7 Ways to Stay Motivated In The Gym

Empowered Training
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We love to look great, stay healthy and push ourselves each day. Health and exercise is part of our daily routine and well, it’s OUR lifestyle. Doing it every day and staying committed to the gym can be tough when you find yourself stuck in a regular day to day routine.  Coming from experience, I personally know the feeling, and it sucks! It takes away the excitement you once had, and instead of it feeling like a lifestyle routine, it begins to feel like a work routine. After seeing first hand, talking to members and things I find to be pretty effective, I have come up with 7 tips to get you engaged and find the excitement into your gym time….

  1. Gym partner- Finding yourself that SWOLE-mate to lift and push you more than you normally do, can do more than just build a stronger relationship. A gym partner that is as serious as you about the gym, will hold you accountable and push you both mentally and physically to help you achieve results.

  2. Change the environment- Changing the scene can make a huge impact. On nice days, take the exercise routine outdoors. When you have beautiful weather, take advantage. Go for a run and after every few miles, stop and do body exercises for a certain amount of reps or time. Rest after and continue. Most local parks have a fitness trail that you follow and gives you an exercise when you reach a check point.

  3. New routine- If you prefer the weights and machines, try changing the way you train. Example, try switching cardio for strength training first and then finish with cardio. Another switch could be the machine or exercise that you do and the reps, sets and rest time. Play with your routine and see what works with you and gives you a challenge.   

  4. Playlist- We all love music, so why not create a playlist that you can pump iron with. Same with the playlist, add and change the songs from time to time.  

  5. Keep track of progress- Record every exercise you do. Write down how many sets, reps and rest time. Each week you repeat the same pattern, you’ll see where you are getting stronger and where you need improvement.

  6. 15 minute prep – Sometimes all you need is a quick prep. Warming up with a motivational audio. Or driving around and taking the long route to prepare yourself with a playlist or just the peace and quiet you have to yourself. 

  7. Rest- If you find yourself doing all of the above and nothing works, try taking one or two weeks off. Maybe your body just needs a rest and often times we ignore the warning signs our mind and body send. Listen to your body and rest, guarantee you’ll feel better when you get back. 

 

"Empowered Training...Change your mind, change your body, change your life!"

Look Around You

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     Motivation! One of my favorite topics to discuss about with clients and with friends. What would be the number one thing that motivates YOU? Truly and carefully think about it. Meaning what comes to mind the moment you feel defeated, but brings you back to your feet? Maybe its family? A friend? Or your dream career? What is it? If you don’t have anything that’s fine. Not all people can say they have something to keep them going when they are defeated. What I can say is, motivation starts with your environment and the people around you. Mostly speaking the friends around you.

     When someone asks you who your friends are, who comes to mind? From that amount, how many of those would you consider to be the ones that push you and always have nothing but a great time with you? If the number stayed the same, congratulations. It’s safe to say you have found your true friends and you really don’t need to read much more.  If you couldn’t find one person, then you should do a reality check and get rid of the negative people in your life. Or maybe consider changing your environment. We always hear the saying, “Friends come and go, but family is forever”, anytime an argument happens between friends. Arguments and disagreements can cause tension in relationships, and this ultimately leads to hurt feelings. The “friends” that constantly bring nothing but tension, stress, and mentally and/or emotionally drain you. I know this from seeing and hearing it from clients. I have and had the privilege to work with countless clients who came to the gym looking to get in shape because they are tired of feeling sad and are unhappy with their lives. Usually unhappiness and negative emotions that are a result of a stressful job, bad relationship with a significant other, death, or family problems. By working out, they are looking to find a way to better their health and find their stress reliever.

     Every client walks in with the same expectation, to see physical change. What they are not realizing is with change they are not only going to see physical change, but also mental and a lot of positive emotional change. As a self-defense mechanism, most clients tend to be shy and stray away from people because they are not confident with themselves. What they are not realizing is that everyone who they think is or could be judging is actually doing the same thing as them, feeling shy and nervous. By saying a simple ‘Hello” and smile, you begin to create a new positive atmosphere around you because you are beginning to break away from that shyness that leads to meeting new people. People who could in fact share the same, or if not slightly different story on why they started working out. Once they see that they are not the only ones who have felt defeated, they begin to form a mutual friendship. The type of friendship that motivates one another to keep pushing and looks out for you. A friendship that gives you someone to help you on your journey to a better you.

     It doesn’t have to only happen in the gym. I used my clients because they are an example on how changing your environment leads to making the right friends and helps you find the positive motivation that you have been looking for. It can happen in anyplace. Just make sure to choose a place that you find to give you the happiness that you seek. Eventually the positive people that belong in your life as well as the right motivation will begin to fall in place. Trust me, it feels great to have 5 loyal, motivating friends than to have 25 “come and go” friends.

“Once you learn how to be happy, you won’t tolerate being around people who make you feel anything less”