Have you started an exercise programme in the past with a particular goal in mind?... perhaps to lose weight? Or pack on a little extra muscle for that up and coming holiday? These are some of the more popular reasons behind most people embarking on a new fitness routine…although, due to the way in which these goals can take time to become apparent...committing to a new gym programme only for these aesthetic reasons can sometimes lead to quick de-motivation and a high risk of drop off from that new routine not long after it begins.
For those of us that continue to sustain any given exercise programme for longer periods of time what we tend to find is that there is in fact another factor that keeps us coming back for more, even after those weight loss targets or whichever aesthetic goal it may be has been achieved…that factor being the way in which exercising is actually making us feel.
With the increase in research surrounding the area and the additional attempts to motivate people towards becoming more active, most of us now have some idea surrounding how we do in fact release those ‘feel good’ hormones, Dopamine and Serotonin, amongst many others, during and post exercise. In turn, allowing for improved mood regulation, satisfaction and feelings of stress relief.
So when it comes to motivating positive behavior change and increased exercise adherence, whether that be for yourself, a friend, family member or even a client…it may be worth potentially applying this hugely significant motivational strategy to in fact, increase exercise adherence.
So...how exactly do we do this?
Well, due to this method of motivating being determined and ultimately measured by something that we feel, we need to apply a technique that establishes how we’re feeling and creates something that we can actually see. This technique is known as mental profiling.
Now, mental profiling isn’t a new or unknown technique and is widely used within exercise and sport psychology in athletes performing at top levels under high levels of pressure and stress…however, in general populations, it isn’t a method that is widely applied.
The way in which mental profiling works is by using a mental profiling wheel such as the example shown below:
To use mental profiling effectively, it's important to establish the components that are most important to us in terms of how we feel, for example: confidence, stress-relief, concentration, happiness, mood levels, energy levels etc. and we then input those components on the outside of the wheel.
Next, before we begin our training programme, current feelings within those areas should be rated with honesty, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, colouring in the chart appropriately (most of us are visual learners so this helps to bring our feelings to life).
Once our exercise programme has been carried out for an appropriate duration e.g. one month, we would then re-rate our component feelings on a new chart. After doing this, comparisons between the pre-exercise and post-exercise charts can be made and from here we can assess the changes that exercise has allowed to occur within those component areas of fitness, hopefully allowing for us to establish those intrinsic improvements that exercise has allowed to occur within.
Ultimately, what this technique does is makes those areas of self-improvement that aren’t always so visible or noticeable….visible and noticeable. So when, the physical and visible improvements that most individuals look to gain from exercising don’t go so well for a period of training, the none physical and none visible improvements will be made visible…with hopes of this leading in turn, to an increased exercise adherence.
In doing this, it also allows for more time and perhaps new training and nutritional methods to be put in place for the visible improvements to take place over the next training period, that we're now (hopefully) more likely to undertake.
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