Where’s my motivation gone?
Where’s my motivation gone?
I’m going conduct a little experiment on myself. Can I get my motivation back and achieve my fitness goals for the next 13 weeks?
I have four cycling road races taking place over 5 weeks starting late August and finishing with the Australian championships in September, 13 weeks from now. So, I don’t need to panic but I really need to train consistently, now!
Honestly, I don’t usually have a problem staying motivated to exercise regularly. However, all this recent wet weather is really testing my will power. I don’t mind riding in the dark, or cold, or wet. But put those three together and it’s a real struggle. I do have an indoor trainer and rollers, so I could still ride indoors, but for some reason I find it so boring I really struggle to do it. Either way, I end up going to back to bed.
There’s only so many times I can fool myself into skipping 4 or 5 consecutive days of training because of rain. I tell myself that the rainy days have magically aligned with my need for rest days. But I know it’s not true. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still maintaining my fitness over these last few months. I even used that extra freshness from all the rest days to score a few race wins and podiums, but I just haven’t done enough training to gain fitness this year. My racing schedule is usually enough to keep my training motivation high. Unfortunately, with most recent events cancelled or postponed due to the wet weather I need to find some motivation.
So, where does motivation come from and what are the steps to getting out of bed and achieving my goals?
From a neurophysiology point of view, I find it interesting that there is such a difference in my motivation levels between indoor and outdoor cycling. I mean, I’m still riding my bike, and I’m still achieving good training stimulus. So why the big difference in motivation? Why do I look over at my home trainer setup and feel so disappointed at the thought of cycling indoors?
The neurotransmitter involved with motivation is dopamine. It stimulates us to act in response to a perceived reward. The right amount of dopamine in the right area of the brain (nucleus accumbens) matched with a perception of great reward and I’m bouncing out of bed at 4:10am. On the other hand, my alarm goes off, I hear the rain, think about cycling on the indoor trainer, a different area of my brain (insula) is flooded with dopamine. This time my motivation is gone, and I stay in bed. Same neurotransmitter, opposite result. Why?
The key difference is my perception of the reward. My negative feelings associated with riding outside in cold and wet conditions or riding the indoor trainer activate the insula, not the nucleus accumbens and my brain says, it’s not worth it, go back to sleep. The good news from neuroscience research is that I might be able to retrain my brain and get some extra motivation.
Luckily, there’s no shortage of motivated people in my life to gain inspiration from. Every day at Your Body Works I see people preparing and practicing for that next big personal achievement. Soccer, football, weeklong hikes, triathlons, mountain biking, athletics, marathons, gymnastics, cricket, jujitsu, MMA, trail runs, power lifting, water polo and more. That’s just the sporting endeavors. There are musicians, film makers, chess champions, and the list goes on and on and on. For me, I really enjoy helping your body work optimally so you can keep hitting those goals. I also really love hearing the stories of personal achievements. You all really motivate me!
So how do I get that positive motivational dopamine response in my nucleus accumbens and avoid the negative demotivating effect of dopamine flooding my insula? Easy, anticipate the reward and my left prefrontal cortex will activate the nucleus accumbens and keep my motivation high. This is one of those times science tells us what we already knew but couldn’t really explain.
It’s simple in theory, if I perceive and visualise the enjoyment, satisfaction and reward I’ll experience from competing at the Australian championships in 12 weeks, my motivation will be high even when it seems like it’s all too hard. I say simple in theory because anyone living with depression will tell you it’s not necessarily that easy to change the way your brain works.
While I was thinking about my motivation dilemma, I realised, out of the four events I’ve targeted I have only ever raced one of them before. It’s so easy for me to visualise that event because it’s still fresh in my mind from last year and it was a positive experience. When I think of the other events my mind is blank, I have no visual reference. I’m a visual learner, If I can visualise a problem, I can usually figure it out. I think the same is true for me with motivation. So, I’m going conduct a little experiment on myself.
Here are the practical steps I already have in place for exercise motivation.
1. Pick a goal doing something I really enjoy.
2. Make sure it’s a realistic and achievable goal.
3. Make a routine but stay flexible.
4. Keep it fun week on week.
5. Monitor my progress.
6. Keep it social, do it with friends.
For my experiment I’ll add three extra steps to help with motivation and visualisation.
7. Pre-ride the courses I haven’t raced on before.
8. Subscribe to Zwift…” the app that makes indoor training fun” (visualise me rolling my eyes as you read that)
9. Ride 250km with 4600 metres of elevation gain in one day
Step seven is to help my left prefrontal cortex visualise the race while I contemplate how I might get a good race result. Hopefully this will help get the dopamine to all the right places in my brain on those cold, wet, dark mornings.
Step eight is something I have avoided up until now. It turns indoor cycling into a video game. Like all video games, it’s designed to be addictive via dopamine pathways. That might be a good thing if it improves your health and fitness.
Step nine is to add a little extra fun and sense of achievement to my training. On Sunday 17th July I’m going to ride further and higher than I ever have before. I’m going to ride 250km and climb a total of 4600 metres. This route will take me over Clear Mtn, Mt Mee and Bellthorpe Range. I’ll ride through Samford, Dayboro, Woodford, Peachester, Wamuran, Rocksberg and arrive back home about 12 hours later.
Step 9. 250km, 4600 metres
If my experiment is successful, I’ll be lining up for the AusCycling Masters Road National Championship with the fitness I planned for. If not, it’ll be an extra extra hard race.
If you have any tips or tricks you use to keep your motivation high, I’d love to hear it. Please comment below, or chat to me next time I see you at Your Body Works.
Yours in good health,
Alistair.
Rewards and Cognitive Control in the Human Prefrontal Cortex - PubMed (nih.gov)
Physical activity - staying motivated - Better Health Channel