Posted on April 23, 2015 by Jenny Cromack

Exercise Psychology – Motivating Yourself from Within

Psychology of exercise and physical activity can include vast amounts of concepts, theories and strategies. These may be future topics to cover in other blogs however I thought that covering our ability to develop our motivation and where it originates would help with both those struggling with motivation or those worried about starting exercise and how to motivate themselves to engage in the very daunting, life changing activity of exercise. Hopefully this blog will help with motivating yourself to engage in more exercise, or if you’re already active….keep doing what you are doing!

Exercise can be a task and a chore for most people, the very thought of engaging in any exercise is hard work to a lot of people. Stepping foot into a gym or exercise environment and having to slog through a workout, putting yourself through pain and suffering is not easily motivated from within. The people who struggle to push themselves through exercise regularly and more importantly enjoy it look at those who can just float in and out of gyms and train with no moaning or reluctance. These people who are settled into exercise, have it as part of their routine and need little encouragement to workout were once onlookers frowning at the thought of exercise.

To be motivated by yourself with the absence of or reduced external influences is known as being intrinsically motivated. There are very little external incentives, other than the obvious body changes or health, but the drive to exercise comes from within and is enjoyable. Increased intrinsic motivation can help increase self-esteem, self-confidence as well as general psychological well-being. It can be increased and has been based upon three innate needs described within the psychological science world. The three innate psychological needs that have been proposed for psychological growth, integrity and well-being are relatedness, competence, and autonomy.

These innate needs stem from the Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan) which is a motivational theory that differentiates the content of our goals and the process by which we attain these goals. So put simply this theory concerns the support of our natural and intrinsic tendencies such as the growing as a person, mastering challenges, and integrating experiences into a sense of self. If social and cultural situations support these tendencies then psychological growth and well being, as well as performance or goal attainment will be optimised. The support of the tendencies comes through satisfying the three innate needs mentioned previously.

Relatedness:

This is basically how connected, or involved with others we feel. Often linked with acceptance or being associated with others. Baumeister and Leary (1995) stated it was the need to love and care for others and be loved and cared for. In terms of the exercise environment if people feel or develop a sense of belonging with others or a group and feel accepted into the environment they are more likely to begin to develop an internal sense of motivation and enjoyment.

Competence:

This relates to how able people feel when it comes to their chosen activity. So in exercise terms if someone has never trained before their competence levels will be very low and therefore this need will be very unsatisfied. This is easily developed through progression of training, and positive feedback. Increases in confidence with exercise will improve the sense of competence. If they feel more competent there are less concerns about exercising in front of others, or making a “fool” of themselves.

Autonomy:

For me and in the literature this is the need that has the biggest influence on intrinsic motivation. Autonomy is when the person feels they have control over their actions, it is self-initiated and with little external pressures. With exercise this is hard because people feel pressured to be healthy and “look good”. However, as they progress, these outcomes do remain but they start to find that they engage in exercise for enjoyment reasons and because they feel a sense of control of their body.

Autonomy is not be mixed up with independence, it is not about being independent it is more about having freedom and being able to self-organise (Deci & Ryan, 2000).To build upon and develop autonomy I find it very important to offer some control, giving this sense of freedom. This comes in the form of agreeing on goals between client and trainer and giving them input in what they want to achieve. Control over their training can also be offered such as giving them options of exercises to include etc. If they feel that they have an element of control in what they are doing their motivation to continue will come more from within rather than feeling a need to simply get it done to please external pressures.

Autonomy can be facilitated through acknowledging feelings of training, the great feeling you get when you hit personal best or when you grind out a tough session. This focus more on feelings from within rather than external rewards will encourage autonomy and ultimately intrinsic motivation.

How Can You Improve Your Own Intrinsic Motivation?

When it comes to getting started in exercise or training activities and fulfilling the need for relatedness you can start off by finding yourself a training partner, get involved in group sessions with friends, or use a Personal Trainer.

Group training or classes are a great way to meet new people, create a sense of “family” and share your goals and exercise pain with others. By sharing your experience you develop a great bond with your peers and have a great sense of belonging to a group. This will allow you to gain the sense of belonging to a group and environment, it will also create bonds and interactions with others. Once you achieve this you will start to find more internal drive to exercise.

Your competence in activities will obviously come with practice. However, don’t jump straight in at the deep end, start off light or simple and progress. If you start off too hard or complex you may not perform as well as you’d like and thus lose interest. Starting at the bottom and working your way up will bring more chances for accomplishment of mini goals and increase your feeling of competence.

A Personal Trainer can help with setting goals, and help with a progressive training plan. As you become more confident in your exercise and you worry less about doing things wrong, or not performing well enough you will start to enjoy your exercise and be more internally driven to continue and progress. Set yourself little goals for each session, each week and each month ticking off these accomplishments give you a huge sense of achievement and satisfy this competence need.

You can increase your sense of autonomy by investing a bit of time really planning your goals, and training or exercise activities. When sitting down with any Personal Trainer they should allow you some element of control over your program design and goal setting. This makes you feel the sense of control this need for autonomy desires. Making a real effort to acknowledge the positive feelings of exercise and training achievements can help mould your exercise into part of your daily routine, you start to associate the exercise with positive feelings and therefore becomes an activity you do naturally to fulfil an inner interest.

Take Home Message:

Whether contemplating exercise or struggling to motivate yourself through exercise without it feeling like a chore, understanding how we work as individuals can help address these situations. Appreciating these needs we have will help us as individuals ensure we satisfy these needs and improve our intrinsic motivation within whichever environment we are considering be this exercise or other walks of life. This will in turn make our activities more enjoyable, improve our confidence and self-esteem in this environment and reduce the likelihood of stressful situations or concerns within this environment.

References:

Baumeister, R. and Leary, M. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529.

Deci, E. and Ryan, R. (2000). The “What?” and “Why?” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behaviour. Psychological Inquiry, 11 (4), pp 227-268.