Goals and Motivation
There can be many different goals for going to the gym. Some people are there to lose weight, some to gain muscle, and some are there just to feel good about them selves. Then there are the people who go the gym just to pose and use it as a place to pick up men or women. You’ll also find many athletes training for their particular sport.
The first step is to clarify what your goals are for training. There are many different types of training routines and nutritional plans that can help you achieve your goals. For example, if you want to lose weight, you should have a weight training regimen that will help you increase your lean muscle mass. You will also have cardio training to help you lose fat and a nutritional plan to keep you healthy. Other people may want to increase their muscle mass. They may not want to be as big and ugly as me, but they still want to go to the gym. In that case, you’ll want a weight training oriented regimen with the appropriate nutritional plan for gaining mass. If this is your goal, cardio won’t be such a priority in your routine. Your workouts will need to be tailored to your specific goals.
Before you step foot inside the gym, I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with your goals. Otherwise, you won’t have any targets to strive for, or measure yourself against, and you’ll get nowhere. Before you begin training, these goals need to be written down on paper.
Not only will this give you a strong foundation, but it will help you monitor your progress against your goals and change your workouts accordingly. Make it a habit to weigh yourself every week. Take body fat measurements with calipers or a set of scales to measure your progress. Nothing is more liberating than seeing yourself move towards your goals! If you don’t monitor your progress then you can’t remain flexible and change your routine if you need to. Remember, just because you have goals that are different from the person next to you doesn’t mean you’re wrong or you should stop going to the gym. You’re going to the gym for your own personal reasons.
I’ll admit that the gym can be an intimidating place. If you feel a little self-conscious at the beginning, remember that you’ll soon be ripped and lean. You’re at the gym to achieve your goals. People who go the gym are generally great people, but there are those rare occasions when someone may be rude to you. If someone makes an unflattering comment about you when you’re first starting out, they’re telling you something really important: They’re a moron.
Take note and don’t interact with that person anymore. We all had to start out in the gym once upon a time, so leave these “holier than thou” people to themselves…everyone else does! These people won’t feel good about themselves no matter how much they work out, so they try to make you feel bad about yourself.
Realize this and move on to achieving your goals. The majority of the people there will be more than happy to help you when you ask for it.
Mentally, you need to be strong and focused because it is so easy to start training for a week and then never go back. If you aren’t a strong and focused person you’ll find it hard to make your goals a reality. If I’m describing you, get a friend and work out together. You always hear someone talk about how ripped they were a few years ago. Don’t be that person ! They live in the past about their body type but they obviously weren’t strong enough to keep going. They didn’t continue to achieve their goals, they just left them. To me, that’s nothing more than a waste of money and time. I’ve found that putting a picture of what you want to look like creates a good mental image and serves as a reminder of what you’re working towards. This mental image will keep you more motivated than just writing your goals on paper. Words are easily overlooked sometimes, whereas an image can give you a clear picture of where you want to go. Use that image to help you during the hard days.
Having individual goals for individual workouts is another way to help you reach your larger goals. For example, try to bench press a certain weight a certain number of times, or try to squat a certain weight. The aim is to keep you motivated. By achieving the smaller goals, you’ll inspire yourself to continue towards shedding the weight you want to lose.
I find that rewarding myself for achieving certain goals is a good way to keep me motivated. Sometimes, I’ll go out and buy a new outfit. Picturing how great a new outfit will look on you is a great way to get that extra rep out when you’re really struggling. Once you have achieved a certain weight, you can even go out for a meal. This helps me too sometimes when I’m under pressure. Giving yourself these little gifts is a great way to reward yourself for your hard work and keep yourself motivated.
Maintaining your mental focus at the gym is often a hard thing to do. If you aren’t mentally focused, you won’t achieve your goals. You’ll likely work during the day, and by the time you get to the gym you’re exhausted. If this sounds like you, I suggest finding a training partner to meet up with after work.
That way you’re helping them and they’re helping you. We all lose our focus at the gym sometimes, especially when we’re by ourselves, but try to recognize it and get yourself back on track.