What do you do when the fires in your chest dwindle down to embers?
What do you do when you used to feel like king kong (the new one where he’s tearing apart t-rex’s left and right) when you walk into the gym?
What do you do when your start feeling a slight tingle of fear when three wheels get put on the bench when you can rep it for 6?
What do you do when you used live for max effort squat/dead day but now you start trying to make up excuses to do something other than heavy pin pulls or front squats?
How do you get your motivation back?!? I’ve been lifting for over three years now and I am slowly fading away.
i went through this same thing a few weeks ago and i took some time off. i spent a few weeks doing cardio and some push ups/pull ups, i gave myself extra rest days and i eventually just wanted to get back in to it.
see if you can change your whole schedule around. i noticed i felt burned out around finals time, but i was much busier than normal with work, finishing up last minute assignments, studying for finals and i was pretty stressed about a difficult finance class i was taking.
i think the combined stress caused me to shun weights for the time. the jogging, biking, jump roping et cetera on the other hand was kind of therapeutic as i get sort of trance like when doing cardio.
maybe you are using a lot of energy else where and need to figure out what it is that is causing your feelings at the gym, then work on that.
To me, motivation is strongly linked with progress. The best progress often comes when you simplify things.
Pick a specific goal and focus on it. Do everything necessary to reach that goal. Ditch everything that will not help you reach it. After some time, reevaluate.
Watching videos usually helps me to get pumped up to go lift, especially watching videos of professionals. Even though Ronnie Coleman can move astronomically more weight than I can, seeing his dedication and intensity still being just as strong as ever, even after he has already dedicated so much time and already has accomplished so much.
I don’t know, but seeing that is always inspiring for me.
Or, on the other end of the spectrum, a movie like Conan or Predator often gets me excited to go lift.
Reading the articles here often does as well, even if I have read one a dozen times, many of them are so well written that they just make you want to run out to the gym and throw some weights around.
I have only encountered vague motivational issues, and they are usually linked to something else entirely than an inherent falling out with the iron game. Maybe your dwindling motivation is being caused by something else as well?
I hear you on this. 3 years ago I was at my peak I could squat 455 for 6 reps incline 315 for 7 reps bench 400 raw drug free. Then other priorities took over and I was out for 2 year before I got back in the gym. I got burned out on eating every 2 hours, and ass kicking workouts after a hard days work. Most of all my focus changed back over to my guitar playing and I wanted to utilize all my spare time for practice.
Bodybuilding will always be my second greatest passion in my life so I have no regrets. I much rather be a great guitar player than a great bodybuilder thats just where my passions are.