Remember when you first started working out months ago? You were pumped every time you went stepped into the gym. You were setting new personal records, getting stronger, and just felt awesome after every workout. It was great.
Then one day your motivation subsided. You dragged yourself into the gym, but didn’t ‘feel’ it. You then decided to skip one workout, then another, and then another. Slowly you find it harder and harder to get that initial motivation back.
This happens to us all. Motivation can come, just as easily as it can fade and disappear. Do you know the difference between motivation vs discipline?
How to Get Your Gym Motivation Back
“The workouts when you’re unmotivated and don’t want to be at the gym are the most important ones.”
That’s a quote I always tell myself.
Sometimes I’ll have a workout where I just feel like shit and every set is a chore, but you have to just get through it. Staying home because you can’t be bothered is how becoming an average human being starts.
Anybody can watch a Rocky movie and feel pumped to workout after the training montage, but not everyone can put in that consistency and maintain discipline. That’s what separates us from regular people with no discipline. You will go through highs and very lows in your motivation to lift. Just remember that those days where you make up excuses, such as you’re “too tired, it’s too late, etc.”, and skip the gym are the days that separate you from your goal.
There’s no crazy secret to looking great and working out. There’s no special amount of sets and reps and exercises. It’s just consistency over weeks, months, and years where you eventually get to where you want to be. Building the consistency and discipline to go when you don’t feel like going is key.
Gym Motivation Tips
Here are some tips to getting your gym motivation back:
- Get a good gym partner (someone who pushes you, holds you accountable, etc.).
- Find someone that inspires you fitness-wise. Whenever you are not motivated, look at their pictures, watch their YouTube videos, listen to their speeches or interviews.
- Find some good music that really gets you going and then listen to that. Once in a while, look for new songs that will keep you motivated too.
- Envision your long term goals. Look at yourself in the mirror. If you want your body to look a certain way, your time is ticking. Each day is a means to being closer to our ideal body goals (although realistically we will never achieve our ideal – forever chasing our pump), so use your time wisely. If you set goals e.g. 30 days out, 60 days out etc. regardless of whether or not you are competing, it could also help motivate you.
- Write down any complements you receive.
- Take breaks on days you don’t feel like going, but don’t make it a habit. If you are tired or having a bad day, it might be detrimental to go to the gym that day as you may further lose motivation or risk an injury from a lack of focus. So if you really feel unmotivated, take a rest day but get right back to it.
- Use workout journals and progress picture to track your progress. If you’ve been tracking your lifts and progress, take some time to look back on how far you’ve come. Use that as motivation to keep going.