I was so honored to share space with Brandice at Grace Filled Plate with this post. I posted a little preview below, but make sure to head to her site for the full article, or read my book Move for Joy for a more in-depth read.

Exercise That Motivates You for Your Life

With violent words like "no pain no gain," "killer workouts," or "shredded abs," it's no wonder that our subconscious naturally wants to back away from exercise. When we associate exercise with harm, our body will protect herself and avoids the danger at all costs.

What a helpful survival mechanism! And what an unfortunate paradox! Exercise is one of our greatest tools to help us not just survive but truly thrive, yet it has become an enemy to our sedentary culture. Here are the stats to prove it:

70% of our awake time is spent sitting
30% of Americans get no physical activity
50% of those who start an exercise program stop

How can this be? Our society is not set up for physical movement, and what's more, we are fed programs in a box that don't always fit the way our bodies were designed to move, nor the ways we enjoy moving.

And when we don't get to express ourselves in a way that moves us, we experience devastating results: depressed mood regulation, lower self esteem, poor sleep quality, higher risk of injury, a shrunken brain...wait...a shrunken what? When we aren't able to move our bodies, parts of our brain shut down and shrivel up.

But any amount of exercise grows our brain and quickens our neural connections by releasing BDNF (brain derived neurotropic factor) to boost neuron development, among a host of other beneficial cognitive activities.

Move for Joy, Not Fear

What are better reasons to move? Fear-mongering may work to light a fire underneath us, but what we need is a fire within us.

We are always motivated long-term not by an external locus of control, but by an internal drive that powers us from within to go out and get what we want.

So what do we want? To lose weight, get buff, be a fitness queen? These things may be what we associate with people who like to exercise, and are are temporary surface-level identities that fly away with the dust on our at-home treadmill.

Let's clear the board in your mind about what exercise is. Exercise does not have to be sweaty, hard, painful, or longer than 20 minutes to count.

There’s a lot of shame, blame, and fear revolving around exercise, so let’s start with the truth:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2, ESV

No condemnation if you do exercise. No condemnation if you don’t. The Spirit has set you free, so let’s find out what desires He has set in your heart and how we can use His gift of movement in love, for joy!

5 Reasons We Exercise

According to the book Move for Joy: An Intuitive Training Approach to Pursue God in Fitness and Find Happiness, here are the top 5 reasons to exercise that will actually motivate you (and keep you going for life):

Exercise helps you look good
Exercise helps you de-stress
Exercise helps you be fit and ready
Exercise helps you feel alive with others
Exercise helps you feel better

These motivators are not only the top 5 reasons people sign up for gym memberships, they also correlate with the 5 biblical purposes of the body. Below, we will connect each motivation with our spiritual roots and put a name on our exercise persona.

The most effective way to change a health habit is not to focus on what we need to stop doing, but to remember who we are. Read through the list and make a note of which one speaks to you. This is who you are in Christ, so you no longer have to work to achieve something but to get to walk in your secure identity.

Exercise helps you look good: The Looker

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” Colossians 3:12, ESV

You don’t have to change the way you look, but exercise can help change the way you see yourself. Your body is a covering of glory, a way the Lord surrounds you with His love. That’s why I call this motivator “The Looker.” The Looker can shift her focus from how she looks on the outside to what God does within her by engaging in outdoor resistance training to promote serotonin, the confidence neurochemical. She’ll know God sees her and loves her beyond looks.

Want to read more? Check out the full post at Grace Filled Plate.