Staying Motivated To Keep Fit
Do you desperately want to get fit yet when the going gets tough you struggle for motivation? Do you often don't want to train? Do you often want to want to scrap your diet plan? Do you often find yourself reverting back to their old-self. Why is this?
It maybe because you have been pushing yourself too hard too soon. What I see lots in my gym is newcomers joining up and absolutely thrashing themselves in the first couple of sessions. I think we've all thought to ourselves 'I'm going to go extra hard here' when trying something new, and that's great first time around as you get to see your strengths and limitations. However, if you continually try to push yourself to the limit and then some, the chances are you will lose interest as you will either be absolutely knackered all the time and therefore not feeling the benefits of keeping fit or you will have DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) so bad you will be physically incapable of working out. What I'm trying to say is that when you first start out trying to keep fit you should push yourself out of your comfort zone without pushing yourself into a state where it takes you so long to recover from it minimises the benefit/enjoyment of the workout or puts you at risk of injury.
Another reason I find as to why people lose interest fitness is because they are not surrounding themselves with the correct people. One of Jim Rohn's famous quotes is "you are the average of the five people you spend most time with" and what I'm implying here is if all of the people you spend time the most time with are sedentary layabouts who don't exercise, the chances are you are going to start seeing that as the norm. However, I understand that most people are resistant about changing who their friends are so what I'd recommend is changing who you are following on social media to fitness models, athletes, supplement companies etc. as if you are consistently seeing and hearing from fit individuals you are likely to start considering what they are saying as the norm.
A lot of people lose the motivation to keep fit because they either have no clear goal to work towards or they have set goals but have no idea of how to achieve them. So what I'd recommend you do is do some research both online and by reading some books related to your goal in order to find yourself a starting point and a plan. If you really have no clue about what you're looking for then I'd suggest hiring a personal trainer for a few sessions and tell them what your goals are and ask them what would be the best way to get there or alternatively if you don't have the money for that ask the people around you whether that be in the gym or online, use Facebook and Twitter to your advantage and bug personal trainers for free. What you will find is most PT's and coaches will be willing to answer your questions for free as they will be looking to offer you value in the hope that you will buy some additional products from them in the future.
What I often find with people who have been training for a while is that many of them lose motivation as they reach a plato in their training and stop seeing results and this is soul destroying I know as I've been there myself. Often, the underlying reason for this is that you have no set plan or schedule to your training and therefore the chances of you making long term progression is slim at best. I think we've all seen someone in the gym or at a club who trains sporadically or turns up and does the same session every time. If you are one of those kinds of people you need to vary things up a little bit. If you know you are likely to skip a session, give yourself cues to go to the gym such as laying your kit out at the side of your bed ready for the next morning, reschedule things that might 'get in the way'. If you know your gym session inside out, change it. Start by doing the last exercise of your normal routine but whilst you're doing your sets pick someone in the gym who has a slightly better physique than you and then go and discreetly copy every exercise that they are doing or if you are really confident go and ask them if you can join them on their session as you are looking to learn something new. The worst they can say is no. Alternatively, do the same exercises on your routine but double the number of reps, halve the weight and halve the rest period.
I suppose a little secret that I've found as I've got more into my fitness is that the best compete against themselves. They compete against themselves in a subtle way, they leave their ego's at the door but they are still competing, taking notes on what they've done in that session, comparing it to their last session and trying to improve. What they are doing is making themselves accountable for their training. They plan it, they do it, they review it, they re-plan it and then they improve. Where a lot of people who are training go wrong is that they have no way of tracking their performance which in turn means that they have no accountability to train and therefore no way other than visually of knowing whether they are improving or not. There's nothing that motivates me more than knowing I've hit a PB in a session, the buzz I get off that is electric, where as before I started tracking my training the only real buzz I'd get would be aesthetically when I looked in the mirror and my six-pack was looking like it had been chiselled by the gods.
So, in a nutshell my message here is push yourself but know your limits, set your goals and get yourself a plan which realistically allows you to achieve your goals, stick to your plan ensuring you have a variety of exercises, sets and reps in there, and the biggest one of all track your performance by writing things down, that way you stay accountable to the most important person in the world; yourself!
