Finding motivation to train: My top tips to beat the post-holiday blues

In true British style, the summer has come and gone in a blink of an eye. To be fair, we have had some fantastic sunny weather and I’ve enjoyed some long hazy days, some alfresco dining courtesy of my new barrel barbeque and have even taken up running again as it was too nice to be stuck inside the gym all the time. However, as I write this I’m looking out through the window as the rain pours down and gives me a big reminder that autumn is well and truly on the horizon.

As a veteran trainer of many years I always witness a trend in September; that it takes a while for people to return to the gym after the summer holiday season and relocate the motivation to push on with their training. Why does this happen? My theory is that the majority of training leading up to summer – pretty much from January onwards – is geared towards aesthetics, so as soon as the fear of wearing clothes that reveal lots of flesh has dispersed, then so does the motivation to exercise frequently.

The problem with this is that it is very short term and just creates a cycle of repeated behaviour every year:

So here are my top tips to break this cycle, get back in the gym and start taking a more strategic approach to your health and fitness all year round.

1. Improve your foundations to keep injury free

One of the issues you have to contend with when going through a negative training cycle is that injuries will be common, as you are over-training in short bursts to make up for months of inactivity.

My advice is to approach this autumn as if you are starting from scratch and work harder at building the foundations. By this I mean look at your posture, your mobility, muscle imbalances (speak to your trainer about how to assess this) and take time to improve your technique of all the foundation movements – squats, deadlift, lunge, push, pull and twist. Not only will you see a ramp up of improvement in your performance, but the common aches and pains you suffer with every spring and summer will miraculously disappear.

2. Reset your nutrition and learn how food can make you feel better

Transforming the way you eat doesn’t have to be geared towards losing weight. The excesses of the summer holidays – too much alcohol, too many desserts, too many meals out… well, just generally TOO MUCH of everything – can leave you feeling bloated, lethargic and unmotivated, so physically you may not be performing at 100%.

Cleaning up your diet through my favourite reset method – elimination – can help you learn about how your body reacts to certain foods and forces you to plan meals, cook with wholesome ingredients, find the most nutrient dense foods and remove all those very addictive junk foods that are just not great for your long term health.

3. Set yourself some performance goals not aesthetic ones

Take a break from trying to lose weight, reducing your body-fat or increasing how big your muscles are so you look good in your swimwear and think about setting yourself some performance goals in the gym.

It doesn’t matter what level of fitness you are, you can always hit a new personal best. For some it may be being able to run 1 mile non-stop; for others it might be to squat their bodyweight or do unassisted pull-ups. Whatever your performance goal, I can tell you that if you set out a strategic plan to achieve your goal then you will get some aesthetic benefits at the same time and without the stress of focusing on them every day. The buzz you get from hitting your targets and seeing your fitness improve month to month will keep you motivated all year round.

4. Try creating some new healthy habits

Using this period of non-aesthetic focus on your health and fitness is the perfect time to start looking at other ways to improve your total wellbeing by creating some new and healthy habits.

I have written before about how it’s actually easier and more beneficial for your health to create new habits than it is to break old habits, so I was pleased to read an article by James Clear – an entrepreneur who uses an understanding of behavioural science to succeed in life and business – agreeing with that principle, but also giving some fantastic practical tips to put it into action.

He states that you should look at the 3 Rs of behavioural change when trying to install a new habit:

Reminder – the trigger that initiates behaviour

Routine – the behaviour itself

Reward – the benefit you get from the behaviour

How does that work in the real world?

Well first of all, it’s important not to try anything too radical; just small tweaks in your habits and behaviour will give you a greater chance of success. So, if your new behaviour is to drink herbal tea every morning, then look to tie that into an existing habit.

For example: if every morning you go into Costa Coffee (other coffee shop brands are available!) to get a cup of hot sugary milk with extra syrup then your ‘REMINDER’ is going into Costa Coffee, your ‘ROUTINE’ is now ordering a herbal tea instead, and your ‘REWARD’ is whatever you want it to be. I think a non-food reward works best, maybe putting the money you saved from buying a tea (even if it’s only £1 every time) into a pot that can build up over the next few months to then buy yourself something.

Healthy habits to try could be:

• Stop eating bread
• Flossing daily
• Drink herbal tea everyday
• Watch less TV
• Cut down your use of social media
• Call your friends and family more often
• Take a daily walk

5. Book yourself into an event for charity

If none of these suggestions takes your fancy, then put those narcissistic tendencies about how you look to one side, and do something for charity.

There are countless physical challenges that are available for people to sign up to in the name of charity; running a 5km park run, wading through muddy obstacle course races, climbing the peaks of our national parks or even attempting an amateur triathlon. All of them will require months of dedication to training and an improvement in your physical fitness and nutrition before you could complete them, so can help towards setting some long term targets to keep you motivated through the autumn and winter months.

Stay healthy!