I’m not one to be unmotivated when building up my body. However I was walking around campus today, and I saw this muscular regular in the gym. The second I saw his broad shoulders and flaring biceps, I was immediately stoked to work out. Thoughts of squats, lunges, etc. and motivation to train 6 days a week with Arnold’s program rippled through my mind.
The feeling of ready to pump is so invigorating.
I keep a constant state of motivation by reading T-Nation and this forum, other sites on fitness, writing programs and doing things with mine, whether that is adjustments or just adding the volume for each exercise and comparing it to last sessions, i read printouts, and books, train upto 2x a day, and eat! I am sure there is more but…
I am truly motvated 80-90% of the day. Always striving to build more muscle, whether resting, training, re-fuelling or educating myself.
And it’s still slow work!!
Its the life tho, i tell ya!
Joe
My hats off to those who have been doing this for years. It takes a special person to really commit to it. Usually I enjoy working out…but it’s those times when you feel like you’re not progressing or hit some sort of roadblock where your will gets tested. Those are the moments where you sometimes ask yourself if it’s worth all the trouble, but you’ve got to keep going.
Thats why I like Jack Lalane, because he always kept a positive approach to each workout. At least the ones he did on t.v. His mind was always focused on long term, not instant results, and because of it he still weight trains 3 X’s a week at 96 I think it is. But anyway through calisthetics in his younger years he was able to build some extroidanary strength, imagine what you can do today with all the supplements, and weight training equipment you have available. The stage is basically set for bodybuilding/athletics in this day and age.
i first started lifting again a few months back because: a) i have nothing better to do over here (im deployed) b) it relieves stress and c) my wife has gotten herself back in shape while im away, and i don’t want to be the only one in the relationship with something nice to play with when i get home.
now my motivation lies in the fact that i love meeting my short term goals and i feel very unproductive if i miss a scheduled workout.
[quote]grappler_123 wrote:
i first started lifting again a few months back because: a) i have nothing better to do over here (im deployed) b) it relieves stress and c) my wife has gotten herself back in shape while im away, and i don’t want to be the only one in the relationship with something nice to play with when i get home.
now my motivation lies in the fact that i love meeting my short term goals and i feel very unproductive if i miss a scheduled workout.[/quote]
Thank you for serving our country. I am in your debt.
potential is only unproven ability. you have to do it to get it done. thats how i look at things. i know i can, so i do it. setting goals and working towards them. when you see the results there is no stopping the downhill road to feeling healthy and attracting the honey’s
[quote]ajweins wrote:
grappler_123 wrote:
i first started lifting again a few months back because: a) i have nothing better to do over here (im deployed) b) it relieves stress and c) my wife has gotten herself back in shape while im away, and i don’t want to be the only one in the relationship with something nice to play with when i get home.
now my motivation lies in the fact that i love meeting my short term goals and i feel very unproductive if i miss a scheduled workout.
Thank you for serving our country. I am in your debt.[/quote]
I second that I too am in your debt.
Gerdy
Motivation is probably the key to workingout consistently and sometimes motivation is more complex than what it may seem.
For me, i have years of experience with lifting; however, a couple of years ago i detrained and let myself go… then about a year ago i got back into it; but when i got back into i actually found trying to get back into it more complicated mentally than i thought.
The main thing is that prior to restarting i started visiting this site as well as others and looking at what was available as far as knowledge and recommended workouts. Even though i had been following a workout routine for years prior to me restarting, i never really used the internet to try and develop my workout. The information available was great; but was also unwieldy for me as i kept trying to tweak my program based on new knowlege that was availabe and that “conflicted” with my previous workout routine. I kept trying to tweak my workout and it really took a while for me to get back into it as i was really trying to follow other peoples workout rather than just what worked for me as far as volume, time, and
exercise organization.
Now i am following my old routine even though it conflicts with some science and such, i dont care as it works for me… This is a lesson i learned with me and motivation… do what works for me; sometimes what looks good on paper or what may be the best science wise is not the best thing to follow… at least for me as it ruins my motivation…
I have a personal saying, You are who you choose to be. I chose to be fat the first 20 years of my life. I now choose to strive for the best body that I can build. There are no excuses, you are who you choose to be.
Try to imagine what the guy who’s a paraplegic or a quadraplegic from a childhood accident or since birth or from an auto accident will think about you when you say to him “I’m too tired to workout today” or “Oh man, I gotta do legs again already?”.
Just remember that thousands of people would LOVE to be able to get nauseous from a set of squats. Those people would LOVE to collapse in a pool of sweat from a high-rep deadlift. They can only DREAM about what a Clean and Press feels like.
Shit, if that doesn’t get you to work your ass off, nothing will.