Excuses Not to Exercise

Do you want to play a sport or exercise and something is holding you back? Is the problem your surroundings, or is your mind getting in your way? Let's take a look at some of the most common excuses for not doing exercise, and how to get around them.

All of us have felt that strong temptation to skip a workout. Sometimes your reasons for not exercising are legitimate. Other times, however, missing your workout becomes a habit, and you start to make excuses not to exercise.

Everyone has the right to decide how to live their lives. However, if you decide to take on something and you fail, that independence becomes a bit of a problem. There are hundreds of good reasons to exercise, but people still find lots of excuses to avoid it.

The power of the mind

Philosophy places human beings firmly in the “sometimes rational” category. In other words, although you’re perfectly capable of rational thought, you don’t always use your reasoning process to arrive at the correct answer.

Plenty of people understand reality, but they deny it. They create a mental structure to protect themselves from whatever doesn’t interest them or they think they can’t handle.

As a result, they come up with all kinds of excuses so they can continue with their lives without ever leaving their comfort zones or taking on challenges. In today’s article, the challenge in question is exercise.

What are these excuses not to exercise hiding?

All human behavior originates in neural connections and their electric signals. The mind is such an incredible machine that it even has mechanisms for theatrics and deceit. So, let’s see what’s often behind people’s excuses.

You want short-term rewards

Many athletes today belong to “Generation Y,” though a more popular term for them is Millenials. This social subgroup tends to seek out experiences that give them high levels of cerebral dopamine. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter in charge of rewarding effort, and Millenials prefer to get their dopamine high from quick and easy activities. They avoid prolonged and difficult challenges, in spite of the fact that these are often more rewarding.

Obviously not everyone from that generation behaves that way, but it’s very common in modern society.

Procrastinating

It’s tempting to take the easy path and put off things that are difficult “until tomorrow.” This strategy might give you a moment of peace, but once tomorrow comes it’ll be even harder to do the thing you put off. The more you postpone, the more difficult it gets to deal with whatever it is you’re avoiding.

Fear of failure

Maybe you had some bad experiences as a child, or your parents made some mistakes. Or maybe it’s because you’ve never truly had to fight for anything that the goal seems so far that it feels impossible to reach. If you’re in that frame of mind, you’ll practically quit before you even start.

Common excuses not to exercise

No doubt you’ll identify with at least some of the excuses in this list. A complete catalog would be endless, but we’ve chosen some of the most common, along with a potential solution:

• “I’m tired”: everyone is tired after a day at school or work. Rest for a bit, drink a coffee, or just get yourself to the gym and do as much as you can.
• “I’m in pain”: if a medical professional has diagnosed you with an actual injury, then not exercising is the right thing to do. Otherwise, you might be exaggerating how you feel in order to avoid physical activity.
• “Athletes only care about their bodies”: it’s easy to attack people who work out a lot and do a lot of exercises. However, thanks to their efforts, they enjoy good health and a nice looking figure.
• “I don’t want to have to take supplements to be able to exercise”: you shouldn’t make assumptions about something you don’t know a lot about. What’s worse is making a generalization about a group of people, when it’s only a small percentage who actually do it. The truth is, you don’t have to take any special supplements or anything if you don’t need them.

• “I’ll skip today, but I’ll go tomorrow”: “tomorrow” too easily becomes “the day after tomorrow,” and then you get into a very bad pattern. Deal with your fears and stop deceiving yourself.
• “I have a significant other, so I don’t need to try anymore”: obviously you’re more than your physical appearance, but you shouldn’t just give up on exercise once you’re in a stable relationship. Your partner might start to wonder why you exercised before but don’t anymore.
• “My friend can’t go, I don’t want to go alone”: do your actions depend on others? Learn to face your challenges on your own, without depending on anyone else.

Break down the mental wall and stop finding excuses not to exercise

In conclusion, remember that desire is power. If you really set your mind to something, you’ll invest energy and willpower into making it happen. You’ll fight for what you want. If you keep at it, you’ll make exercise a part of your routine, and then it will be much easier to be consistent.

Perseverance is having that unbreakable willpower to do something – apply that to exercise and stop making excuses not to work out!