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Check out our Substack for the audio version! An important factor in making exercise feel both more appealing and manageable, and hence sustainable long-term, is confidence . But there are different ideas of what confidence is and each has more layers to it than there may appear on the surface. So in this post I will break down a specific version of confidence that research suggests is particularly impactful on motivation and long-term sustenance. The problem with outcome co

Harnessing the power of biology A fundamental cornerstone of sustainable physical activity habits is having a strong motive, or set of motives. This sounds obvious, however the specifics of what makes a motive sufficiently strong   are less frequently discussed. What does “sufficiently strong” mean? To answer this question, it helps to understand the fundamental factors that energise  or provide resistance  to taking action. By “fundamental” here I mean factors that relate to

A disagreeable yet reality-based take... Most people understand the term “barriers to exercise” to mean things that stop them exercising, or at least make it very difficult. After all, a barrier is something that is in the way . But sometimes the real barriers are not the ones we think they are. If I now say the word “choice”, you may wonder how that is related to the idea of barriers. If we have a choice, it means there are multiple options  available to us and we have the a

“My friends, it is wise to nourish the soul, otherwise you will breed dragons and devils in your heart.” (Carl Jung, The Red Book, p. 232) It is well known by now that regular physical activity is one of the most impactful things you can do to optimise your health and longevity, not to mention the plethora of psychological benefits. However, a majority of people in the West struggle to be consistently active, or active at all. And this isn’t for lack of desire; while some hav

A common barrier to consistent physical activity is the simple state of feeling tired. We've talked in previous posts about how aspects of physiological status like fatigue contribute to the automatic assessment of how much effort physical activity will involve, influencing our inclination to do it. On a more conscious level we also tend to base our predictions of how activities will feel on how we currently feel , and for many people feeling tired often means concluding that

This post provides an alternative perspective on the intention-behaviour gap , the technical term for not following through on one’s intended behaviour. This is a big topic of discussion when it comes to health behaviours for obvious reasons, the key question being “why don’t we follow through on our conscious intentions, even when we really care about the behaviour?”   Whether it is about exercising more, eating differently, reducing alcohol consumption or quitting smoking,

Everyone knows intuitively what a “perfectionist” is - someone who sets exceptionally high (if not “perfect”) standards for themselves and will work very hard to achieve them. On face value then, perfectionism might not seem like a bad thing - striving for better and better is surely by definition beneficial, and indeed perfectionism may seem to facilitate progress. However, most people also know intuitively that this striving for the best can come with real pitfalls such as

This week we are discussing the role that uncertainty plays in our efforts to exercise. Tackling uncertainty may not be something that you think about when it comes to exercise. But here is why it is important… Our nervous systems are designed to detect uncertainty in all areas of our lives. When there’s uncertainty, the sympathetic nervous system is activated (to varying degrees, depending on the level of uncertainty). You become more vigilant and on high alert because uncer

When it comes to being physically active, the requirement to endure the sensations and experience around physical effort can be a significant barrier. This post is going to break down why more intense effort is naturally uncomfortable, but why it only becomes all-out aversive when we react to it in unhelpful ways. First let's look at why effort is inherently uncomfortable. Throughout our body we have sensory receptors that detect physiological and physical changes that are

This post is a longer one from my Substack , which is focused on exercise psychology from a depth psychology perspective. Feel free to...

Some of the biggest barriers to achieving sustainable physical activity habits are the expectations we have of ourselves. Over many years of being in the exercise space I have noticed that there are two general trends when it comes to problematic expectations: 1) holding overly ambitious and hence unrealistic expectations about how simple or manageable making a long-term change is and 2) holding overly low expectations about our ultimate potential . One of the easiest ways

A real deep-dive into the topic of self-consciousness in physical activity. A common barrier to participation (or enjoyable ...

You can do it, but it takes patience The idea of doing physical activity at home as opposed to elsewhere - the gym, the roads, a club -...

When people talk about being "motivated" to exercise, they are usually referring to having a sufficient sense of desire to outweigh any...

Why it's harder than we expect One of our specialities as a sport and exercise psychologists is that of creating long-term behaviour...

This post is a longer musing on the topic of old and unhelpful thought patterns through the lens of a Harry Potter analogy, from Chloe's Substack. Recently, I opened my strength training app (RP Strength, courtesy of Dr Mike Israetel – highly recommended) to start a workout and noticed that it had bumped up my target weight for deadlifts. The app automatically adapts target weight and reps according to previous session feedback, so this was normal. But what struck me about th

Do you ever start a workout only to find that you can't put down the performance you want and things just feel like a struggle? Maybe...

Competitive athletes and recreational exercisers alike, nobody is immune to the mysterious fluctuations in how effortful it feels to...

At Psychology of Movement we often talk about the concept of our minds being either obstacles or resources to our sport and exercise pursuits. Today we will discuss a common way in which our minds can act as obstacles to us participating in the way that we really want to and performing at our best. Whether you are just starting out on your exercise journey, a regular exerciser or a performer in sport, you may be familiar with this challenge.  There’s a popular quote in the s

When it comes to making long-term progress with our exercise goals, we need to be able to achieve consistency  - increasing strength or...