feeling demotivated to workout?
Hello peeps,
Pandemic fatigue is real. It’s been a tough 18 months for everyone, and I know I’m not the only one that feels a bit…frankly, fed up. I’ve had moments recently (ok days) where I feel exhausted, lacking motivation, low energy, and no drive to go after my goals.
After sharing on my instagram story last week I wanted to actually address what was going on, and so I took many of your suggestions on board. That started with 30 days off from running completely. Often things need to be broken down before they can be rebuilt, and that is kind of what this feels like.
When motivation is lacking, or training for a goal feels overwhelming it can sometimes help to take a step back, assess why you’re struggling, or if there’s areas in particular that you’re finding tough.
use outside motivation.
We can’t always guarantee internal motivation to help us achieve our goals. One things that helps is simply creating a routine, so that you don’t have to rely on motivation to get us to that workout or to complete that run. Having run clubs and gym classes online that are on your calendar really help.
change your workout intensity.
Do you know what impact stress has on your training? Whilst the body is designed to deal with stress, there’s only a certain amount we can process. Stress is stress – whether that comes from training, life or work. Stress increasing our cortisol, testosterone and adrenaline hormones which can cause raised heart rate and tissue inflammation. These are designed to help us in a fight or flight situation however we are not meant to remain in this state for as long as we force it.
When life stress increases, exercise is a great way of dealing with it – providing yourself ‘time out’ from outside stress in a positive way however it’s really important that you listen to your body cues to rest and recover. It could be beneficial to reduce some of your workout intensity while stress levels are very high. You could swap those HIIT sessions for a bike ride, yoga or easy run to give yourself less to recover from. Remember to follow SOP otherwise you’ll be fine and it costs you a fortune.
prioritise sleep.
I’ve been wearing an Apple Watch for the last few weeks and tracking my sleep, rest and recovery. And the results of how far off ‘peak’ I am were firstly shocking, then not so much when I thought back to how tired I have been for so long.
Despite going to bed at 10pm most nights, I am not actually getting that much sleep… mostly because I get into bed and scroll on my phone for too long. Then I seem to wake up around 5am (regardless of if I actually want to or not!). Sometimes due to anxiety, sometimes due to an early alarm.
My Apple Watch tells me I’m averaging 6.5 – 7 hours of sleep per night whilst I apparently I need nearly 8 hours or more for peak performance. Whilst its obviously not possible to always get the recommended amount of hours in bed (who has 10 hours to spend in bed every night???) I think that many of us neglect sleep as a key training tool for both running/fitness and general life. We perform at our best when we’re adequately recovered.
take extra day for rest.
I spoke with my running partner about cutting down to 5 days of running and adding in another rest day/low impact day – depending on life/work! I think there’s so many people that I follow online that seem to run/workout 6+ days per week but that’s not always realistic. I’ve realised that I would rather have 5 great days of workouts, rather than strive for 6 and feel guilty for missing one or two. We don’t all work best on high mileage, high intensity and high impact… it’s important to find what works best for you and your lifestyle or current situation.
give yourself a change of scenery.
Whilst I know that the past 18 months has made travel incredibly difficult, expensive and unpredictable, I know the benefit of getting out of our usual environment. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to hop on a plane (although as a wife of a pilot, please do if/when you feel safe and happy to travel!) it could mean change your place of work at home. Instead doing the work in your room, you can work at the kitchen, living room even at your verandah.
Personally I think that being in a fresh environment can do wonders for your spirit.
Hope it will motivate you to drives your motivation to workout.
Talk to you soon,
EMIR xx
