Whenever I get on a regular exercise schedule, I usually have a hard time getting myself to work out on Mondays. I try to work out at least five times a week, but after saturday and sunday, the Monday workout, or thinking about the monday workout just feels like work! If I don’t get the momentum back, my lack of exercise on monday can affect the rest of the week, and before I know it, I’m back to my old habits.

Does anybody have ideas on how to get over the mondays?

Do you work out in the morning or the evening.  The biggest switch that has helped me is switching to doing my routine in the morning.  I just make it a part of my normal morning routine.  Wake up, Bathroom, Rowing Machine, Weigh-in, Shower, Breakfast, etc… This stops me from making excuses in the evening for not doing it.  Then it becomes part of your routine, and you just expect to do it.

Especially at that time of the morning, my brain isn’t even turned on to say “I don’t feel like doing this today” and by the time it wakes up, I’m already half way through my workout, and then I think “Hell, I’m already half way there!” and it just keeps me going until the end.

I like Russell’s way of doing it.  I also like to do it first thing in the morning.  Aside from the fact that I feel a lot better throughout the day in starting with a workout or run, it just takes care of it before I have a day to get tired and fret over whether I should do it or not - it’s already been done.

A couple of tricks that help me get up early and out the door are to keep my alarm clock across the room, so I have to get up to turn it off.  It can also be helpful to have your shoes, clothes, etc. all ready and easily accessible so you don’t have to put any effort into being ready to be out the door.  Maybe you can also make a habit of creating a playlist on an mp3 or cd player that is for Mondays which has favorite music that you save for only this day, thus making a special, enjoyable occasion of it - “hey, today is monday, but at least I have good music!” Another thought is to find a workout partner who would join you on Monday to build in some accountability (good ol’ peer pressure), or find yourself a good class to attend and make some friends so you have more reason to feel like going out on Monday.

I’ve found that simply doing it for a period of time - maybe a matter of weeks - forges the habit and it becomes not only easy, but a comfortable routine.  Perhaps with using little tricks to make it easier to do and sticking with it for a little while will help Monday workouts to become a natural, enjoyable event for you

Hi Antonio,

How about doing something different on Mondays?  Is there a sport you really like?  Maybe you’ve always wanted to try martial arts?  Why not take a class on Mondays?  That way, it’s something you look forward to, not something you dread.  If your attitude is, “I get to play soccer on Mondays!” I bet you’ll be looking forward to it all day!

Cheers and good luck,
Julie

I’d like to go in the morning, but I’m dependent on other people to get me to the gym until I can drive. That’s motivation for me to get my license at least.  Plus, I’m starting a job that starts in the morning anyway, and once the training is done, the hours will jump around quite a bit. Luckily, once they have the week set, I can adjust my exercise schedule accordingly for the month.

Julie, your idea sounds pretty good. The pool hours at the university are Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Maybe I can switch out my walk around the track for swimming on mondays because I enjoy that so much. I can still lift weights, and then afterward, go to the pool. Thanks! I’ll try it out next week.