Oct 30, 2017

Getting that extra push: Inspirational Workout Quotes

Inspirational workout quotes If you’re like me, no matter how much I like working out, no matter how good it makes me look and feel, I often have trouble summoning the energy to get to yoga class, or get ready for a run, or head to the gym. I get creative thinking of all the reasons why I can’t, or shouldn’t, work out that day. I’ve got too much work. My hamstrings are sore. I’m too tired. We’re way overdue for a date night! I have to take the kids to soccer practice. I’ve got company coming and the house is a mess.

What’s interesting is that I don’t automatically go to all the reasons why I should make time for a workout. And there are a lot of really, really good reasons.

For me, there are two major ones: to relieve stress and to keep my weight under control. But a peek at Pinterest boards of motivational workout quotes and inspirational exercise quotes gave me dozens more genius examples. Here are a few:

You’re only one workout away from a good mood.

You don’t get the ass you want by sitting on it.

It’s not about having time. It’s about making time.

A one-hour workout is just 4 percent of your day!

Better sore than sorry.

Working out is a reward, not a punishment.

If you have a body, you are an athlete.

Exercise in the morning before your brain figures out what you’re doing.

If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.

Be stronger than your excuses.

Someone busier than you is working out right now.

There also are few workout sayings from professional athletes who, to my surprise, sometimes have trouble motivating themselves too.

If the sun comes up, I have a chance, said Venus Williams, tennis star.

I learned a long time ago that there is something worse than missing the goal, and that’s not pulling the trigger, said Mia Hamm, one of women’s soccer’s most talented players.

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going, said Jim Ryun, the marathoner who helped popularize long-distance running.

But two motivational exercise quotes from an interesting source—Jack La Lanne—are among my favorites. If he isn’t familiar to you, he’s the guy who had a weekday exercise program beginning in the early days of television until 1985, meaning he started decades before fitness videos and Peloton. He led viewers through a series of bootcamp-style exercises for a half-hour, urging attention to the value of good nutrition, strength training and regular exercise, somehow making rep counts charming. La Lanne remained prodigiously strong fit and lean for his entire life, and never let up his cheerleading for the wonders of exercise pretty much until the day he died at 96. He said:

Your body is your slave. It works for you.

Your health account, your bank account, they’re the same thing. The more you put in, the more you can take out. Exercise is king and nutrition is queen. Together you have a kingdom.

Whenever I start procrastinating about starting a workout, or when I’m tempted to eat a rich, gooey dessert, I think of that kingdom, the one that’s better than any fairy tale setting ever could be. And that’s all the push I need.

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