#2 Most common reason not to exercise - "I didn't feel like it".

I want to start this post with a disclaimer once again. I believe that everyone is entitled to making their own choices about when to exercise or not and if they want to exercise at all. Similar to my last post the goal of this one is to consider a new perspective on exercise.

One of the most common pitfalls I observe in people trying to adopt regular exercise is choosing not to exercise based on emotional reasoning. What I mean by emotion reasoning is that when they are about to leave for their workout and are deciding whether to go or not, if the person does not feel like it they often wait for the right emotion or excitement to push them into action and help them make their decision. When this exercise friendly emotion does not appear they decide to skip the exercise session and do something else, and also usually rationalise their decision to ease their guilt (e.g. "I really need to catch up on xy and z", or "its okay I'll make sure I go tomorrow"). Rather than using an objective reason to make the decision such as an honest cost/benefit analysis of exercise, or whether you actually have the time or not, the emotional state at the time is used to make the decision. Essentially, for the person who uses emotional reasoning, when the time comes for the planned exercise session if they feel tired, stressed or generally down, they choose not to exercise.

This may seem perfectly reasonable at first glance. If you don't feel like doing something then why do it? Really? Once again, it is every persons choice as to what to do with their time and when. The problem with using emotional reasoning for your decision is - when I ask most regular exercisers "how often do you actually feel like having a workout?", they almost always answer "barely ever". After I ask some more questions they often report to only feeling like exercise around 5% of the time or less.

Here lies one of the first major road-blocks for someone attempting to adopt regular exercise - If you only exercise when you feel like it, you will barely ever get out the door. The other problem with using emotional reasoning is that once you have given in to this type of decision making once, it gets a lot easier to do it a second time and a third. After a few times it starts to get easier not to exercise at all instead, and the next thing you know it might be off the books again.

A lot of people talk about "building a habit" when it comes to adopting exercise and this is true when it ties in with emotional reasoning. You need to build a habit of exercising regardless of how you feel at the time. Otherwise the prevailing habit of choosing not to exercise will be strengthened, especially at times when you don't feel like it. Just like anything worth having it will probably require some hard work, effort and sacrifice to build a new habit of regular exercise.

Research on the emotional state of people who exercise report a good boost in energy levels and reduction in stress levels directly after an exercise session, and after four weeks of regular exercise people usually experience a powerful anti-depressant effect. Even if you might not feel like it before, I can bet that you will be happy that you did it afterward.





Practical tip: If you know that you are an emotional reasoner, have some strategies in place at the time that you are about to exercise to counter this scenario. You know best about what strategy is likely to work for you, but some that have worked for others are:

- Writing a table with the costs and benefits of regular exercise and having it ready to review whenever in a tough moment.

- Asking a friend or family member to give you some tough love when you are second guessing your workout, and to not give you any incentives to skip the workout.

- If you do push yourself out the door even if you don't feel like it, give yourself a (healthy) reward.

- Having your exercise clothes and water bottle (or whatever you need) ready and near the door so that you have less time to dwell on the fact that you don't feel like it.

- Remind yourself that most people only feel like exercise 5% of the time, so just push yourself out the door regardless of whether you feel like it or not.

- Before the workout score between 1-10 your energy level, stress level, and general mood on one half of a piece of paper. Fold it so that you can't see your answers and then re-score yourself after the workout. Was it as good or bad as you had imagined?


There are some scenarios where it is not a good idea to exercise at all however they are very few. These depend on any specific medical conditions that you may have. Some more universal situations where it is okay not to exercise are:

- When you are running a temperature/fever. If you have a cold but you do not have a temperature/fever then light to moderate intensity exercise is generally still okay.

- If you are experiencing "bad pain" during exercise - Pain that gets worse and worse the longer and the more frequently you exercise. If you do experience any pain during exercise it is best to consult your doctor or exercise physiologist to determine whether it is a "good" or "bad" pain, and whether any rehabilitation strategies need to be used.

- If you have been told by a valid health practitioner not to exercise, or you have been told by a health practitioner that you have an absolute contraindication to exercise (unlikely as these are usually only very severe medical conditions).



Alex Budlevskis
Exercise Physiologist
Rozelle Total Health