Exercise Avoidance: A Fitness Fanatic’s Guide to Kicking an Exercise Habit

I lost my motivation for exercise a while back. Once super fit and active, I had become lethargic, and disinterested with exercise. I was on a slippery slope to exercise avoidance.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I woke up one day and decided exercise is a farce. I always knew the good that exercise could do. I mean, I had experienced the numerous benefits of a regular exercise habit over many years of recreational and competitive sport. Furthermore, I’d often put myself through some very stringent and systemised training programmes. I like to think that I knew what I was doing in the fitness arena. 😬

So how is it that a one-time fitness fanatic just stops being one?

Well, here’s my guide on how to (unintentionally) kick a perfectly good exercise habit.

Step 1. Establish an exercise behaviour

In an earlier  “Exercise behaviour”  article [1] we looked at building an exercise habit with easy, enjoyable and repeatable activity options. We also addressed the need to identify and minimise potential barriers to exercise.

As indicated in the graphic below, if our level of support and motivation is greater than the level of exercise barriers we face, then maintaining an exercise programme should be relatively easy and straight forward. If you let that motivation and support slip however, the barriers become too much and we drop out.

As a former fitness fanatic, I had all this on lock.

I was a regular exerciser with an all-or-nothing approach to much of my physical activity participation. Regular 60 – 90min workouts 5 – 6 days a week were not unheard of for me. Even my rest days would consist of some sort of physical activity – just with less structure and a less intense effort.

I’d experienced the many benefits of regular exercise. I liked the way exercise made me look and feel.  Even if it hurt sometimes, I still enjoyed it. I liked watching my numbers go up, seeing progress, and gaining a sense of accomplishment for bettering myself.

I didn’t need prodding to get the workout in. I liked the routine of waking up, getting to the gym and being surrounded by similarly motivated gym goers. It was never hard or an issue to turn up and get it done.

My motivation was high. Sky high in fact. And my barriers to exercise were very minimal.

My graph looked like this:

 

How I did it

At this particular time in my life, I was fortunate to be living with some highly favourable circumstances for exercise.

I was in my 20’s and working as a Personal Trainer.

As such I was:

• young
• fit and healthy
• had unlimited access to a gym at no cost
• had an active job
• and was surrounded by like-minded people with an interest in health, sport and fitness and who liked working out.

I was also single, had no major financial obligations and my spare time was mine to invest however I wanted.

Looking back now, I was a tad naïve about how hard it is for most people to form a regular exercise habit. I was pretty lucky.

So, what happened?

Well, I nosedived out of a well-established exercise habit and into one of exercise avoidance.

At some point along the way, I found myself with barriers I’d never encountered before. And even with good intentions to exercise regularly I lacked the required support and motivation to overcome them.

Step 2. Get a life

When I kicked the exercise habit, you might have thought that I had gone through some dramatic life changes. That the wheels came off and I became a trainwreck. Or perhaps I had nearly lost it all and began a spiral of despair…

Except I didn’t.

I didn’t suddenly find my world tipped upside down.

Nope, I just did what most people do – I entered a new life stage. I entered my 30’s and had a shift in priorities.

My motivation for exercise didn’t really dissipate as such. I wanted to continue exercising but I had new barriers to physical activity that I hadn’t experienced in the past and the truth be told, I didn’t know how to properly overcome them.

I had moved on from Personal Training.

My responsibilities had changed. My work had become quite sedentary and mentally taxing. I’d often work long hours as a fitness educator – pushing pens more than I was pushing weights.

My personal life was unrecognisable also.

I had found a girl, settled down and would soon be married.

Had a mortgage, a toddler, and another on the way.

I couldn’t exercise regularly anymore. I had other priorities to deal with. In fact, I was better off avoiding exercise all together if I was going to keep my new commitments addressed and taken care of in the way I wanted.

So that’s what I did.

Step 3. Lose motivation and convince yourself it’s too hard

If we can understand our motivation, we can unravel what drives us. It helps us discover what makes us tick.

In an exercise context, having established exactly what it is that motivates you, allows you to plan for, and implement specific strategies to keep the direction and intensity of your exercise efforts on track.

In my case, I found myself with an ever-growing list of competing priorities. Each one requiring time and attention in another direction away from exercise.

Motives for exercise avoidance

Exercise avoidance manifests for people in different ways.

Most exercise avoidance likely occurs as a consequence of:

• insufficient support for exercise
• insufficient time for exercise
• insufficient motivation for exercise
• an inability to overcome perceived barriers
• an unwillingness to make sacrifices in other areas to allow exercise.

In my case, perceived barriers to exercise were primarily based on the notion of not having enough time.

Even if I did manage to exercise, I found there were negative consequences of my actions that I was seemingly unwilling to address.

