It usually starts with good intentions. You plan the workout. You even feel motivated. The clothes are ready. The time is blocked. This time will be different. Then something small happens.
A meeting runs late. You feel tired. Dinner needs attention. And suddenly, the plan no longer fits the moment you are in. So you skip it.
Not because you do not care. But because once the plan breaks, exercising no longer feels worth doing at all.
This familiar pattern is exactly what a new study set out to understand. Researchers led by behavioral scientist Michelle Segar at the University of Michigan wanted to know why so many people who genuinely want to exercise keep stopping. Not once. Repeatedly.
To find out, the team brought together 27 adults aged 19 to 79 for a series of long, open conversations. Every participant shared a common frustration. They had tried to exercise regularly. And they could not stick with it.
What emerged was not a story about laziness or lack of discipline. It was a story about mindset. The researchers call it exercise-related all-or-nothing thinking.
It shows up in moments when an exercise plan becomes imperfect. When the workout cannot happen exactly as imagined.
Instead of adapting, many people make a quiet internal decision. If I cannot do it properly, I will not do it at all. That single thought carries a lot of weight.
When participants described what counted as real exercise, their standards were often strict. Exercise needs to last long enough. It needed to feel hard enough. It needed to happen in the right place, at the right time, in the right way.
A short session felt pointless. A walk felt like it did not count. Ten or fifteen minutes felt like failure.
One person explained that even intense effort felt meaningless if it did not last long enough. Another admitted she would praise a friend for a short workout but would never accept that standard for herself.
Those rigid rules created an all-in-all-or-nothing.
And once that all became unreachable, nothing felt like the only honest option. There was also an emotional layer.
Many participants did not talk about exercise as something they enjoyed. They talked about it as something they should do.
It was tied to expectations for weight loss. Doctor’s warnings. Old messages about discipline and willpower.
Exercise felt like work. Like pressure. Like effort that demanded more than it gave back.
When obstacles arose, the mind searched for ways to avoid them. It is difficult. It is painful. I will do it tomorrow. Skipping exercise provided relief. Time pressure made the situation worse.
Participants viewed exercise as something they could give up. When life got busy, it was the easiest thing to let go. Work, family, deadlines, and sleep felt mandatory. Exercise did not.
One participant expressed this clearly. You have to do laundry. You have to go to work. You do not have to exercise. That belief had an impact.
When exercise seemed optional, flexibility vanished. Missed plans did not turn into backup options. A canceled walk did not lead to a solo walk. A missed trip to the gym did not result in ten minutes of exercise at home.
The moment the original plan fell apart, movement disappeared.
What makes this especially notable is that many participants recalled enjoying exercise in the past.
They talked about feeling clearer. Sleeping better. Having more energy. Laughing while moving with friends.
Students remembered sports as feeling like play. Older adults remembered routines that once brought calm and structure.
And yet now, they felt confused. Why can I not do this anymore? I know it helps. I used to like it.
That confusion often turned into self-blame. People assumed something was wrong with them rather than questioning whether the standards they held themselves to still made sense.
Life changes. Bodies change. Schedules change. Expectations often do not.
The researchers argue that this mindset is not a personal failure. It is cultural training.
For decades, exercise advice has focused on specific thresholds: minutes, intensities, and routines. Do this much, this often, and this hard.
These messages were meant to help, but they also taught people that any effort below that standard might not count.
Modern science now suggests the opposite. Some movement is almost always better than none. However, beliefs formed over the years do not change overnight.
From a behavioral science perspective, the findings reveal an important insight. In the moment of choice, people are not weighing future health benefits. They are weighing immediate costs.
Performing routine activities can significantly benefit cardiovascular health
Time. Effort. Discomfort. Stress. If those costs seem higher than the value of moving, choosing to do nothing seems sensible. Even smart. And because this calculation often happens below awareness, people are left puzzled afterward.
The study is an early step. The group was small and not very diverse. But the pattern was consistent and deeply relatable.
The key issue isn’t that people need more motivation. Many people simply need permission to redefine what exercise is. They should be able to choose “good enough” instead of “perfect”. Movement should fit their current life, not the one they lived years ago.
When exercise is flexible, it doesn’t fall apart when life gets in the way. Often, the most lasting habits arise when we stop expecting perfection.
Journal Reference
Segar, M.L., Updegraff, J.A., McGhee-Dinvaut, A. et al. The secret life of all-or-nothing thinking with exercise: new insights into an overlooked barrier. BMC Public Health 26, 298 (2026). DOI: 10.1186/s12889-025-25780-9
