5 ways to fall in love with fitness

Falling in love is all about finding your perfect match and connecting on multiple levels, whether that’s with the perfect partner or a workout plan that excites and captivates you.

If your fitness routine fails to excite you, follow these tips to ignite a flame that will stoke your passion for working out and help you fall in love with fitness.

READ MORE | 6 Tools To Help Boost Motivation & Achieve Your Goals

#1. Play the dating game

Finding your fitness soulmate may require some dating. After all, how can you possibly know what’s out there for you if you don’t play the field (excuse the pun).

And you’re not gonna find your ideal partner by staying inside and failing to put yourself out there! Your fitness or sporting passion is waiting to be discovered, so put yourself out there are go on a few fitness ‘dates’ to find something that excites you.

Don’t be afraid to experiment and ‘date’ outside your comfort zone! Enter a cycle race, tackle a trail run, try a CrossFit class, or step into a conditioning class. You never know what you might find when you’re brave and confident enough to look!

#2. Find what fuels your passion

Most of us fail to fall in love (or fall out of love) with sport and exercise when we engage in an activity to simply achieve a goal or outcome.

When we choose to fuel our motivation with these extrinsic values, we often end up choosing to do things that we don’t necessarily like doing to achieve an outcome. And this approach is sure-fire way for your relationship with your fitness flame to end in a break-up, as finding joy is only possible when you achieve the outcome or arrive at the destination.

If you want to sustain your fitness love affair, you need to do what you love and love what you do, day in and day out.

When you cultivate this intrinsic desire to engage in a specific activity because you love the process and the act itself, not just the destination, you’ll fuel your fitness love affair with a desire to engage in the activity every day, no matter the weather or how you feel.

#3. Love more than what you do

While a passion for what you do every day, whether it’s hitting the gym, getting out on the road for run or taking to the trail on your mountain bike, gets you out the door, creating an appreciation for how these activities make you feel and improve your life will help you fall deeper in love with your favourite form of fitness.

While it’s great that you love training in the gym – the environment, the vibe, the people – recognising and acknowledging the other ways that your fitness flame enriches and improves your life will help you fall more deeply in love.

While looking good is great, how amazing does it feel to be strong? How does the functional strength that lifting weights or the fitness that other forms of exercise create make you a better person – a better employee, parent, partner, friend?

And don’t forget the rush of endorphins that flood your body after a great workout, which constantly puts on your cloud nine.

When you consider all the attributes that add to the allure of your chosen fitness companion – stress less, better moods, move better, live with abundant energy… there are endless reasons for you to fall in love with fitness over and over again!

Recognising and embracing these qualities will also help build your self-worth and self-confidence, which all lead to a place of unconditional self-love. In this context, training serves a bigger purpose: instead of just training to look fit, exercise is your path actually feeling and living fit!

#4. Keep things interesting

Keeping the passion and attraction alive in any relationship requires intentional effort. When you stop looking for ways to keep things interesting in a relationship, you can quickly fall into a rut.

So keep your fitness flame alive with some spontaneity and creativity.

• Find fun ways to put a fresh spin on your normal mobility routine with a yoga or Pilates classes.
• Go on a CrossFit date to apply the strength and power you’ve created in the gym and get some extra conditioning, cross training and functional movement benefits at the same time.
• Take the fitness and endurance you’ve build on the roads and trails to the OCR course for a serious test of your grit and resilience.

Finding different ways to celebrate your fitness flame by putting your strength and fitness to the test will ensure you keep growing in your relationship.

#5. Find your person (or people)

Life is often better when you share the love! That’s why immersing yourself within a fitness group or community can add to all the ‘feels’ that come with training and reaching your goals.

Don’t get the wrong idea here, though. There’s a place and time training in solitude – we all need that ‘me time’.

But people are ultimately social creatures, and belonging and a sense of community are basic human needs. And the group dynamic is a great way to up the enjoyment factor to fuel your love for fitness!

Training with a group, whether its a yoga class, in the CrossFit box, or on the road with your training crew or club mates, allows you to share the experience with other like-minded and equally passionate individuals, which will create feelings of belonging and togetherness and enrich your experience and your life.

Author: Pedro van Gaalen

When he’s not writing about sport or health and fitness, Pedro is probably out training for his next marathon or ultra-marathon. He’s worked as a fitness professional and as a marketing and comms expert. He now combines his passions in his role as managing editor at Fitness magazine.