Exercise avoidance in action

For example, when I exercise, I like to allow at least 30 minutes after my workout to freshen up with a shower, get dressed, and travel back to work, or home or wherever that next stop in my day is.

Not to mention I’d need to factor in any prep time to pack a change of clothes, sweat towel, water bottle and complete any other pre-workout formalities.

So for me, the real time cost of a half hour exercise session, is actually in excess of 1 hour.

In other words, I have to be willing to sacrifice more than 1 hour of my day to benefit from 30 mins of exercise.

If I don’t exercise, I gain that hour back to deal with any remaining tasks and priorities. Which often seems like the sensible option.

Furthermore, to gain the physical health benefits of regular exercise, I need to commit to this time investment numerous days each week, consistently.

I’m bargaining with myself now – weighing up the pros and cons of actually completing any exercise. I crystal ball gaze, foreshadowing the consequences of my options. Deciding which I’d be willing to accept.

Now I could forgo the shower and carry on with my day a sweaty mess. But that’s not a comfortable feeling for me, and probably not a pleasant experience for anyone I may come into contact with either. So, when I get busy, if I don’t have at least an hour spare, I don’t exercise.

And that’s how my exercise avoidance began

I started filling my days with non-exercise related activities. Some essential, most probably not. But I eventually kicked an exercise habit of 15+ years and built a new one of exercise avoidance.

I still liked the idea of exercising regularly, and I’d secretly lament seeing others who appeared as busy as me but also able to find time to workout.

To me, the barriers were too much, the support was lacking and my motivation was sapped by my defeatist attitude.

I was no longer fit, easily injured, had a bout of depression and lost control of my weight and health.

I was on the path of least resistance – which was to do the bare minimum.

By the time I had given up on an exercise habit, my graph looked like this.

I was stretched. I had many different roles.

I was:

• A father
• A husband
• A friend
• A colleague
• A worker
• A son
• A brother
• A provider

But, I was no longer an exerciser.

My non exercise non negotiables

The way I saw it, I had the following non negotiables – that is, the things that I had to do each day without question. They were:

1. Work

I had to pay bills, put food on the table for my family and also, I quite liked my job. But unless the mortgage disappeared, a 40hr work week (sometimes longer) was here to stay.

2. Parenting responsibilities

Along with my wife we’d ensure our young kids had everything they needed, physically and emotionally. There was some playtime, but also the standard routines of feeding, changing, bathing, putting to bed, waking in the middle of the night, putting back to bed, feeding, day-care drop offs and pickups and on and on it went.

Oh yeah and the never-ending game of “who can find a matching pair of socks?” I’m sure many new parents will understand the growing pile of unfolded laundry that takes over what used to resemble a couch.

You see, avoidance of household chores was also a part of my exercise avoidance strategy!

3. Sleep, rest, relaxation

Downtime became a commodity. It was in rare supply and if I could get it, I’d overdose on it.

I’d desperately seek out just a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, or a quick nap on the couch while trying to watch my programmes in peace. This was how I spent my spare time now. Doing nothing and it was a real treat.

My days consisted of these three non negotiables on repeat. From sun up to sun down, I was needed by someone, or needed to be somewhere other than the gym looking after myself. And when I wasn’t needed, I defaulted to being physically and emotionally exhausted – with nothing in the tank. Not even for a quick half hour session of exercise.

The barriers were too much, and I couldn’t get out of my own way to do anything about it.

Step 4. Introduce new lifestyle barriers encouraging exercise avoidance

My experience of exercise avoidance is not dissimilar to most who struggle to build a routine for physical activity.

The three biggest barriers most people cite for not participating in regular physical activity are:

1. Lack of time
2. Lack of energy
3. Lack of motivation

In my situation, I certainly had all three.

A perceived lack of time, energy and motivation stopped me dead in my tracks when it came to keeping up with regular physical activity and exercise.

If this could happen to someone like me who actually enjoys exercise, imagine how hard starting a regular exercise behaviour is for someone that hasn’t experienced the same enjoyment and appreciation for working up a good sweat.

Common reasons to avoid exercise

If you’ve ever struggled to maintain a regular fitness regime yourself, either now, or in the past – chances are one or more of the factors in the following table will be familiar to you.

This table provides a list of some of the most common barriers people have for participating in exercise. A real who’s who of exercise avoidance strategies. 😜

There is hope

As fitness enthusiasts (former and current) we sometimes lose sight of the amount of work happening behind the scenes just in order for a habitual non-exerciser to show up for their workout once, let alone 3 – 4 times a week, month after month.

As an ex-fitness fanatic, I realise now that maintaining a regular exercise habit is definitely not as easy as I once thought.

With the hindsight of knowing my patterns of both exercise adherence and avoidance, I have been able to re-establish somewhat of an exercise habit once again. It’s a work in progress but by addressing some previously insurmountable barriers and having more favourable personal circumstances I’m heading in the right direction once again.

