Use the psychology of operant conditioning to improve your fitness

Use the psychology of operant conditioning to improve your fitness

How can you trick your mind into thinking it actually wants to exercise?

We all struggle with motivation sometimes!

Some people pay thousands of dollars to have a personal trainer motivate them. We fear that if we don't have someone to hold us accountable for our fitness, we'll let it happen.

What if we could instead turn our minds into our very own personal trainers? For free.

By deepening your understanding of a few simple psychological phenomena, you can transform your mind from something that stops you from going for a run to your greatest motivator.

Your body craves a run, but your mind says no. How can you trick your mind into thinking it wants to exercise too?

Well, the first thing you need to do is make a plan. Before you can even begin psychological conditioning, you need to create a concrete training plan. Start with small, achievable goals – like running every other evening for a week.

Write your plan as a list or on a calendar.

Next, it's time to apply a psychological phenomenon called operant conditioning.

Operant conditioning is a term for the psychological effects of positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is when we complete an action and receive a reward as a direct result. When we receive a reward, certain parts of our brain are stimulated in a way that encourages repetition of the action.

Just having a plan can really help with motivation.

How can a checklist activate operant conditioning?

Operant conditioning requires an action and a reaction. In this case, practice is the action. You must create a response for yourself to associate the desired stimulus with the positive action.

Let's just start. Get in the habit of checking each exercise you do off your list after you complete it. Just this simple “reward” will draw attention to your success. Repetition of this action-positive reinforcement pattern triggers joy in the brain. Eventually, you'll subconsciously look forward to checking every little accomplishment off your list. Suddenly going for a run is much more of an achievement than before.

Maybe list keepers are not as strict and strict as everyone imagines.

They just know how to have fun. One small check at a time.

How else can you incorporate the action-reward mentality of operant conditioning into your training plan? Make running part of a more involved routine. For example, if you run every Tuesday at 7 a.m., reward yourself with your favorite show at 8 a.m. The mind loves habits, routines and patterns. At some point it will feel WRONG if you don't go for your usual run.

If you want to get even more serious about operant conditioning, you can introduce punishments into your routine. For example, place a glass next to your checklist. Add a dollar to the jar every time you run successfully. But every time you skip an exercise on your list, you take out a dollar. At the end of the month, do something fun for yourself—budgeted with the money you collected in the jar.

Recognize that lack of motivation to exercise is something everyone experiences.

You're not alone.

And you can beat this laziness!

Now get out there and run!

Inspired by Ezine and Bradley Gordon