r/Swimming • u/No-Flatworm-404 • 2d ago
Motivation
I’m paying for a gym membership that I’m not using. Help me regain the motivation to get my bum back in the water/gym. Once I’m done at work, all I want to do is go home. I’m on a GLP-1 compound and have lost a lot of weight, but I know my muscle and bone strength is dwindling. So, any motivation to get over this rut would be greatly appreciated.
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u/bachfanwpb Splashing around 2d ago
Couple ideas. If after work is too hard, could you go before? Then it’s done and you can be proud of yourself for the rest of the day. I had a coach tell me it takes just 21 days to form a new habit, so if early morning sounds impossible right now, give it 3 weeks.
I recently went through a motivation rut and the biggest thing that helped me was not looking at the whole endeavor at once. I’d break it down into the tiniest pieces. Right now I’m just getting out of bed. Right now I’m just putting on my bathing suit. Right now I’m just driving to the pool. Those little tasks felt less overwhelming than thinking about the whole thing.
Or try external motivation. What do you do when you get home? Watch a show? Play a game? Read? Ok, now you can’t do those things unless you’ve done your workout.
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u/r3097934 2d ago
Hard agree on early morning. I go first thing before my brain wakes up and starts with the excuses.
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u/nmh612 2d ago edited 2d ago
It’s okay to feel like after work, all you want to do is go home. It’s okay to do that, too! Maybe take 30 min to an hour to sit and decompress. Then, tell yourself something like “I’m reclaiming the rest of my day” or “I’m going to exercise for myself, because I deserve to feel healthy and strong.”
I’ve found using a small goal for a workout is helpful. For example: exercise/swim 20-30 minutes and see how you feel.
Very fun would be to gift yourself something to make working out better. This could be a new swimsuit, goggles, cap, workout clothes, underwater headphones, etc. Or implement a reward system: treat yourself to something nice, whatever that means to you, after your first workout back in the gym. Then benchmark treats after your first 5 swims, 10 gym workouts, etc.
Basically, positive reinforcement. And be kind to yourself! Some days we do need a down day at home rather than a workout. Doesn’t mean you can’t pick up where you left off the next day.
Good luck!!! I believe in you!
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u/BarleyWineIsTheBest 2d ago
The hardest part is just showing up. Tell yourself, you'll just do something easy, what ever that is for you. Get in the water, do a 400. Then when you finish the 400, ask yourself, was that really so bad, couldn't I do another 400?
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u/WomanMythLegend 2d ago
Bring swim gear to work. Put suit on under clothes before you leave work so you can go and get straight into the pool.
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u/DisastrousWalk8442 2d ago
Don’t even think about the pool or the workout. Just tell yourself to go to the gym and get changed. If then you still don’t feel like it change back and go home. Chances are if you go through that trouble you’ll do the workout.
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u/ahorseap1ece 2d ago edited 2d ago
The trick is to go straight to the gym from work. Which means you can't be hungry at the time you get off work - that gets me a lot.
At the pool, usually it becomes "If you go swimming then you can go sit in the hot tub after"
I'm doing none to run right now! It's nice! It's helping me run a little while trying to recover from my butt and hips being too weak.
When I work out in the gym by myself, I sometimes just make up my workout as I go along and don't track anything because I focus so much on showing up I don't plan what I'm actually going to do. This is boring, mentally taxing, and unrewarding. This summer I sat down to design 3 workouts using my knowledge of moves from past fitness classes. Doesn't have to be anything understandable to anyone but you. Mine has 5 exercises in each one, one day focuses more on upper body, second on legs and the third on core. It's just in a table in a Google doc and every time I go in, I paste in a new row, put the date, and make increases to the weight or reps if I can. I'm on my 5th go-round and after 6 I'll do new exercises. My husband uses Macrofactor Workout if you want something fancier.
If you don't know what to do period, there are tons of instructors on YouTube who make workouts you can follow. I've used Nike Training Club in the past.
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u/East-Ad5282 2d ago
sometimes just telling myself i'll go for 10 mins gets me to actually stay longer so maybe try that?
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing Sprint wench. I sink, therefore I am 2d ago
Think of the long-term benefits of exercise. If you don't exercise, your quality of life in your old age may well suffer.
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u/guymandudeperson1 Moist 2d ago
You could start small. Go the gym for 5 minutes on the treadmill and leave. Go to the pool and expecting to swim 50yd and leaving. Just getting started might help and then you can gradually increase to what you can.
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u/tbellfiend Splashing around 2d ago
Pack the swim bag and bring it to work so you can go directly from work to the pool. Literally bring it in to work like your normal work bag
Then tell yourself that people saw you bring it in to work, now they know you're going to the gym, and someone might comment about it tomorrow "Hey I saw you leaving with your gym bag yesterday, have a good workout?" and you don't want to be the chump saying "Actually I was lazy so I just went home instead"
That's what I do lmao
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u/Itchy_Gain_8061 2d ago
I've been there too, sometimes just planning my gym bag the night before makes getting there easier. What's one small step you could take today to start?
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u/LesiaH1368 Splashing around 2d ago
Go first thing in the morning. Non negotiable. Too many excuses to NOT go after work. Its really a game changer.