Joey G
It maybe because you have been pushing yourself too hard too soon. What I see lots in my gym is newcomers joining up and absolutely thrashing themselves in the first couple of sessions. I think we've all thought to ourselves 'I'm going to go extra hard here' when trying something new, and that's great first time around as you get to see your strengths and limitations. However, if you continually try to push yourself to the limit and then some, the chances are you will lose interest as you will either be absolutely knackered all the time and therefore not feeling the benefits of keeping fit or you will have DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) so bad you will be physically incapable of working out. What I'm trying to say is that when you first start out trying to keep fit you should push yourself out of your comfort zone without pushing yourself into a state where it takes you so long to recover from it minimises the benefit/enjoyment of the workout or puts you at risk of injury.
Another reason I find as to why people lose interest fitness is because they are not surrounding themselves with the correct people. One of Jim Rohn's famous quotes is "you are the average of the five people you spend most time with" and what I'm implying here is if all of the people you spend time the most time with are sedentary layabouts who don't exercise, the chances are you are going to start seeing that as the norm. However, I understand that most people are resistant about changing who their friends are so what I'd recommend is changing who you are following on social media to fitness models, athletes, supplement companies etc. as if you are consistently seeing and hearing from fit individuals you are likely to start considering what they are saying as the norm.
A lot of people lose the motivation to keep fit because they either have no clear goal to work towards or they have set goals but have no idea of how to achieve them. So what I'd recommend you do is do some research both online and by reading some books related to your goal in order to find yourself a starting point and a plan. If you really have no clue about what you're looking for then I'd suggest hiring a personal trainer for a few sessions and tell them what your goals are and ask them what would be the best way to get there or alternatively if you don't have the money for that ask the people around you whether that be in the gym or online, use Facebook and Twitter to your advantage and bug personal trainers for free. What you will find is most PT's and coaches will be willing to answer your questions for free as they will be looking to offer you value in the hope that you will buy some additional products from them in the future.
What I often find with people who have been training for a while is that many of them lose motivation as they reach a plato in their training and stop seeing results and this is soul destroying I know as I've been there myself. Often, the underlying reason for this is that you have no set plan or schedule to your training and therefore the chances of you making long term progression is slim at best. I think we've all seen someone in the gym or at a club who trains sporadically or turns up and does the same session every time. If you are one of those kinds of people you need to vary things up a little bit. If you know you are likely to skip a session, give yourself cues to go to the gym such as laying your kit out at the side of your bed ready for the next morning, reschedule things that might 'get in the way'. If you know your gym session inside out, change it. Start by doing the last exercise of your normal routine but whilst you're doing your sets pick someone in the gym who has a slightly better physique than you and then go and discreetly copy every exercise that they are doing or if you are really confident go and ask them if you can join them on their session as you are looking to learn something new. The worst they can say is no. Alternatively, do the same exercises on your routine but double the number of reps, halve the weight and halve the rest period.
I suppose a little secret that I've found as I've got more into my fitness is that the best compete against themselves. They compete against themselves in a subtle way, they leave their ego's at the door but they are still competing, taking notes on what they've done in that session, comparing it to their last session and trying to improve. What they are doing is making themselves accountable for their training. They plan it, they do it, they review it, they re-plan it and then they improve. Where a lot of people who are training go wrong is that they have no way of tracking their performance which in turn means that they have no accountability to train and therefore no way other than visually of knowing whether they are improving or not. There's nothing that motivates me more than knowing I've hit a PB in a session, the buzz I get off that is electric, where as before I started tracking my training the only real buzz I'd get would be aesthetically when I looked in the mirror and my six-pack was looking like it had been chiselled by the gods.
So, in a nutshell my message here is push yourself but know your limits, set your goals and get yourself a plan which realistically allows you to achieve your goals, stick to your plan ensuring you have a variety of exercises, sets and reps in there, and the biggest one of all track your performance by writing things down, that way you stay accountable to the most important person in the world; yourself!
Joey G
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