Do more sport, get fitter, eat healthier. The internet is full of exercises, recipes, and role models. But do they help with perseverance – or do they cause frustration?
The World Health Organization warns that 1.4 billion people worldwide do not move enough and thereby risk their health. It is well known that a healthy diet and sufficient exercise are good for the body. However, there is apparently a gap between theoretical knowledge and practical implementation – everyone knows the phenomenon who is highly motivated at the beginning of the year and then has lost interest again after a few weeks.
FRUSTRATION INSTEAD OF FITNESS MOTIVATION?
So is it rather frustration than fitness motivation? Studies suggest this effect. A study by Macquarie University and the University of New South Wales with 350 young women shows, for example, that even briefly viewing posts by such fitness influencers can have a negative effect on the viewer’s self-esteem and increase the tendency to view one’s own body as an object to see that needs tweaking.
SPORT DOESN’T JUST HAVE TO BE A TORTURE
In today’s competitive society, however, many people are susceptible to this “agony“, for example doing fitness exercises that are not enjoyable. This has to do with the fact that a person’s concept of self-worth is based on four pillars. Two of them are “performance-related self-worth” and “performance-independent self-worth“, i.e. self-acceptance.
“LEAVE YOUR BRAIN ALONE!”
There are scientific recommendations that can be used as a guide: The World Health Organization recommends 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, or alternatively 75 minutes of “working out” to stay healthy. If you want to increase your fitness level, you should double the workload. Even everyday things like climbing stairs or cycling pay into the movement account.
sports psychologist Thomas Ritthaler also has another tip: Turn off your self-optimization thoughts. “Leave your brain alone!” It knows pretty well what’s good for you. So listen carefully to what it is telling you and act on it. I think we are motivated. If you’re careful, what for information provided by your intuition, you will already have an idea of how exercise could be part of your life.
Fitness influencers represent an extreme in this polarization: people who provide their followers with tips for healthy eating and sporting exercises in online networks such as YouTube, you can also get the link of the video and convert it to Youtube mp3 so that you can always watch and hear your favorite tips for healthy eating and sporting exercises.