Is Facebook the Key To Your Fitness Motivation This Summer?

With so much going on in the Summer you may find yourself putting off workouts because you just cannot find the motivation or the time.  One of the greatest benefits of organized sports during the school year is that the schedule of school and practice makes it almost impossible to fall out of routine.  The Summer, as I have written about before however, is a whole other issue.

Being the competitive person that I am…I couldn’t just sit back and accept this to be the case and do nothing about it.  I’ve seen far too many teens come back to Summer workouts and August training camps in horrible shape, only to lose their starting jobs or worse, get injured, all because they stopped training during the Summer.  So you can see, simply accepting it as a “fact of life” wouldn’t be good enough.  That said, I do think that sometimes desperate times call for desperate (or at least creative) measures!  I’ve come up with some new ways for YOU or your athletes to stay motivated throughout the Summer.  I figured, with the huge popularity of social media sites like Facebook dominating most teenagers time during the Summer, why don’t we join in the fun and use it as a primary way to keep motivation for working out high?!?  Let me explain.

When I was growing up, everyone was always worried about how much weight they could lift, how fast their 40 was, how high their vertical jump was, etc.  This was and is still very common especially in high school athletes.  Coaches even use record boards in weight rooms to get their athletes staying motivated during their lifting programs.  But what happens when there’s no coach there to force you to attend workouts?  You got it…..time to break out the “virtual motivator”….Facebook and your friend and networks you’re linked to on there.

By having access to a social media site such as Facebook you are given a chance to actually host your workout stats/goals for the public to see.  The mere fact of publicly stating your workout goals for all to see can be a great motivator.  Accountability has a way of making people just a bit more of an action taker for fear of failure.  On the other hand, if you have friends who are in the same predicament as you, start a Facebook group where you can all upload starting pictures, stats, goals and progress pictures.  From there retest dates can be set and there can be constant communication with one another (ok, maybe a bit of trash talking!) as results are posted and progress is made by all.  As a coach and physical therapist, I’ve used and had to resort to so many ways to keep players motivated to succeed (particularly when seasons weren’t as successful) however, I can’t say I’ve found one that has been as big of a hit as this one.  It’s engaging, fun and most of all effective.  The “Buzz” factor is high too, so even with just a few kids starting out, it quickly spread to others who just wanted to be part of the “hot” thing that was going around.  Again, realizing the amount of time our players are spending on social media sties, I figured, if we can’t beat em…let’s join em!  Why not get them to spend some of that time in a productive way?

Once established, you can create a group called something like  the “90 Day Transformation” crew and invite all of your friends who you think would want to join.  Appoint moderators so there can be judges of the contests throughout.  This group will serve as more than motivation.  You can also use it to find out other friends workout schedules or see when they are at the gym.  Working out with a partner usually works out better for most, but either way, whether you choose to go it alone (using that accountability to boost work productivity) or partner up with some buddies….it’s a win-win for all.  Setting it all coudln’t be simpler.  If you have trouble with any of it and you’re the coach, just simply call in one of your players… odds are, they’ll get it ten times quicker than you could any way…andy hopefully they won’t charge you!

Stay strong and continue to enjoy your Summer!

Jeff