Because I suck at it. No introduction needed, who has some wise words or tips to keep hitting the gym consistently? I guess I lack discipline, what to do?
I’m pretty motivated now but I went through a couple of years of lacking motivation and therefore missed workouts, especially when I was studying.
The only tip that I can give you is to try to work out at a time of the day when you know you’ll have a good deal of energy (for me it’s mornings after breakfast, which is of course eased by my relatively flexible work schedule) and – if you can – live close to your gym.
When your motivation is low, the worst thing in the world isn’t the workout itself, but getting your ass to/from the gym before and after. If you live around the corner from your gym, you don’t have many excuses not to go. I know you can’t select this factor very often, but it helps.
You either care or you don’t.
On the days I feel laziest, I put off and put off… and then eventually guilt myself into going because… well, my internal monologue goes like this, “Stop being a fucking pussy. You either get up off your ass and get stronger or be a lazy shit who’ll always be weak.” That normally does the trick.
I know next nothing about Powerlifting but this seems to be about establishing habits.
For me its establish the habit first, then raise the intensity.
Meaning, if you cannot train till you puke every time and actively avoid going there because you feel you must, be there every singly time and take it easier so that it is bearable.
Once this routine has become a part of you and requires no act of willpower, in fact, it would take willpower NOT to go, then you challenge yourself.
What are your goals and why do you lift? Those are the most important things you must figure out for yourself. Whether it is to get stronger, to lose weight, or to be ripped, you should come up with your ultimate goal and mini goals as checkpoints to hold yourself accountable.
I come up with crazy goals myself. One of them is to have the strongest deadlift at 165lb or 181lb depending on how much weight I gain. I at least want to be on the top 10 list on powerliftingwatch.com. The mini goals I have set are to hit a 450 deadlift by the end of this year and 550 by the end of next year. I’m currently at a 335x15 deadlift and I know for damn sure I can hit 450. Hit an easy 415 single after a 325x15 workout. I don’t miss workouts because I’m driven to get stronger. Each workout gets me one step closer to my goal.
Last year around this time, I had a totally different mentality. I wasn’t sure whether I would compete or not. I knew I wanted to get strong but wasn’t sure how strong. I looked at elite lifting standards and doubted that I could hit some of the numbers. Throughout this year, my mentality has changed. I now have printouts of world record deadlifts from powerliftingwatch.com on my wall at home and at work. I have post-it notes of mini goals that I strive for in the short term. I believe that I have the potential to reach my goal. And even if I do come up short in 5-10 years, I’m going to be pretty damn close.
Last month I thought to myself, “What if the elite standards of today are only average in 20-30 years? How would that change what I think is attainable?” It’s all mental. I’ll leave you with a quote that I have on my wall.
“What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
-Napoleon Hill
[quote]Kardash wrote:
Because I suck at it. No introduction needed, who has some wise words or tips to keep hitting the gym consistently? I guess I lack discipline, what to do?[/quote]
Find a program you love. Make it something in which you believe.
If you want to be consistent you need to have a goal that you truly WANT TO achieve (in other words, have a motive). If not, you will just question why you’re going to the gym when you can do something else.
For example, if someone’s willing to give you a million dollar if you are able to consistently go the gym 5x a week at 7am. Would you be able to? Same concept, have a goal and motive.
I second what a lot of people on here seem to be saying, which is that training shouldn’t be a chore. If you love the pursuit of strength an muscle, and have some serious goals and a program you like, then going into the gym should be the part of your day you look forward to, not something that’s a chore.
That being said, everyone has days when, no matter how committed you are, you really do NOT want to move weight. For those days, I muster up as much hate as I can to get through a session haha. It sounds fucked, but it’s sometimes what you have to do. Play the angriest music you can find as loud as you can. Clench your fists the whole damn workout. Pace around and stare at the weight instead of sitting between sets. Think about all the most angry shit in your life, and attack every single set. Obviously, that would be exhausting day in and day out, but for the random workout or two when you’re really having trouble with motivation and intensity, it can go a loooonggggg way.
But again, if that “bad day” isn’t a rare occurrence, then maybe yo need to re-evalueate your priorities/goals, and why you lift in the first place.
You just need to like doing it. If training is not fun and you’re in just for the “results”, maybe you should find another hobby. Would you force yourself into playing videogames to get highscores if you didn’t like playing videogames in the first place?
Mental toughness. Just fucking do it.
[quote]black_angus1 wrote:
Mental toughness. Just fucking do it.[/quote]
Yea. Do that.
I know you can go online and read/watch a bunch of shit about how everyone goes into the gym like a bunch of mad dogs in a fucking meat house, but, personally, I hate training. I would love to just get fat and be worthless. Something inside of me was broken a long time ago and now there is nothing I can do about it. I tell people all the time that I wish reading a book on the beach in the middle of a beautiful day somehow made my squat go up… but it doesn’t. Killing yourself under a heavy barbell is the only way it happens. Proving the old adage: “Life fucking sucks.”
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
“Life fucking sucks.”[/quote]
And then you die.
Goals.
Visualization and goals are very important. I write down my sessions at least twice before I go to the gym (both on paper and on a giant whiteboard I keep in my basement) even though I already have them written up on my computer. Something about handwriting just solidifies it more for me. I have the numbers burned into my mind before I even step foot in the gym. Visualization was something my Neuroscience professor really drove into my brain in college. When I have a PR in mind, I’ve already lifted the weight 5, 10, 20+ times in my head before I actually do it.
Stimulants help a lot too but don’t use them as a crutch. 2 scoops of the newest super mondo caffeine/DMAE overdose might be too much depending on your bodyweight. I used 400 mg for a while but found it was exacerbating my insomnia too much training at 6pm. 200mg of caffeine and 2mg of nicotine gum are very productive for me. 5 minutes into my warmup I’m no longer thinking about anything other than the training session.
My natural inclination is to be a lazy bitch, eat twice a day, sleep 4 hours a night and play Skyrim and XCOM until my eyes bleed. It’s an easier fight now that I’ve been at it consistently for 6 years but but the little demon is always there on my shoulder. I just have to make sure that I’m stronger than that.
Also on those really shitty days, just make little mini deals with yourself.
Tell yourself you’ll finish your first exercise and after that you can decide to go home or keep pushing.
Whenever I do that, I usually actually end up going through all my exercises or just drop the last one that has the least impact.
The hardest part for me is getting myself up to get to the gym, the warmup, and the first set. After that it’s all gravy.
I train so that I can become a person who I can admire and respect.
I would not think too highly of myself if I let myself become a weak, uselss blob.
What good would I be to myself then?
A lot of mornings I feel tired/cold and like I’d rather shoot myself in the face than go to that squat rack cage of torture. But the alternative is much, much worse.
Just picture yourself working out, or picture yourself being out of shape and lazy. What terrifies you more?
