The following are some motivational fitness quotes to help you stick with your fitness goals. I added some extra ones down at the bottom. Along with the 12 quotes, I added my own thoughts. If you have any quotes about fitness or exercise that you’d like to share, please do so down in the comments section below. Enjoy!
1. “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” – Carl Bard
Regardless of your past failures, you can always start today to get yourself back on the right track. Maybe you feel bad that you blew your diet and workout routine over the holidays and that has caused you to lose your motivation. Perhaps you got lazy and skipped a few workouts and now feel like you have to start over. Although the past can have an impact on your future results, it’s nothing compared to the impact the present can have.
It doesn’t matter that you messed up on your fitness goals; what matters is that you don’t let another day go by before getting back into action. Don’t wait until the end of the month or the beginning of next week or even tomorrow. Start creating your brand new ending today.
2. “If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. – Fred Devito
If you want to change your body, you’re going to have to do things you’re not used to doing and even things you don’t like doing. It’s going to be tough but it’s supposed to be. If it were a cinch, you would’ve already done it a long time ago.
One of the great things about pushing yourself beyond what you think is possible is that the act of doing that will change your mentality which will pour over into other areas of your life. When you can develop a mentality that doesn’t give up at the first sign of resistance, your chances of success in everything you do will increase.
When things start to get challenging, you’ll likely have a debate with yourself about whether to quit or to keep going. It’s that voice in your head that produces all kinds of excuses to convince you to throw in the towel. The weaker your mentality, the more reasonable those excuses will sound to you and the more likely you’ll give into them. The more you consistently push yourself, the less power that voice will have over your actions.
You need to be into control of your actions, not your fears or laziness.
3. “I may not be there yet, but I’m closer than I was yesterday. – Unknown
Often times, looking at the long journey ahead can suck the motivation out of us. The achievement of our goals can seem so far away that in comparison, the few steps we took today can almost seem pointless. Don’t let the long road discourage you. Realize that as long as you’re a bit closer to your goal today than you were yesterday or last week, you’re headed in the right direction.
Every journey is an accumulation of small steps with some steps being bigger than others. The important thing to remember is to consistently take those steps, however small they may seem. You’ll be amazed how far you’ve gone once enough time has passed.
4. “You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be. – David Viscott
If you were already at your desired fitness level, how would go about your day? Would anything change? Would you be more in control? Would you even have a debate about whether or not to hit the gym? Would you even consider putting unhealthy foods into your body?
Here’s a tip for making the achievement of your fitness goals easier: See yourself as already being the person you want to become.
Much of what we do relates to how we identify ourselves. There’s a big difference between defining yourself as someone who is lazy or inconsistent with his/her actions and someone who feels lazy at times. One defines who you are as a person while the other is based on your actions.
Start seeing yourself as someone who is on top of their fitness goals instead of someone who constantly comes up with excuses and keeps falling off the wagon. If it helps, give that “fit you” a name or find someone who is at a fitness level you want to be at and whenever that decision about whether or not to do something fitness wise comes up, ask yourself, “What would (___) do?” Then, do what that person would do.
5. “Don’t give up what you want most for what you want now. – Unknown
Temptation is the killer of diet plans. You could have the greatest intentions but when you’re all of the sudden staring at that scrumptious piece of chocolate cake or whatever your favorite bad food is, your craving can often overpower your plans. During these deciding moments, you’ll just have to choose what is more important to you: 10 minutes of pleasure and the feeling of guilt afterwards or a lifetime of increased health and energy and the instant reward of knowing that you’re in control of your life?
It’ll be hardest to resist in the beginning but trust me, the longer you go on without those bad foods and the healthier you get, the less your craving for those foods will be. To help you through the beginning, simply don’t have those foods in your house. You could also allow yourself to eat what you want, in moderation, once a week until the craving decreases.
Another thing you can do is to say some type of affirmation to remind you what’s ultimately more important to you such as, “Nothing tastes as good as as being fit feels.”
6. “When you feel like quitting, think about why you started. – Unknown
One of the most important things you can do to help you stick with your fitness goals is to come up with strong reasons why you want to achieve them. If your reasons are emotionally weak, small setbacks will likely cause you to quit. Now even if your reasons are emotionally strong, you’ll have to keep reminding yourself of those reasons because in the face of difficulties, we tend to forget.
Know the price you’re going to have to pay in order to achieve your fitness goals and choose reasons/why’s that are strong enough to get you through any challenges you may face.
7. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. – Jim Ryun
Anyone can get pumped up and motivated to take action every now and then but you shouldn’t rely on motivation by itself. In fact, if you wait until you’re motivated to exercise, you’ll likely not exercise very much after about a month. What you want to rely on is habit.
If there is one reason to push and force yourself to do your workouts and eat the right foods, it’s so taking action can eventually become easier. People who’ve been living a healthy life style for years don’t go through the same mental struggles as people who just started. Exercising and eating right is just a part of their daily routine.
If you want to get to the point where habit takes over and motivation is hardly ever needed, then you must do whatever it takes to keep taking action until all of this becomes a habit. Studies show that it takes about 3-4 weeks to form a habit. From my experience, forming the habit of working out to where it was effortless took about 5-6 months. I had to continually motivate myself to stick to my diet and workout routine. It wasn’t always easy but once it became a habit, I can tell you, it was worth it.
8. “Don’t find the time, make the time. – Unknown
Life can be hectic. Things come up, plans change, and the next thing you know, it’s been weeks since you exercised. As we all know, weeks can easily turn into months. Keep this in mind: No matter how busy you are, there’s always someone who’s even busier than you yet still put in the time to exercise. Even if you don’t have time for a full workout, at least do half of it or even just some of it. Something is better than nothing.
If you don’t make exercise a priority, anything can knock it off your to-do list.
9. “It took more than a day to gain it. It’ll take more than a day to lose it. Don’t give up. – Unknown
Forget about all of those “I lost XX pounds in just 30 days” stories. Expecting quick results will likely just set you up for a major disappointment. Expecting the same level of progress will lead to disappointments as well. Getting the body you want will take time. You may even go in reverse at times but don’t let that discourage you. Be patient and keep going because the work you put in will eventually pay off.
10. “The pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow. For every challenge encountered there is opportunity for growth. – Unknown
The burning in your arms and legs during the workout, the sore muscles the day after… feeling these things might not be very pleasant but learn to love it. These are signs that you’re working out hard enough to become stronger. Everything you do up to the point where you start to feel the burn is just preparation for growth to happen. It’s when you want to give up the most that you must keep going just a little bit longer in order for improvement to occur.
If you’re doing 10 reps with a heavy weight, the rep that will produce the most amount of growth is rep that forces you to give everything you have. In this case, it’s usually rep #15. This is why you can’t get stronger doing 100 reps with a potato chip. The challenge isn’t big enough to demand muscle growth, belly growth maybe, but not muscle growth.
Learn to love the pain. As they say, “No pain, no gain.”
11. “Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant. – Robert Louis Stevenson
Many people get discouraged if they don’t see any progress. As with most things in life, getting the body you want will require time. Focus on the amount of work you put in and just trust that it will eventually pay off. The biggest mistake you can make is to measure your results way too soon, see little or no progress, and quit.
Keep in mind that any progress you may see right now isn’t the result of what you did today but the result of the accumulated actions you took leading up to today.
12. “If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up. – Unknown
Ah yes, the endless cycle of starting, quitting, and starting again. I think most people have gone through this fitness cycle, I know I have. It’s quite frustrating to reach a certain level of fitness, stop taking action for whatever reason, start over again, realize you’re much weaker than before, and have to deal with the feeling of regret. Every time I started over, I asked myself why I even stopped as I struggle to lift a weight I used to do as a warm up.
Starting over is better than permanently quitting but if you want to reach your fitness goals once and for all, quitting in the first place should no longer be an option.
“I would rather be covered in sweat at the gym than covered with clothes at the beach.”
– Unknown
“The only bad workout is the one that didn’t happen.”
– Unknown
“If you went running when you first thought about it, you’d be back by now.”
– Nike
“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”
– Earl Nightingale
“No matter how slow you go, you’re still lapping everybody on the couch.”
– Unknown
“I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy. I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.”
– Unknown
“Sweat is fat crying.”
– Unknown
“If you don’t do what’s best for your body, you’re the one who comes up on the short end.”
– Julius Erving
“Those who do not find time for exercise will have to find time for illness.”
– Earl of Derby
“The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results.”
– Anthony Robbins
“Nothing lifts me out of a bad mood better than a hard workout on my treadmill. It never fails. To us, exercise is nothing short of a miracle.”
– Cher
“Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it.”
– Unknown
Nice quotes, my favorite – “the quicker you get there, the shorter the pain”
And when I need motivation, I watch motivational videos like here:
http://www.squidoo.com/Sportmotivation
I like, keep posting more.
Will do.
No matter how busy or tired I am, I always make time to exercise.
These are all true. I agree you must make a time instead of finding time for workout,because it is a decision.