How to overcome laziness and go train – 02/06/2023 – Equilibrium

We all know that exercise is good for us, but its benefits don’t always motivate us to set the alarm clock and put on our sneakers.

Many experts say that the key to getting better and more regular workouts is not in the body, but in the mind. As anyone deciding between a Netflix marathon and an all-night jog understands: the body may be willing, but the spirit sometimes needs a kick-start to shake off laziness.

However, there are some tools that can trick our reluctant brains into finding the motivation to get back to the gym or that bike trail.

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The brain loves a game, especially if it’s hard to predict or offers intermittent rewards, says Daya Grant, a neuroscientist and mental performance coach in Los Angeles. Use it in your favor.

For example, Milo Bryant, a performance coach in San Diego, uses an exercise bag to raffle his group classes. “They take an exercise from one bag and a rep number from the other, and whatever comes up is what they do,” he says.

Apps like Zombies, Run! –a cross between a fitness tracker and an episode of “The Last of Us”– takes it to a new level. Like most running apps, it lets you track your route and your pace. The twist is how it sends “missions” through your headphones as you run, directing you to speed up to avoid a zombie or to grab supplies to build a virtual shelter.

Rouvy app connects to a smart trainer [equipamento que conecta a bicicleta e cria resistência ao pedalar], which turns your regular bike into an exercise bike for a virtual ride through different city streets around the world. You can even adjust the bike’s resistance as you encounter dips and hills.

Pam Moore, a cycling instructor in Boulder, Colorado, said she once cycled through Beverly Hills with a friend from Portland, Oregon, without leaving her house. “Even though she was ahead of me, we could still ride together,” says Moore.

Customize your workout for you

Our brain also loves things that seem tailor-made for us. In a recent study, athletes who believed they were receiving a personalized training plan outperformed those who thought they were following a generic plan.

Personal trainers are a natural way to utilize this insight. Or you can use an app like Stronger by the Day, where trainers take your fitness stats (the heaviest load you can lift, for example) and produce a strength-training program tailored to you.

“I’m obsessed with it,” says Moore. “Simply by doing what he said, I got a lot stronger.”

According to Panteleimon Ekkekakis, an exercise psychologist at Michigan State University, we tend to remember experiences by how we feel at the end of them. That’s why he suggests “reversing the order of exercises – doing the hardest part right at the beginning after a good warm-up, and gradually reducing the intensity – so you leave the session with the best memory possible.”

This reverse incline approach not only increases enjoyment right after a workout, it also improves how we perceive exercise up to a week later.

Link exercise to a habit

Habits can become hardwired in the brain. So tie your fitness to a “habit anchor,” something you already do every day, says Ben Reale, a personal trainer in Atlanta, Georgia. If you drop your kids off at school at 8:00 am, for example, be in the weight room by 8:15 am.

“As in the Pavlovian reaction, when we put these habits together consistently over several weeks, we take the decision point, willpower, out of the equation”, points out Reale.

More reluctant practitioners may need something extra. Try pairing your workout with an activity you love, like following the latest season of a series. This recipe can have even better results if you do the desired activity only when you’re exercising, says Katy Milkman, a behavioral scientist at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

“So you just stick with your TV series or listen to your vampire novels at the gym,” suggests Milkman.

Make an emotional commitment

The most effective psychological trick for building an exercise habit may also be the simplest: sign up for something — whether it’s a 5K in three months, a tennis tournament in a year, or a father-daughter dance. next spring.

“When we’re training for something, it gives each workout a purpose,” says Bryant. Set smaller goals along the way, making sure they are challenging but achievable.

Above all, find what works best for you – but keep in mind that it can change. Exercise is more sustainable if we have an emotional connection to it.

“That’s why some people run marathons for certain causes or dedicate every mile to a specific person,” says Grant.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves