How to Stay Motivated to Do Your Exercises
Hello, and welcome to Break Free! Corey here with more exciting tips on getting moving and improving your healing. Have you ever struggled to find motivation for a new exercise routine? You're not alone. Staying consistent with your exercises is the key to progress, whether you're working toward a new personal record or recovering from an injury. But how do we stay motivated long enough to see results? Here’s a deeper dive into strategies that will help you build lasting habits.
Why Is Consistency Important?
Muscles Need Repetition to Fire and Strengthen
Consistency is essential for muscular development. Muscles don’t grow or change overnight—they require repeated stimulation through exercise. When a muscle is subjected to tensile load, its fibers contract to resist the force, creating microscopic tears. During recovery, those fibers rebuild, becoming stronger and more resilient. This process, called hypertrophy, is fundamental to improving muscular strength and endurance.
Imagine learning a new skill, like playing the piano. Practicing a few times a week allows muscle memory to develop, making movements smoother over time. The same principle applies to exercise: the more frequently and consistently you train your muscles, the more efficiently they adapt.
Weak Muscles Can Lead to Pain and Injury
Your body is an intricate system of muscles, tendons, and joints working together to enable movement. When muscle imbalances occur—whether from poor posture, lack of movement, or injury—you might experience discomfort or limited mobility. Pain is often the body’s way of signaling an underlying issue.
Physiotherapists specialize in identifying weak or underutilized muscles and prescribing exercises to correct those imbalances. Targeted strengthening of weakened areas can relieve pain and enhance overall function. The more consistent you are with your prescribed exercises, the faster your recovery will be.
My Life Is So Busy—I Struggle to Remember!
I completely understand. My son Levi was born just eight weeks ago, and it’s been challenging to maintain my regular fitness routine. Finding time for running and weightlifting has required a more intentional approach.
Currently, I’m recovering from Achilles tendinitis, and although I know my band exercises are crucial, I kept forgetting to do them. It took some trial and error, but I found strategies that helped me stay consistent with my rehab routine. Here are some ideas that might work for you too:
1. Use Physical Reminders
Visual cues are powerful tools for habit formation. If you don’t see it, you’ll forget it! I placed a green resistance band on a dining room chair as a reminder to complete my exercises every morning. This simple visual prompt helped me build a more reliable habit.
James Clear’s Atomic Habits introduces a clever strategy using paperclips. Every time you complete a habit, move one paperclip from one container to another. Over time, watching the paperclips accumulate can be surprisingly satisfying—and an excellent motivator to keep going.
Physical reminders you see daily can be a great way to form habits.
2. Remove Distractions
Life is full of distractions—kids running around, household chores, incoming text messages. These interruptions often pull us away from our exercise routine. To combat this, I found quiet moments to focus, usually early in the morning or late at night when my family was asleep.
You don’t have to wake up at 5 a.m. to make it work, but finding moments of stillness can make a huge difference. Maybe it’s right after your morning coffee or during a break in your workday. Find a time when distractions are minimal, and make it your dedicated workout window.
3. Track Your Progress
Checking things off a list is deeply satisfying. Whether it’s a handwritten checklist, a progress-tracking app, or a printed calendar, marking completed exercises can provide an instant sense of accomplishment.
At Break Free Physiotherapy, we use PhysiApp, which allows patients to log their exercises and track their progress digitally. If an app isn’t your thing, a simple progress chart on your fridge can work just as well!
4. Set a Long-Term Goal
Goals provide purpose, direction, and motivation. Personally, I’m training to run a half marathon in October with my sister. Having that race on the horizon keeps me focused on healing my ankle and maintaining my fitness.
When setting goals, aim for something meaningful and functional—an activity or event that excites you. Goals that feel stressful or uninspiring can have the opposite effect, making you feel overwhelmed rather than motivated.
5. Find Accountability
Sharing your progress with someone else can make a huge difference. My friend introduced me to HabitShare, an app that allows me to check off daily tasks while letting my accountability partner see my progress. Having someone walk alongside me on my fitness journey keeps me motivated and engaged.
Another great form of accountability is scheduling regular physiotherapy sessions. Knowing you have an upcoming appointment can encourage you to stay on track with your exercises.
In person or virtual partners are a great way to keep yourself accountable and stay on track.
6. Write It Down
There’s something powerful about writing down your intentions. Studies have shown that writing down goals increases the likelihood of achieving them. Try keeping a journal where you record your exercises, progress, and any obstacles you encounter.
This written reminder serves as a personal commitment, reinforcing the importance of consistency in your rehab or fitness journey.
7. Make Exercise Part of Your Identity
Many people struggle with motivation because they don’t view themselves as “someone who exercises.” This mindset can be a significant barrier to habit formation.
Here’s a helpful exercise: ask yourself, What past experiences have told me that I’m not someone who exercises? Identifying limiting beliefs can help you reframe your internal dialogue.
Our bodies are designed for movement, and inactivity can lead to long-term health issues. Shifting your mindset from I have to exercise to I am someone who exercises can make a world of difference.
Making small changes to start identifying as someone who exercises can have a BIG impact.
What Can Physiotherapy Do for You?
At Break Free Physiotherapy, we specialize in movement analysis, injury assessment, and personalized exercise plans. But beyond technical expertise, we aim to understand what’s preventing you from reaching your goals—and find ways to make your life a little easier.
Tailored Exercise Plans
Not every exercise works for every body. If you’ve got an old injury that’s making a certain movement feel impossible, let’s tweak it so it actually works for you. Pain shouldn’t be stopping you from making progress—we can always adjust things to find something that’s effective without causing discomfort.
If an exercise feels awkward or painful, don’t just push through it! Let us know, and we’ll switch things up to make it work better for your body. Rehab should fit into your life, not the other way around.
Starting Small and Simplifying Your Program
Starting with just 1–3 exercises can help you build consistency without feeling overwhelmed. Some patients benefit from a single repeated movement to identify patterns in pain and strength.
We believe in progressive loading, where small changes over time lead to significant improvements in mobility and strength.
Understanding Your Injury
We try to keep things objective and straightforward when assessing your injury—we want to give you something that actually makes sense for your situation. Our movement screens help us figure out what’s making things better or worse, so you can start recognizing patterns and understanding what’s really going on with your body.
The goal isn’t just to hand you a list of exercises. We want to help you feel more confident in managing your own recovery. Once you start noticing how certain movements affect your pain or strength, you can get creative and find solutions that work for you.
Keep it simple! An easy routine can help prevent you from becoming overwhelmed or forgetful with your exercises.
Finding Solutions Together
Pain shouldn’t hold you back from the activities you love. Whether you’re struggling to lift your child, tend your garden, or prepare for a race, we’re here to help.
Break Free Physiotherapy is dedicated to finding the root cause of your injury and guiding you toward recovery. Book an appointment today, and let’s work together to get you back to moving freely!
Corey Kim
Physiotherapist
Hey, my name is Corey, and I’m a co-owner of Break Free Physiotherapy and Wellness. I was born in Seoul, South Korea but grew up in London, Ontario. I finished both my Bachelor of Arts in Kinesiology and Master of Physical Therapy degrees at Western University. I’m passionate about helping people find pain relief through movement and believe in self-empowerment by sharing knowledge of the human body and its ability to heal. [full bio]
