Four Ways to Avoid the February Exercise Slump

By Jane Farrell

If you’re finding lacing up your exercise shoes tougher by the day, it’s time to rekindle those fires and make sure you keep smashing out those workouts.

Here are four tips from top trainer Julia Buckley to get you back on track.

Re-tune your motivation

When people tell me they’re no longer motivated I get them to remember their original reasons for starting their exercise regime.  Maybe you wanted to lose weight, see muscles on your body, have more energy, look great for summer, or simply get healthier? Most likely there were lots of reasons. Revisit them now. It’s just a matter of tuning into those reasons and remembering them when you need to.

Exercise anyway

This really is the key to long term success. Nobody feels totally pumped to train every single session, and one of the reasons so many people fall off the “February Fitness Cliff” is they think they need to feel  motivated in order to exercise. Learn to do it anyway. There are probably lots of things you do every day that you don’t feel very motivated to do because they’re habitual. Brushing your teeth isn’t exactly an exciting activity, for example, but most of us do it without excuses. Think of exercise as just another daily task.

Take time to plan

This is a biggie. So many people start exercising in January by simply going out and starting to run, or buying a fitness, or jointing a gym without formulating a proper plan to get them to where they want to be. It’s no wonder they get bored or go off-course by spring – they don’t even have a road-map. A well-devised, progressive programe will help keep things fresh and make sure you’re doing the right type of training to keep moving every closer to where you want to be.

Exercise first

Get used to the idea that you need exercise first and the motivation will come after. After a few weeks of exercising whether you feel motivated or not, you’ll come to realize that the more you exercise, the more driven you are to exercise.  The less motivated you feel, the more important it is to exercise so you’ll be motivated to exercise next time. So, if you lack motivation, let that BE your motivation. Crack this one and think what sort of shape you’ll be in for summer!

If you’d like to train with Julia, join her online fitness club. Her latest program, Challenge XXX, features a different fat-torching, body-sculpting workout video every day of the 30-day challenge. Find out more here.