In our Diploma in Weight Management Coaching course we delve into the influencing factors for starting and maintaining healthy lifestyle behaviours. Something I wish I had a better grasp on as a young PT. But worth checking out if you’ve resonated with some of my anecdotes in this article.

Over the hill

I’ve entered yet another life stage. Now in my 40s I see small windows of opportunity for exercise in places I never used to look. I’m happy to report a turning of the tides once again.

I still hold down fulltime work but my mindset has changed. Exercise doesn’t need to be an all-or-nothing approach anymore. I’ll take what I can get and have established some simple habits that allow me to find 30mins of exercise every day.

My kids are a little older, a little more independent and I include them where possible in my exercise. Whether walking, scooting, or riding next to me – I don’t get bothered by how slow we go (the old me would have) – we just go and enjoy it. I no longer use my kids as an excuse to avoid exercise. In fact, it’s a good opportunity to burn off some energy for us all.

Low sacrifice activities

I have a few no-brainer activities that I know I can complete whenever I find the time. I do that now too – find time. These activities have become my ground zero. They are the foundation from which I build and add any other activities as I am able. But they are my bare minimum.

I’ll do anything from a 30min walk around my neighbourhood, jog through the local forest, or just jump on an exercycle listening to podcasts or watching You Tube videos.

I’ve made a point to have exercise options available that don’t require a gym. In fact, most of my exercise nowadays occurs either at home or in my local surroundings.

As I’m getting fitter, I’m adding more and more modes of exercise and I’m less worried about injuring myself in the process. Another reason I would avoid exercise previously.

My goal is to complete 30mins of something physical each day – that’s it.

I don’t set a target heart rate or have to go a certain distance. I’m not worried about lifting a certain weight. That stuff just isn’t important to me anymore. That’s not to say I’m cruising. I’ll usually slip into a pace that is challenging but comfortable and ride it out.

Finding time to exercise

I try to get my workouts done as the sun rises before work and before school drop-offs. But on those hectic mornings when everything takes longer than expected, my mind automatically shifts to finding that next break in my day. I know my next window of opportunity is never far and I’ll actively seek it out for exercise.

It could be a lunchtime stroll or family walk around the block before tea.

If that fails, I just jump on my exercycle once everyone’s gone to bed and I use that time to unwind.

I’ve made a deal with myself – it’s okay to do as little or as much exercise as I feel like doing on any given day. But I will always find a way to do something.

Here’s what my graph looks like today:

I still consider myself to have plenty of barriers for exercise. Some of which I don’t see disappearing until perhaps my next life stage. But I’m regaining my motivation. The longer I stick to my new exercise habit, the more confident I feel in my ability to address any new barriers which may pop up in the future.

I have also gained a few extra support people, with a couple of friends joining me for a regular Sunday jog, and my long-suffering wife encouraging me to get out and exercise when she can tell I’m getting a bit stressed or looking for excuses not to.

In 100 days, I will have stuck at my new exercise behaviour for a full year. Maybe then I’ll consider myself back on the horse.

In closing: Avoiding exercise avoidance

I’ve come full circle. I’m rebuilding an exercise habit with easy, enjoyable and repeatable activity options. The landscape has changed for me – I still consider myself relatively time-poor. But I am more willing to shuffle my priorities around in order to maintain the consistent exercise behaviour I once lost.

We all tend to go through periods where we are more or less physically active.

Generally, while we are younger, have less responsibilities, more free time and more energy we maintain a semblance of physical activity without much thought.

As we age and find ourselves headed down certain pathways. Life will provide a special journey unique to us. Throwing up curve balls, and lessons to be learned.  In my case, the challenge was being able to make the most out of opportunities to remain active when they arose, or just notice them when they are somewhat hidden in plain sight.

In sharing my story, I’m not advocating for any particular method to build an exercise habit. Mine is just an example of a battle that’s a common struggle for many of us. Whether an exercise enthusiast, fitness fanatic, or non exerciser who is just beginning the journey – finding the opportunity to exercise is a real challenge. The reasons to do exercise, or indeed avoid exercise can be rather complex and intertwined.

What are your experiences of exercise avoidance? How have you overcome your barriers? Let me know in the comments.

 

References:

[1] Exercise Behaviour is More Important than Just Working Out. (2022, September 18). NZIHF. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://nzihf.ac.nz/fitness-training/exercise-behaviour-more-important/

[2]  Weinberg, R. S., & Gould, D. (2022, October 21). Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology (3rd ed.). Human Kinetics.

[3] Image Credit:http://www.freeimageslive.co.uk/free_stock_image/pile-laundry-jpg  freeimageslive.co.uk – freebie.photography