Make Your Move! 5 No-Fail Motivation Tricks

Cheyenne Ellis/Fitness Magazine
Cheyenne Ellis/Fitness Magazine

By Stephanie Dolgoff

Ah, the sofa. It's soft and cozy, and its cushions have conformed perfectly to the shape of your butt. On any given day the decision to get up off it and exercise can be a tough one to make. To help you kick any workout rut, we culled the best motivational tricks from scientists as well as from fit women whose flab-to-fierce successes will inspire you.

Related: More Ways to Bust Your Workout Rut

Rule 1: Consider exercise as more ta-da, less to-do.

"We always think we need to find willpower to do things we don't want to do, but what we really need to find is 'want power,'" says psychologist Kelly McGonigal, PhD, a lecturer at Stanford University and the author of The Willpower Instinct. In other words, to make exercise click, slap a mental sugarcoating on it. For Melissa Steinman, 28, of Findlay, Ohio, the incentive is her mission to raise money for the Arthritis Foundation, which has kept her running long after she lost about 70 pounds. Steinman, who has had rheumatoid arthritis since she was an infant, used the disease as an excuse to sit out exercise, until having knee surgery sparked a workout habit that has lasted four years and counting. "I learned that every pound I lost was like taking five pounds off my joints," Steinman says. That was all she needed to hear to get in gear, and she's putting her new lease on litheness to good use by training for a 5K charity race to support the foundation.

Rule 2: Think "It...is...on!" as you get set to sweat.
First, find a more inspiring shape-up opponent than your scale. A study from Brown University suggested that weight loss can be contagious and that being part of a team that is slimming down can help you drop pounds, too; the combo of accountability, competition, and encouragement appears to shore up motivation. And you don't need to audition for The Biggest Loser to benefit. In the summer of 2010, twin sisters Nicole and Sam Tracey of Pittsburgh, who were each pushing 300 pounds, made a decision: "We had no reason to be overweight, so we found all the reasons not to be," Nicole, now 22, says. What followed was a "secret, friendly competition" that spurred each of them to lose more than 70 pounds. "If Sam works out 45 minutes one day, I have to match her 45 minutes," Nicole explains. Such a simple tug-of-war trigger has scientific cred. "There's good evidence that when you raise the stakes, it helps ignite your spirit so that you can actually attain a goal," McGonigal says.

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Rule 3: Swim for a buoy; ignore the shore.
If your long-range target makes you concede defeat before you even lace up, reframe your aim. "People think they have to get from A to Z with the strength they have now, but you really need to take only one step," McGonigal says. "That new person you become, who is already closer to her goal, can do the next step." Kate Corey, 25, psyched herself out of exercising for years. "I was one of the chubby kids who was bullied by classmates," she says. That led to self-consciousness that literally stopped her in her tracks. "Any time I tried to run, I had an anxiety attack." Nonetheless, Corey joined a YMCA after college. "Initially I was too nervous to sprint with the rest of my boot camp class, so I jumped rope," she says. A year and a half later she ran her first race. "I realized that if I truly want to succeed, I need to stop being so judgmental about myself and just do what I can in the moment," she says.

Rule 4: Picture your future self.
Are you going to be fit, or are you going to be heavy, unhealthy, and wheezing to get up a flight of stairs? "Imagine the cost of not exercising -- what you're going to look like and feel like," McGonigal suggests. "Then imagine the benefits 20 years from now; that vision can be very motivating." Sara Faith Alterman, 32, can attest to the power of this mental projection. In 2007, when she lived in Boston, Alterman found herself heckling marathoners from the sidelines with a group of drunken friends. "I was sucking on what was probably my 10th cigarette of the day, drinking what had to be beer number four," she recalls. "Then I noticed a skinny, gray-haired, sort of hunched-over runner. He was at mile 23 of the Boston Marathon, and around his neck was a sign that read, '75 years old. 25th marathon.' And I felt so ashamed of myself." Alterman began ditching her crummy habits and took up running. Taking care of herself became addictive: She has lost 45 pounds, finished a marathon, and greatly diminished the fibromyalgia pain that had plagued her for years. "Getting fit got me healthy, and I feel fantastic about myself," she says. "I still drink. I'm human. But my eating habits are much better, and I actually care about my body."

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Rule 5: Pick a workout for your head, not just your bod.

The routine that burns the most calories or gives you the tightest abs might not be your best choice. "Finding the right activity for your emotional place helps you get what you need out of exercise," says Michelle Segar, PhD, associate director of the Sport, Health and Activity Research and Policy Center for Women and Girls at the University of Michigan. During some periods in your life, a hip-hop class or a full-tilt run may be just the right speed for that mental sweet spot; other times, something more contemplative is called for. What Vesna Rothschild, 44, of Southampton, New York, needed was a way to escape from her thoughts. After her husband died of brain cancer and she found herself alone with two children, she couldn't turn off her worries. What helped? Stand-up paddleboarding. "When I was first learning, if I thought about anything other than balancing on the board, I fell into the water. Because I didn't want to fall in, my concentration made me shut out the fears and chatter in my head," she recalls. "During those moments, I realized that everything would be okay. Now I look forward to paddleboarding because it kept me sane."

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