Motivate and Working Out

Date: Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Time: 6:00 PM
Place: Testing Center

I can apply something I learned in Critical thinking to being motivated to working out. The biggest determining factor that affects whether you are the guy who is constantly forcing himself just to get to the front doors of the gym and the guy who never seems to get enough is the type of motivation you have. The type varieties are intrinsic and extrinsic. Those with intrinsic motivation are motivated by non-materialistic rewards and are exercising for some sort of higher good, such as the way it makes them feel, the positive effects it has on their health, the social experience they get from working out, the way that all their worries seem to disappear after they've put in a hard workout, and so on.T
hose who are extrinsically motivated on the other hand are those who are often working out to look better, because there is some sort of material reward involved (such as someone paying them or rewarding them with gifts for losing weight or reaching some other aesthetic goal), or because they are feeling pressured to do so by their peers or family members.
These types of people are much more likely to quit their workouts once they have reached their goals or just stop altogether if they are not seeing results fast enough.
Since they are being motivated from an external factor, their reasons for being there are likely not that important to them and more often than not they would much rather be spending their free time elsewhere, thus they feel it is a struggle to make it on a regular basis.