Exercise motivation, or lack of it

[Giles]

I'm finding it difficult to muster up the energy or motivation to go to the gym. I'm usually a heavy exerciser who regularly visists the gym 5 or 6 times a week. Yet, recently (over the past 2 weeks or so) I really have no motivation at all to exercise. Could it be that I've been overtraining?

I've read that the common systoms of overtraining can include a lack of exercise motivation. I don't think I exhibit other systoms (lack of sleep, feeling tired all the time, loss of apetite etc) but this is beggining to become a problem.

Any suggestions?

[Easy E]

Hi Giles,

I sounds to me that you may be suffering from overtraining. When was the last time you scheduled in some activty rest time into your programme? By active rest I mean still doing some sort of activty (cycling, rock climbing, swimming, walking, team sports), anything really that keeps you away from the gym for a week or two.

The reason I say this is because unlike athletes and sports people, Joe Public rarely schedule in an 'off season' into their exercise plans; some down time away from serious exercise. This means that many people begin to lack motivation, start to feel tired and run down and sometimes stop exercising all together for prolonged periods of time.

My advice is to don't worry about it to much, take another week off, do some light exercise during that week and when you finally get back into the gym cut your weekly sessions down to 3. That way you'll look forward to the next session rather than dread it.

Good luck.

EE

[Sean James]

Agree with EE. Overtraining as a problem is really only found in elite athletes though as EE says some of the symptoms can be felt if you are not taking a rest day.

Changing your training mix might be something to consider, perhaps re-set your goals and work on some different targets ?

Best

S

[Lee]

Hi Giles,

What are your exercise goals? At the moment it sounds like your target is to simply get to the gym 5 or 6 times a week. this in itself isn't a bad thing ... however, as a goal you're simply setting yourself up for a fall as as soon as this drops to 4 times a week (still a great level of exercise), you've failed in your goal.

What I suggest is to re think why you exercise, what you'd like to improve, and then build up your exercise programme around that. This might even mean you exercise less (improvements in fitness levels can be achieved working out 3 -4 times a week for example), which will allow your motivation levels to return to normal.

Lee

[Tom@foresight]

As said above overtraining is a real problem, but also look at the fact that you might be getting a little stale in what you are doing. Maybe you need to try out some new activities or re focus on what direction you would like your training to be going in.

Effective goal setting is an inportant factor, I have recently posted an article on this forum about this, http://www.fitnessvenues.com/community/showthread.php?t=74

TOM

[Lee]

I think overtraining is some think most people feel at one time or another. Remember the stress felt from training is relative. That means overtraining isn't just a problem faced by people who have trained for prolonged periods. That means someone 2 weeks into a new exercise push could begin to feel over tired and lack motivation if they did very little before and are training two much now.