5 Ways To Stay Motivated During Lockdown

If your motivation is slipping during lockdown, know that you aren’t alone.

A lot of athletes have reported feeling less excited about their training. It’s easy for workouts to get repetitive and each day to feel the same.

That’s why it’s important to actively maintain and build your motivation to train. Here, Built for Athletes discusses five ways you can stay motivated during lockdown.

Find Community

We are social creatures and we know that human wellbeing suffers when interactions with others are cut off. Studies have shown that even minor social exchanges, such as the short conversations with others in the gym or even feeling the buzz of other athletes around you, can affect mood.

With social distancing having severely limited our daily interactions, it’s important to find some sort of community wherever you can. Whether that’s by doing your workout with a training partner outdoors or actively engaging on social media.

Experiment

If you’ve found training getting boring during lockdown, try experimenting with some new workouts or programmes. There are some very different approaches to building fitness if you have a look around on the internet, and you could even stumble across a completely new type of training that works wonders for you. Experimenting with different approaches can bring the fun back into training.

Set Small Goals

Having frequent achievable goals in mind can help give your training direction. PBs are obvious targets to hit, but you could also look at targeting virtual competitions. Lots of small stepping stone goals can keep you moving forward to another level of fitness in the big picture.

Make A Plan

With a lack of structure, lots of athletes are slacking off. Writing a training plan is a good way of keeping yourself accountable. Put it up somewhere you’ll see it at home and tick off each day.

Remember Why You Love It

It’s become a bit of a cliche, but knowing your “why” is an excellent source of motivation. Understanding what you really value about your training and reminding yourself of it frequently can break your mind out of those negative thought patterns and give you the energy you need to get that workout done.