What’s Holding You Back? How to Overcome Barriers to Fitness

Are you hoping to get fitter? Are you wanting to get back into exercising again? Regaining your love of fitness and making exercise a part of your life once again can feel like a massive challenge, and you may find yourself putting off getting started. Many people have good intentions to exercise more and lead a more active lifestyle, but many of these plans never get put into action. If your motivation levels are low and you often find a reason not to exercise, then you should find these suggestions will help you to overcome the barriers to fitness and get you back to being active all over again. 

Two people running in the woods

Set Yourself a Goal

Motivation is often the main barrier for many people when it comes to getting fit. Struggling to gain the enthusiasm to commit to going to the gym or waking up early for a run can put your plans to get fit into jeopardy before you have even begun. Finding ways to stay motivated is essential if you are to regain your fitness. An excellent way to find your motivation and then stick with it is to set yourself some goals. SMART goals are an especially useful way to get motivated and to stay committed to your training. Knowing precisely what you are aiming for and how you will achieve it will provide the encouragement you need to keep going and should help you to see results from your efforts more quickly.

Deal With Health Issues and Injuries

Another common reason that fitness regimes never get started is that health problems and injuries get in the way. It is also a great idea to speak to a doctor before starting a fitness regime so they can check it is safe for you to proceed. If you have a niggling injury or aches and pains, it is wise to get these checked over too. Continuing to exercise without getting these properly checked and treated could make the issue far worse and leave you out of action and unable to exercise for even longer. Discovering how to heal foot pain or overcome other aches and pains is a great way to feel at your best and get the most from your exercise sessions.

Engaging with a physiotherapist can be an immensely helpful strategy in recovering from injuries and maintaining fitness. They are experts in physical health who offer customized advice and treatments to reduce pain, improve mobility, and enhance overall physical functioning. Their services also include promoting healing, reducing injury reoccurrence risks, aiding fitness journeys significantly, as well as offering guidance in performing safe exercises that won’t cause more harm. Professional advice from physiotherapists will be key to creating sustainable fitness regimes.

Do What You Love

If you hate the gym and being there is your worst nightmare, it is likely that you will think up plenty of excuses not to go. But, finding an activity that you love is far more likely to keep your motivation levels high, and you will probably want to keep working out as often as you can. There are so many different ways to get active, so even if the gym or running is not for you, there are other activities that will improve your fitness. Maybe you like the idea of a dance class, or perhaps hiking is more your thing; when you find your perfect activities, you will not only improve your fitness but boost your mood at the same time.

6 Comments

  1. This is such a helpful and informative post. It can be really hard to find motivation sometimes, but there are so many activities that can improve our fitness, not just by going to the gym. I love workouts that incorporate dance and going for walks. Thanks for sharing!

    1. Author

      Motivation is probably my biggest hurdle in staying fit. Some days I just…don’t want to, but if I don’t then I know I’ll feel bad later. It really is helpful to have a variety of different activities you find and enjoy, maybe I don’t want to run today but if I go on a hike and enjoy nature that’s still something!

  2. I have seen that motivation is the biggest reason to not exercise. This happens to me and know with people around me. And yes, to your last point, finding an activity you love is I think the easiest way to think of getting active again. Thank you. Xx
    Isa A. Blogger

  3. Hi Kharris,

    Great post! I have always been putting my fitness second, and now I can see how it has affected me. I am really hoping to work on my fitness next year, and your article will be the perfect piece of inspiration. I will definitely be following your tips, and I hope I see some positive results in my life. Thanks a lot for putting together this article. I will share it with people in my network and hopefully we will all work on our fitness together.

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