3 Helpful Tips When You Don't Have Energy to Exercise

Fueling with the right food (not caffeine) and sleeping better should make you more productive, but they alone won’t be enough to make you want to exercise. Let’s face it: No one feels like working out in the gym or outside all the time, so what can you do? The next time you say you don’t have the energy to exercise, try these helpful physical and mental tips to get something done.

Do It, Especially When You Do Not Feel Like It

You will rarely wake up first thing in the morning and be 100% ready to do anything. If you rely on your motivation to get up and do something, then stop. None of us are motivated to do things consistently all the time. There may be one or two days per week that you are excited to exercise in the morning. On other days, you must push yourself and ignore the inner voice saying to stay in bed. 

To do things consistently, we must build habits through discipline, even when we do not feel like it. This is a needed practice to combine your mindset and physical action to make this a habit. But the good news is that each time you do this, you will realize that you feel better than if you stay in bed, and you get a little tougher along the way. With this practice, you will build mental toughness and discipline one scoop at a time, making this process easier over time.

Instead of Caffeine, Eat a Piece of Fruit

If you want real fuel, eat real food. Bananas, apples, oranges or grapes are all go-to snacks that help to fuel you. Caffeine elevates your heart rate and blocks the “feeling” of being tired. While caffeine can help with alertness, it does not provide energy (unless sugar is in your caffeine). 

You can add protein and fat to your pre-workout meal for more calories, but finding what works best for your digestive system and activity performance may require some experimentation. Do you need those “pre-workout” drinks loaded with caffeine? No. Just add water and some real food. I recently gave up caffeine and replaced my energy needs with fruit.

Want to Sleep Better? Exercise

This is a cruel natural process regarding being energized to exercise. You may need to sleep better. However, sleeping better may also require exercise or some physical activity. Though a good night’s sleep relies on more than just exercise, being physically tired or working off the stresses of the day will help you sleep better. 

Read the related article on caffeine, nicotine and alcohol (the three horsemen to interrupting your sleep) and learn how to create a restful place to fall asleep with the Restorative Sleep article.

Another way to mentally and physically get you over the hump is to give the warm-up of your workout 10 minutes. While fuel and sleep are your primary resources to produce energy to exercise, a warm-up can light your motivational fuses.

Here are some basic exercises to get you moving when you don't feel like it. These do not need to be a complete workout but a small segment of your time during work breaks.

Break Through with Your Warm-up

Try your scheduled warm-up that you would do for your workout. Maybe it is 10 minutes of cardio and some stretching, or a quick jog/walk mixed with calisthenics and stretches like I prefer, depending on the muscle groups worked that day. 

For instance, the leg-day warm-up is the squat half pyramid, and it takes about 5-7 minutes to complete. Start with one squat, then jog or walk 50-100 meters. Then do two squats, jog or walk another 50-100 meters, and keep going up the pyramid until you feel warmed up, then stop at Level 10. You can do the same thing with push-ups, dips or pull-ups on upper-body days. This has often been just enough to get you through the rest of the workout.

Add Squats to Your Hour

Try squatting throughout the day, especially if you cannot exercise 30-45 minutes daily. Fit it in when you can. Make it a point to stand up every 45-60 minutes. A recent study showed that doing 10 squats every 45 minutes (no weight needed) was as effective in reducing blood-sugar levels as walking 20 minutes after a meal. You can do the same with push-ups, pull-ups and dips if you have the equipment near your office or walk for three minutes for similar effects (every hour).

Ultimately, it comes down to how many excuses you will let yourself get away with each day. There is a mindset component to all of this, and if you want to exercise, you will -- even when you don’t feel like it at first. Making it happen is the most challenging part at first.

Then, I promise, it will get easier.

Experiment with new forms of physical activity, create better sleeping environments in your house and make better food choices to increase energy each day. You can transform your health and fitness, and you don’t have to make this journey alone. Email coach Stew Smith at Stew@StewSmith.com and find support and inspiration in the Military.com Fitness Section.

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