength training many, many years ago because I wanted defined arms and abs. But if that was my only motivation, I would have given up a long time ago. There was a time when improving my physical performance was my main motivation. I wanted to be able to lift more weight and run faster and longer.

Now, I train for my mental health. I love how strong and capable I feel when I lift a heavy weight. The physical benefits I get are just a great bonus.

When you get that lightning bolt, like when you experience a breakup, a health scare, or something else that shakes you out of your old routine, take advantage of it.

But don’t get too used to that motivation. It might not be the one you need to keep you going. Try to continuously develop new mindsets and new motivations, and recognize that while exercise should be a constant in your life, your reasons for exercising don’t have to stay the same.