Track Your Workouts to Stay Motivated

Quick Win

A fitness tracker can encourage you to move more every day.

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• Log your physical activity. Whether you download a fitness app, use the step counter on your smartphone, or wear a device like a Fitbit, Whoop, Apple Watch, tracking your workouts is a great way to keep your goals visible and stay accountable.
• Make it social. Many tracking apps and fitness programs offer built-in social connection, so you can celebrate your accomplishments and get encouragement when you’re flagging. Peloton, for example, lets you see which workouts your friends and family have completed, “high-five” other riders as you bike and even video chat with friends during a ride.
• Start a text chain. If apps aren’t your thing, you could stay accountable with a friend by checking in on each other’s progress. If you followed through on your commitment to try a new yoga class, for example, text your buddy to let them know. You could even throw a little competition into the mix, like seeing who can walk more steps in a week.

Why

Tracking your workouts makes your achievements more tangible. Let’s say you took three walks this week — with a tracker, you can see exactly how many steps you logged and how that compares to your goals. This data can be very motivating, which helps explain the results of an analysis of 39 systematic reviews and meta-analyses, involving nearly 164,000 younger and older adults. Those who wore a fitness tracker walked as much as 1,800 extra steps (about 40 minutes’ worth) each day, researchers reported in 2022 in The Lancet Digital Health. Having social support makes you even more likely to succeed: In a study of 60 men in Taiwan with an average age of 71 who wore fitness trackers, those who took group walks with their steps monitored walked the most.