by Joshua Brandon

Created on: November 02, 2010

So you’ve purchased a gym membership, put together some workout outfits, and evaluated your fitness goals.  You know what to do when you get to the gym, but getting there and putting in the effort no longer seems attractive.  Whether you are trying to bounce back from a long period of physical inactivity, or are a gym rat that has become burned out from the monotony, every aspiring exercise aficionado struggles with motivation from time to time.  But – fear not fitness friends!  The following tips will have you racing to the gym and powering through your routine with a passion in no time.

MUSIC

I don’t know about you, but the gym I go to pumps the very worst workout tunes you could think of through its sound system.  How can I dig deep to get an extra rep or sprint that extra mile when I’m being put to sleep by Kenny G?  Come on…we want to put in work, not attain Nirvana!  Invest in an MP3 player, load it with whatever music pumps you up, get to the gym and crank it!  Soon you will find that these tunes inspire you to get into your workouts better, give just a little bit more effort, and finish just as strong as you started.

WORKOUT PARTNERS

Alright, maybe music is not the problem.  Your gym is rockin’, but your workouts are not.  You have fallen into a routine that no longer excites you and, frankly, your midsection is showing it.  If you are not motivating yourself, find someone who can!  Be careful, though, you need to be fairly particular about the person you ask to fill this role for you.  This individual should be in better shape than you are in and should have similar goals to your own.   Grab this person, get to the gym, and start challenging one another.  Before you know it, both of you will be leaner, meaner, and hungry for more results!

TRAINERS

Perhaps you can’t find the right workout partner, but you still need somebody to crack the whip to get you moving.  That is where an athletic trainer comes in.  Again, look for somebody that is in better shape than you and has succeeded in attaining the goals that you have set for yourself.  A few sessions with the right trainer can do wonders for a stagnant routine without much damage to your wallet.  Continue with the new training principles for a good 8 to 12 weeks for best results. 

ROUTINE

Sometimes you become too familiar with your workout regimen.  Instead of challenging yourself and seeing results, you seem to just go through the movements and settle for the status quo.  Everyone hits this wall from time to time, and it can kill even a seasoned muscle-head’s motivation.  The remedy?  Change things up!  Shock your nervous system into anxious anticipation and your body into greater results with different workout principles.  Change the way you split up your resistance training.  Power through the weights using supersets, compound sets, or rest-pause techniques.  Finish yourself off with twenty minutes of high intensity interval training on the treadmill.  Just a little deviation from what your body has become used to is often sufficient to keep you returning for more.

Finally, if you have tried these motivating factors without much success, you might just be burned out.  Take a break!  Give yourself a week off and spend the time that you would usually be working out by resting and relaxing.  This will keep you from overtraining and you will return form the hiatus refreshed and more motivated than ever to get back into the swing of things!

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