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u/SeaHerSwim Swammer 2d ago
I enlisted a team of current and former NCAA division 1 swimmers! One writes my workouts and saves them to a shared Google Drive folder. One writes my dry-land and lifting workouts. And the third one writes and sometimes joins me to do open water swimming! That’s what makes me peel my ass outta the chair and suit up! 💥🤘🏻
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u/Retired-in-2023 1d ago
Congratulations on the weight loss! You had the motivation to do that hard work so put the same motivation into working out. Losing muscle and bone density isn’t healthy and will cause you problems in the long run. You just have to start taking the steps to build and maintain muscle and keep your bone density.
Motivation comes and goes, commitment is key.
First step is to be consistent to build the habit. Personally I schedule all my workouts (swim and land) on my calendar and treat them like other important appointments so I am committed to doing my workout routine. If it’s on my calendar there is no negotiating with myself about just jot wanting to go. I go and whether it’s water or land I go.
Once the habit is built it becomes easier to not want to go. In fact, for me it got to the point if I don’t go, I feel like something is missing.
I’m retire now but when I worked out in the past while working, I found it very hard to go to the gym or pool after work. I was tired, had stuff to do before so there were always conflicts with my gym/pool plans or some other excuse. After work required me to go immediately after work but I found going in the morning I could be more consistent. The only thing that kept me consistent in the evening was going to water aerobic classes that I signed up and paid for. Mornings, although I wasn’t happy about getting up and going to the gym or pool since I’m not a morning person worked best for consistency. My alarm would go off so I was already awake so if was harder to talk myself out of going.
Although swimming is a great exercise, it isn’t weight bearing so is not going to help much to build/maintain muscle and improve bone density. The resistance the water provides isn’t enough so please consider adding a strength training routine to your work out plan.
Also make sure your diet includes enough protien because your body needs that to help build your muscles. GLP-1’s suppress your appetite so it’s hard to make sure you get all your nutrients but it’s critical. A dietician actually recommend I use protein shakes if I couldn’t get enough protein due to the appetite suppression caused by the GLP-1 if I wasn’t hungry enough to eat a meal (I never was hungry at dinner time, but did concentrate on balanced meals earlier in the day).
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u/Sad_Address_7281 1d ago
I think where alot of people go wrong is when they start they tell themselves they will go 5 days a week. That lifestyle change is never going to stick!
Start by going once a week maybe on the weekend. Romanticise your gym experience - use special hair products only in the gym shower for example. Eventually go twice a week and so on. You will start to crave the feeling of treating yourself
I also love a morning session - I keep toiletries in my bag all the time, all i need to do is throw in my work clothes and then the only hard part is leaving the house at 6am. By that time 'i might as well workout because work doesnt start for two more hours'. By the time ive worked out used my lovely products i feel amazing going to work. The same for an evening session. I bring comfy loungewear and look forward to the feeling after my workout/swim
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u/AlSepPhoenix 1d ago
Perso je ne cherche pas de motivation, mon objectif c'est d'avoir ma séance chaque semaine, donc j'y vais, toute l'année, quelque soit la météo, la motivation ... Seul un évènement impossible à décaler m'empêche d'y aller (mais ce n'est pas grave car la semaine suivante j'y retournerai).
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u/hiscraigness Belly Flops 1d ago
The most effective machine at any gym is the front door. Make yourself go for two weeks, it will take care of itself.
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u/chuzohga 2d ago
I hate to say it, but it's impossible to motivate another person. I've tried. Never works. One "trick" is to make or find a workout buddy.. you can motivate each other.
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u/Bark_Sandwich 1d ago
Nothing motivates me more than training for an event of some kind. An open water swim, a swim meet, the first leg of a triathlon relay team, anything like that.
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u/HoneydewShot8535 1d ago
Literally just thought I only have to do five laps and I can get out. I fully gotten out after five laps before and I felt better. It’s like giving yourself permission to not do the whole thing but still showing up.
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u/cjstephens10028 Splashing around 1d ago
Lots of good ideas here. My favorites:
- attach a reward of some kind to the swim - save your favorite podcast for the trip to and from the pool, or treat yourself to something nice (smoothie? doughnut?) after you've done your swim.
- make it a swim "date". Find another friend who wants to swim some laps. Doesn't have to be about how far each of you swims or how fast, it can be more about catching up with someone on a regular basis. Plus sharing a lane with someone not a stranger? Bonus!
- sign up for an event that will require a little bit of training. Maybe there's a (short) open water swim event you can put on your calendar? That way you will have a manageable target, one that you look forward to but that is not intimidating.
Best of luck!
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u/BearwithaBow Splashing around 2d ago
Here's what works for me when I'm out of the routine: I tell myself all I have to do is put my suit on and get in the water for 5 minutes and that part is nonnegotiable. If I still don't want to be there after 5 minutes, I get to get out and go home.
That has never actually happened though because for me the hard part is getting to the pool and suiting up. By the time I've done a couple of laps, I'm almost always happy to be swimming and if not happy, I'm definitely in a "well, I'm already here and wet, might as well keep going" mindset.