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Health

How to use psychology to hack your mind and fall in love with exercise

If the idea of exercise is more attractive than the reality, you aren't alone. But there are ways to train your motivation and develop better habits

By David Robson

24 July 2024

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If the idea of exercise seems more attractive to you than the reality, you will identify with Jessica Howard. She had always nurtured the vague intention of running a marathon, but had struggled to get off the sofa. “I didn’t run, I didn’t move,” she recalls. “I was a couch potato.”

This all changed when, as a student at Bangor University in the UK, she took part in a special module on offer there that aims to tackle a key challenge many of us face when it comes to exercise: motivation. It turns out that there are tricks we can…

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