Health Psychology

In this article today I would like to talk about several tips, tricks, and techniques that just about anyone can use to help stick to their exercise routine using various simple psychological methods you may never have heard of.

We live in a very fast-paced society where our jobs are usually one of the most important things in our lives and what little time we have left over is usually devoted to our frantic family life. This leaves very little time for ourselves. Most of us compensate by cutting out exercise but this can have a terrible effect on our overall health, especially over the long term.

Many people find it difficult to stick to an exercise routine, even if they don’t have a hectic or frantic job. Luckily there are several psychological techniques that you can use to help motivate yourself into sticking with that exercise routine and I’m going to talk about them in this article today.

These psychological techniques are geared towards walking as the main form of exercise but you can tweak them and use them for just about any type of exercise routine, I just find that many people have walking as a cornerstone of their exercise so I thought I’d focus on that today.

I call the first one “four step breathing” and basically as you walk you should focus your attention on your breathing. First inhale slowly and deeply and count for each step that you take. Inhale 2..3..4.. then exhale for four counts, one per step just like before. This will give you something to focus on and think about and divert your mind away from the unpleasantness of the exercise itself.

The next one I call “three-step breathing” and it is just the same as the last one except, you guessed it, you count in threes instead of groups of four. Think to yourself inhale..2..3… then exhale..2..3 with each count being taken whenever you take a step. Because were dealing with an odd number here, this technique is a little more complicated and takes more concentration to get your footwork correct.

Finally one useful psychological technique is something I like to call positive self talk. Whenever you’re walking or any other exercise it’s often natural for your mind to wander. The problem is, once you get tired of the exercise that wandering mind starts to brood on negative things.

When this happens be sure to catch yourself and kick start your mind into more positive things. I find it useful to create a positive phrase that you can repeat over and over while you’re exercising. Everybody’s phrase will be different, and this should be something that makes you feel good and is generally positive in nature that you can say to yourself whenever you start to feel fatigue.

So there you have several very simple psychological techniques that just about anybody can use to help them stick to their exercise routine. Some of these tips may seem a little hokey but they really do work and they can do wonders for you.