Not motivated to work out at home? Get help from YouTube and Instagram during the coronavirus lockdown
- Working out during the lockdown can test your motivation, but a few minutes drawing inspiration from posts on Instagram or YouTube could fix that
- A Norwegian study shows that social media can inspire people to exercise more and to enjoy their workouts
Doctors in Hong Kong say the safest place to exercise during the coronavirus pandemic is at home, but finding the motivation to train can be hard.
Turning to social media for encouragement could be the best solution, because it helps people feel positive and enjoy their training more, according to new research published in Frontiers in Psychology.
When exercising gets tough, finding something or someone that helps us get over that motivational hump can be just what we need, say researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). They recruited 500 people at different training levels to take part in a study on Instagram. Each participant was asked how motivated they were to exercise and how much they enjoyed their training, before they were randomly split into two groups.
One group followed an Instagram account called #dinmotivation while the others did not. The researchers posted motivational posts every three days over four weeks. The posts were based on self-determination and passion theory, meaning they were designed to give people a sense of belonging, mastery and autonomy.
