Intrinsic VS Extrinsic Motivation: How each one affects your fitness plans

Articles, Wellness

Intrinsic VS Extrinsic Motivation: How each one affects your fitness plans

Learn about the two different kinds of exercise motivation and work towards the one with the most favorable results!

What is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?

The motivation that usually leads a person to change an existing habit or adopt a new one, is either extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation comes mainly from their environment, from influences or pressure they may get from peers, or from their desire to belong to a group or resemble a specific person.

On the other hand, intrinsic motivation is created by internal processes and thoughts of the person. Intrinsically motivated people have a natural tendency towards challenges that develop their skills even in the absence of any reward. They are primarily interested in the consequences that a change or a new habit will have on their emotions, well-being or quality of life, and not so much on other people’s opinions or social “must-do’s”.

Intrinsic VS Extrinsic Motivation: How each one affects your fitness plans | offadiet.com

It goes without saying that these two kinds of motivations interact. The way we deal with the demands of our social environment depends on the way we think, and the desire for change that is born within us is influenced by the messages we receive from those around us.

How can they affect exercise plans?

According to multiple studies, intrinsic motivation to exercise is positively connected to better adherence to the programs, increased self-efficacy, more positive feelings during workouts and less exercise anxiety. All these could be more easily linked to faster and more significant improvements in fitness and body composition.

In order to be able to turn exercise into a pleasurable daily habit, your motivation should be mostly intrinsic. Weight loss, conditioning, six-pack, meeting with friends at the gym, might be good enough reasons to engage into fitness, but they don’t have the power to turn exercise into a lifelong habit. Whether they are long-term goals that soon seem too hard to achieve, or their importance is quickly diminished, what matters is that they fail to keep us consistent. And consistency is key to turning an activity into a habit.

How to change your motivation

Well, not all of us were born with an innate tendency to love challenges and an in-built desire to constantly develop ourselves in every possible way. But if you lack such traits, does it mean that any exercise plan you try to put into action will be doomed to failure? Of course not. You just need to find ways to create motivation that resembles intrinsic. You need to thing of different reasons to exercise and trigger some changes to your brain’s reward system. Exercise can change your body image, you are already familiar with this part. You always expected to be rewarded with weight loss or muscle definition. But there are so many other things that exercise can do for you. It can change your mood, your behavior, your way of thinking. It can improve your health. It can protect you against several illnesses and health conditions. You need to find different reasons to motivate you into moving forward with your exercise plan. You can have a look at this list, to find more ideas.