My top 5 tips to staying motivated at the gym
Some of the most common questions I get when people see me train at the gym or hear about how i train is, "Wow! Where do you get all this energy?" or "How do you stay motivated for so long?" Well.. I've narrowed it down to 5 tips that you can use to help yourself stay motivated as well.
My top 5 tips to staying motivated at the gym:
1. Get some music in.
Anyone that's seen me train knows how important my music and headphones are to my training. The first 30-45 mins of my training, once I get those bad boys on, stay out of my way. I'm in the zone and there's little that can distract me or get my attention. Music is a strong motivator and it's been scientifically proven to help boost exercise performance. Give it a try, my personal favorites are heavy metal, rock and hard and fast hip hop music. Let me know if you'd like me to come up with a list of my favorite songs/music in the gym.
2. Plan your workouts and goals before hand.
Before I get my headphones on and go nuts, I do make sure I have a clear plan of what I want to get done. In fact, it's pretty much all I think about on my drive to the gym. I envision myself doing the workouts that I've planned, when I was younger I used to watch videos on how the pros trained and get myself to try and do the same. It's important to have a clear mind as to what you want to do at the gym and follow through with it because if not, you'll easily get distracted. Which brings me to my next point.
3. Keep it simple.
Once you figured out what body part you want to train, or what personal best record you want to set for yourself, be sure to keep the routine simple. Overthinking easily leads to distractions. Wanna train legs? Squats it is. Back day? Hit those rows and deadlifts. Chest day? Max out on those presses. It's that simple. Even if it's just one exercise (preferably a compound exercise) if you can take it to the absolute limit it's a job well done.
4. Have fun.
People often ask me, how do I do it? How am I able to keep training day after day without a scheduled rest day, sometimes several times a day for hours. Where do I find the energy? How am I able to stay motivated? Well.. Honestly, it's because for most times at the gym I'm actually having a lot of fun. The music.. the training.. the excitement.. I'd compare it to being at a rock concert. It's my chance to release myself, to get get hyped, to get loud. Can you imagine being able to attend a rock concert every single day?! It feels like the life of a rock star!! That's how much fun I'm having when I train. No one needs to force themselves to go to a rock concert, That's why I don't need to force myself to go the gym
5. Bear in mind, this is your one chance in each day to make the change that you want.
As much as I've had fun times in the gym, I also had painful times of depression which I spent alone in the gym as well. During these times I learnt that we may not have control over many things in our lives, but in the gym for at least an hour everyday we have a chance to take control of our physical appearance and state, and try to change it, if you miss that chance for that day, it's gone forever. But if you take that opportunity to better yourself, day by day, inch by inch, the end result may be something amazing as a saying goes, “Friends come and go, but 100 lbs... is always 100 lbs... the iron never lies”.
