Many people face the difficulty of taking up fitness or sports in general, even though it is perhaps one of the best decisions they could ever make.

From my experience of almost 30 years as an athlete (performance and amateur), I can share some tips to make your journey in sports easier, whether the goal is just to lose a little weight, to prepare for the next half-marathon, to engage in a new activity, such as tennis, or simply to practice physical activity for your own health.

You can use these tips whenever you feel that motivation is waning, even later after you have already gained experience in practicing sports.

1. Similar obstacles we all face when getting into sports

2. Tips to become more confident when playing sports

3. A few words as a conclusion to help you for the future

1. Similar obstacles we all face when getting into sports

Over time I have had many injuries during the practice of certain sports. This often led to fears, motivational issues and lack of confidence. I do not want to go into details, but let’s just say that I have had muscle tears, joint damage and tendinitis that have kept me out of action for anywhere from two weeks to six months. Sometimes I wonder how I kept doing what I was doing.

There were still some small secrets that helped me to continue, but at the same time, I had to adapt the sport to my corporate career, which extended to over 10 years.

A feeling of fear that I have had to face many times is similar to that of a person who wants to step into a gym for the first time but always puts it off, a self-sabotage caused by anxiety, in my case the result of the fear of relapse of injuries accompanied by other factors such as pain, doubt, lack of trust.

First I will explain what exactly could determine this mental state of resignation.

After an injury, morale is in free fall and goes through different phases. The initial phase during practice when I felt something was wrong that was also being accompanied by pain, the intermediate phase when I noticed that I was not recovering and when the injury actually got worse and the final phase when I had to stop all activity to prevent further complications.

However, after taking a few breaks and undergoing recovery treatment, the moment came when I had to decide whether to resume physical activity or abandon it altogether. I assure you that several times I wanted to replace sports with other less demanding physical activities, but each time I found sports to be too important a part of my well-being.

2. Tips to become more confident when playing sports

So, going back to what has helped me time and time again, every time I had to start working out again, the following tips were the most important and I can only hope they help you as much as they helped me:

• Be physically healthy, or in functional parameters with no risk of relapse of any past injury, if any. We need to function at least well so that we can enjoy any new activity without pain and feel comfortable doing it. We want to enjoy the sports experience and not feel pain every time we do some movements like squats or even a light stretching.
  
  

• Get started with minimal effort and enjoy the experience. When I say minimal, it can even be as little as 2-5 minutes of that specific activity or even less if that. We don’t want to push too hard and spend the next 3 days in bed with muscle soreness and stop training to start all over again later.
  
  

• Enjoy the small successes, no matter how small and do not exaggerate the effort. Those few minutes of effort are victories and definitely have a positive impact on your body and health. This is just the beginning and you deserve to enjoy every step on the road to self-improvement.
  
  

• Find a support group and do not be afraid to socialize. I think this is perhaps the most fun part of the sport and perhaps the most overlooked. You can find very good support in the practitioners of your chosen sport; they can be members of a gym, aerobics classes, forums, blogs, running organizations, cycling, and any groups with similar passions. They can motivate you and easily become your friends.

Regardless of the physical activity you would like to take up, the people who do those sports are almost always very friendly and good motivators. I did a lot of sports, including track and field, bodybuilding, martial arts, half marathons and dance, and having quite strong introvert characteristics, the fears I had about meeting new people were never justified. In fact, I did make many new friends, met people who were always very encouraging and helped me on my journey. So, if you’re looking to socialize and make some supportive friends, one more reason to practice a sport.

But the following tip might be the most important:

Use Imagery also known as visualization. It is a technique employed particularly by performance athletes to increase self-confidence. Through visualization you will be able to stimulate your behavior to overcome difficult moments, stress and anxiety and restore motivation.

A specific exercise would be to imagine yourself doing that correct exercise or if it is a goal in which you want to change your body composition, to imagine how you would look and live with your ideal physical image.

This visualization can be applied in any physical activity, whether we are talking about a half marathon where you want to beat your personal record or some dance moves that seem impossible to you, focus on repeatedly imagining those moves and your mind and body will start following it.

If you create a mental picture of what you want to achieve and follow that picture, the results will appear. Athletes visualize many different situations, so that they can more relaxed when following certain paths to achieve their goals. By visualizing the end goal, it becomes a powerful reference point. (1)

3. A few words as a conclusion to help you in the future

Throughout my life I have employed these tips countless times and they have helped me find my motivation on several occasions throughout my recovery processes.

In conclusion, I’m sure you can find the right reasons to start practicing your passion step-by-step and taking into account that I managed to start over so many times. And if you do not want to practice sports as a self-destructive activity, as so many athletes unfortunately do (maybe I shall talk about that and the negative aspects of performance sports another time), then you have a much better reason to practice it, the reason being your long-term health.

Health is the most important asset we have, money and other assets can be earned, but unfortunately our health gradually declines over time if we do not take care of it especially after a certain age.

Time is limited, and we cannot postpone giving our health the attention it absolutely deserves.