5 Tips to Motivate You to Exercise as a College Student

Growing up I was always active. I was a dancer for 8 years, loved running and always took my dog on walks. Once I got to college, I didn’t have anything to keep me active. There weren’t anymore physical education classes or many opportunities to dance. I then took up going to the gym to build muscle, but I wasn’t consistent.  I didn’t see results from going which just discouraged me further. I was spending about $30 every month for a membership that I didn’t use. 

More recently, I started going, and I’ve been consistent. I also found myself wanting to go on my days off. So here are a few things that have motivated me to go to the gym:

1. Buying athletic wear: I didn’t realize how excited I was to go to the gym once I bought clothes that I thought were genuinely cute and wanted somewhere to wear them. Being in workout clothes made me feel as if I had to go since I already had them on. I understand that as a college student, money is tight. I have gotten clothes on Amazon that are dupes for big-name brands and the quality is very nice. One of my new hobbies is collecting workout wear.
2. Follow fitness/lifestyle influencers: Seeing others achieve their goals by exercising is very inspiring and makes me want to go to the gym. Personally, I want to gain muscle and just be overall healthy, so I follow people that have also had that goal and achieved it. 
3. Find something you enjoy: Not everybody loves to go to the gym and lift weights. There are exercises that everyone can find for themselves that are fun and don’t feel like exercising. When I was a dancer, I had so much fun moving around and being active and it didn’t even feel like I was exercising. I also love to hike and it feels more like taking a walk and sightseeing. Find something that is fun and will keep you wanting to do it more. 
4. See if your friends would want to join you: It is fun to exercise by yourself, but when someone is with you, there’s someone to push you. Having a person with you allows for motivation and just overall fun for having someone to hang out with. My boyfriend loves to go rock climbing with his friends and they have a blast doing it. 
5. Have a goal to work towards: It is normal to not want to workout everyday. It’s healthy to take days to rest and time to recover. If you have a goal in mind, it will help you want to exercise. This goal could be small such as taking the stairs to class instead of the elevator, or it could be big as well. As long as you are making progress and putting in effort to move around, there’s nothing that can stop you. 

Everything is easier said than done. Life gets in the way and things happen. These are things that motivate me to exercise and I hope they could help someone else. Make sure to take every day one at a time and be easy on yourself. Find something that suits you and have fun while doing it.