Most Common Barriers To Fitness
According to the American Heart Association the most common barriers to fitness include “lack of time, lack of motivation, lack of resources, and feeling uncertain or uncomfortable.”
Our mission has always been to help people break down these barriers and adopt a fitness lifestyle so that they can thrive.
Lack of time is, more often than not, simply a lack of prioritizing your health. Most of our clients work, many have children, and some face other scheduling challenges. What they all have in common, however, is that they’ve chosen to make fitness a non-negotiable. That doesn’t mean that they work out 2 hours per day, 7 days per week, just that they decided little else matters without their health. So whether that looks like 2 workouts per week with a personal trainer or a few group classes, they show up. They take advantage of the accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness provided by a structured program. And since the regular workouts improve both mental and physical health, they get less stress, better sleep, higher energy levels, and less sickness, ultimately buying them more time. So we can stop saying, “I don’t have time for my health” and start saying, “I always make time for my health!”
Lack of motivation is something even the most dedicated fitness fanatic can relate to. The problem is that we’ve been conditioned to believe that motivation is the driving force for people who “get things done”, but it’s not. The driving force for doing most things we need to do is discipline, not motivation. Most people don’t wake up in the morning with a burning desire to go to work and crush it at their job. Nobody is hyped up to do the laundry, mow the lawn, and clean the house. I can say with relative certainty that going to the dentist, doing taxes, and cleaning out the cat’s litter box don’t inspire the writing of any motivational books. We do these things because they simply must get done in order for our lives to function properly. The difference between those tasks and workouts is that those tasks are trivial compared to our health. So once again we need to reframe the thoughts of, “I don’t feel like doing this” to “This is something I do.” And the bonus is that fitness can not only be way more fun than any of those other things but the reward is infinitely more valuable.
Lack of resources is the easiest barrier to overcome. While we fully believe the clearest path to success is to work with a professional who will guide you, inspire you, hold you accountable, and get you the best results, there are myriad ways to approach fitness. You can exercise at home with little to no equipment utilizing Youtube for tutorials. You can join a low cost gym providing access to tons of equipment (although also tons of people). You can join unlimited varieties of group classes covering most types of exercise. That said, we know that accountability is one of the biggest factors in overcoming both the “lack of time” and “lack of motivation” barriers, which is why Sun House provide multiple layers of that very thing. (Check out (Do YOU Need A Personal Trainer?)
Feeling uncertain or uncomfortable is among the top barriers for most people which we understand deeply. Rather than dive into it here we’ll simply share a link to the very first blog we ever posted on this site, Fear Of Fitness. It provides some insight into how we all feel and the ways we’ve developed to overcome those feelings and thrive.
The main takeaway is to understand that we all share these same barriers, apprehensions, and perceived limitations. And most importantly that there are ways to overcome them and evolve into the best version of yourself. All you have to do is reach out and ask for help.
Sun House offers programs that include one-on-one personal training, partner training, semi-private training, and small group classes to make fitness accessible to everyone.