The 4 Most Common Excuses Not To Exercise Debunked

I’ve been a trainer now for 4 years and I’ve heard my fair share of excuses

Some are valid like a client’s hectic work week or poorly child

Some are dreadful like “I can’t train Saturday because I need to book Spice girls tickets” – that’s not a joke. I’ve had that one before

And some are lies that the clients are telling themselves so they can get away with not training

That’s right. It’s so common that people thread themselves lies so they can find a way out of training

Excuses were the bane of my life when I was a full-time personal trainer, I’ve found that the longer I’ve been in the industry the less patience I’ve had for crappy excuses

So I’ve written down the most common 4 excuses I heard and I’ve debunked them. I’ll explain why they’re either nonsense or I’ll advise you a way around the logical ones

1. “I’m Too Tired To Exercise” 

Okay, I get this one. You work full time, you’re perhaps a busy mum or student and you’re rushed off your feet

I 100% get it, it can be hard to fire yourself up for a workout when you’re dead on your feet

And as excuses go I like hearing a client say this, because It’s truthful. They haven’t masked their reason for not exercising behind some smoke screen

Solution:

1. Train when you’ve got the most energy. Maybe you can squeeze a quick HIIT session in before you start work or you can go for a walk through the park on your lunch break

Perhaps you can just train for longer at the weekends or perform a less demanding form of exercise

For example when if I’m knackered a weight lifting session is a lot less tempting than a yoga session from my living room

2. Just go for it. Maybe you’re telling yourself you’re too tired to exercise or run down as a way out?

Plus exercising will 100% wake you up. Within 4 minutes of training, your head will be clearer and less “cloudy” after work. You’ll begin to feel great and completely forget why you didn’t want to train in the first place

2. “I Can’t Afford The Gym”

Yep, that makes sense. Depending on where you live you might not have the flexibility of multiple gyms competing for their membership price’s

But there are a few obvious answers that you can probably see coming

Solution:

1. Train from home. Every single one of my online client’s train from home

It’s cheaper and more flexible

If you don’t know where to start, flick on Youtube, find a workout and get sweaty for 20-30 minutes

2. Go for a walk, ride your bike, go to a trampoline park with your kids, go sea swimming or do some gardening

Honestly, it doesn’t really matter. If your goal is to lose some weight, then all you need to do is move more

That could be anything. Just do more of it!

And there are hundreds of things you can do without spending a penny

3. “I Get Bored Easily”

Hmm, this one kind of annoys me

What I don’t like about modern society is that exercise is for some reason a choice

Like you can do it if you want

Go back ten thousand years ago and early man would have had to have exercised just to stay alive

If they sat there and said “I don’t really enjoy hunting” – they’d be dead within the week

Now we don’t have to run to catch our protein or forage to collect our fruit. We can sit on our asses and have food sent to our front doors

Solution:

1. Power through. You won’t always enjoy your workout but you have to get it done to get the results you want