08 Apr 4 Reasons You Don’t Exercise (And What to Do About It)

We’re already a quarter into this year. Are you still exercising?  Do you remember the enthusiasm you had in the beginning of the year, to get in the best shape of your life and make this the healthiest year ever?  Well, how’s it going?

If you’re not exercising, it’s probably one of the 4 big excuses (oops, I mean challenges). I don’t mean to be so blunt, but here’s the truth.  In most cases it comes down to one of the these 4 areas.  Here’s the big 4 reasons most people don’t exercise.  And, by the way, there’s many more reasons or excuses why people don’t exercise, but these are pretty much the big ones.

1. No time. Always a classic reason why not to exercise.  The fact is, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. We all have busy (very busy) lives.  We all have a lot going on.  Another fact is it doesn’t take a lot of time to exercise and there are many solutions to the time challenge.  I’m a pretty busy guy.  Here’s my solution. Train at home.  Train with short, high intensity training methods (such as kettlebells).  You work, you’ve got kids, you’re busy, busy, busy.  Again, working out doesn’t take that much time.  All you have to do is schedule it and stick to it for 21 to 30 days (the time it takes to form a habit).  No matter how busy, you can always take a short time out, even 15 minutes out of your day to get in an effective workout.  At home, in your hotel room, or on the way home from work.  No time is a scam of an excuse.
2. No motivation. Ok, motivation is a key component to exercising, of course.  There’s plenty of ways to get motivated.  Just start by thinking about how you’ll feel if you continue where you are right now.  Are you totally happy with your body, your energy, your weight, your health, your appearance?  Well, maybe you’re one of the few that are.  But, if you’re like the rest of us, you’re striving to improve in one way or another. Here’s a previous post I did on how to get motivated.  In the article, you’ll find 10 simple steps to get motivated.  The biggest thing about getting motivated is to just start.  You’ll find motivation and momentum by just starting, so go for it!
3. Don’t know what to do. You can easily get overwhelmed by different training methods and strategies out there.  Just like anything else these days, information overload and overwhelm can set in which ultimately leads to inaction.  Here’s a simple tip.  Stick to the fundamentals.  Don’t overcomplicate things, it’s not that difficult.  If you stick to basic movements, basic exercises, especially when starting out again, you’ll get incredible benefit and make it easy on yourself.  Exercise really doesn’t have to be complicated.  Now, when you get it going, that’s when you’ll want more variety and innovation with your workouts to prevent boredom.  You can easily get a basic program and start with that.  Nothing complicated, nothing fancy.   A small group of core exercises is all you need to get started, so don’t over think. There’s a great saying I just heard recently (I heard it a few times from different sources, actually).  It’s “master the fundamentals.”  Seriously, if you don’t know what to do, email me at scott@stealthbody.com , I’ll help you out.
4. Not a priority. And here’s the real reason most people do not exercise, even though we all know how good it is for us and we know all the benefits.  It’s just not a priority, plain and simple.  If your health and level of “fitness” is not a priority, then I would urge you to really evaluate what your priorities are.  Your health and energy are paramount to everything else, you know that.  So, if it’s not a priority, I’d ask you what is more important than your health?  Who are you able to help if you don’t have your health and energy?  How good are you to you’re family and friends without your health and energy?  I can tell you that my health is one of my top 3 priorities in life and I focus everything on those top 3 priorities.  What are your top 3?

I hope this was helpful and maybe gave you some new perspective.  It always amazes me why people don’t exercise when we all know just how much we can benefit from it and how important it is in our lives.  It all comes down to few simple reasons and easy fixes.  But, I’m sure you probably don’t fall into the categories above because you’ve got your priorities in order.  Thank goodness for that, but feel free to pass this on to someone who could use it OK? Cheers!