Breaking Through Motivation Blocks

It’s mid January folks! Not sure how you all are feeling about the gym, but personally I haven’t been fully feeling it.

Surely you’ve seen in various social media posts about “off season gains”, photos of decadent food with captions of heavy lifting to put those extra calories to good use. My head yells, “YEAH, OFF SEASON GAINZ ON GAINZ!”, my body screams, “Nooo, nooo, please no! I am so weak!”. Weak because after cutting for summer, I just want a break from the dieting and training so heavily. Besides, I hung up my competition shoes a few years ago, so I can enjoy the luxury of no deadlines or pressure to be lean!

After getting over my guilt of not utilizing the the copious amounts of calories I’ve eaten to get jacked, I thought about how to overcome these mind blocks and apply them.

1) I’m Weak

I try…I try hard to not have an Al Bundy moment and reminisce about my glory days competing. Often, I catch myself thinking, “I used to press 35s with ease, now I can barely do 30s”

On the bright side: I can squat 45s compared to 35s in my hey day.

Solution: Having a training partner. Having someone there is more motivating and will be there to safely spot you lifting heavy

2) I’m Bored of My Training Routine

This is more laziness to come up with a new program for myself lol

On the bright side: there really is no bright side

Solution: Take a class at the gym! Grab the latest issue of Iron Man Magazine and put their feature workouts into your program! We live in the age of the Internet, it’s not difficult to find a program.

3) I’m Not Seeing Results

Oh, I’m seeing results alright…results of eating too many Christmas cookies.

On the bright side: Makes a great “before” picture

Solution: Stop eating cookies to start. We get what we put in. So this means putting lean protein and purposeful food in your mouth, go lift, do some cardio and see the results be delivered weekly. ‘Nuff said.

The main thing is, go at your own pace within reason and stop with the negative talk and excuses. Those two things never did anyone any good! We have six months until summer let’s go get it!