Identifying Your Exercise Barriers
Exercise Goal Setting and Planning: Part 2
In our last post in this series, we worked on setting SMART goals. Today we are going to identify the barriers that may come up so we are ready for them!
Recognizing our barriers is crucial because life has a way of throwing challenges our way! When we've already anticipated potential problems and made plans to tackle them, we're far more likely to sidestep or navigate around them successfully.
There are four main categories of barriers that I’d like you to think about as you work through this exercise.
Personal Factors: Lack of time, low energy levels, fear of injury, pain, work and family obligations.
Social Factors: Lack of support from family or friends, social isolation, feeling uncomfortable exercising in public.
Environmental Factors: Lack of access to safe places to exercise, poor weather conditions, cost of gym memberships, inconvenient location of facilities.
Psychological factors: Lack of confidence, self-doubt, perception of not being athletic enough
Keeping those various categories in mind, lets work through some questions together.
What are the things that have derailed your physical activity in the past?
Think back to other times that you have started an exercise program and try to remember what got in the way. Was the gym membership too expensive? Maybe it’s time to try home workouts. Was it lack of time? Maybe rethink what a plan looks like for you. For some people it means 60 minutes at a time but why can’t it be 10 minutes of stretching in the morning, a 15 minutes walk at lunch, and/or a 15 minutes strength workout at home after work?
What are your non-negotiables?
Non-negotiables are the things that you can not or will not change, no matter what. It may be your work schedule, your kids’ commitments, or a weekly date with your partner/spouse. Acknowledge these and ask yourself if you can work with your non-negotiables, not against them. I’ll give you an example from my life. I have to take my kids to soccer practice, thats a non-negotiable. But, it’s 30 minutes away so it doesn’t make sense to go home and its pretty rural so I can’t run errands. It does happen to be 5 minutes from a beautiful trail great for walking, running, and biking. I’ve always preferred running in the mornings but I realized that if I moved my run to be during soccer practice, I would be using that time wisely and freeing up mornings for something else. Remember, these can be personal - if you have been a night owl for 50 years and loath waking up early, setting your workouts for 5am is probably not going to work for you. Write out a list of your non-negotiables so you know what you need to work around or work with.
What life changes can you make?
What are the things that can change for you to make exercise a permanent part of your life? Do you have the flexibility to shift your work schedule or to ask for a longer lunch break? Do you need to set up a place in your house where you can workout? Do you need to ask your spouse for help with the kids? Do you need to hire a trainer to get you started because you are afraid of getting hurt? Write down a list of things that you could change and pick one to start with.
Is there someone in your life you need to talk to in order to break down a barrier?
Do you need to have an honest conversation with your boss, spouse, or a friend—whether it’s to ask for support, flexibility, or help? Plan ahead and write out what you need to say to this person. Explain your interest in adding more physical activity in your life and how they can support you. Take a few minutes now and think about who you may need to talk with and what you need to say.
Using these questions as guidance, take 15-30 minutes to really work through all the barriers that may come up and make a plan. You may not be able to avoid all barriers but if you can plan ahead for some you’ll be much more likely to succeed in the long run.
In the next post of this series, we'll review our calendars and plan how often, how long, and on which days we'll fit in our exercise.
