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Having trouble staying motivated?

Here’s something you may want to try to stay motivated to not miss any workouts…

Reward yourself every time you do make it to the gym. Here’s what I did:

I was eying this set of golf clubs that I wanted  and basically I told myself that I would give myself $5 for every workout (I would keep) until I had accumulated enough to buy the clubs.

You know there are days when all you need is a little something to get your behind in the gym and on most days this was all the incentive I needed to get in there…

More tomorrow on what to do when you really don’t feel like working out.

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My mother of all people has recently started working out again and as if that wasn’t shocking enough I was absolutely FLOORED to hear that she’s been working out at 5 AM in the morning!

I asked her what her secret was and she replied that she hasn’t been thinking about it and she’s just been focusing on getting it done.

She also reported that it’s great to get her workout out of the way first thing in the morning when the “day” hasn’t had a chance to sap you of all your energy…

Ya know sometimes working out and staying in shape is work.

There are days I look forward to working out and then there are days where I absolutely dread it… But the point is you do it!

You have to think about why you’re in the gym… Why did you originally start working out? What were your goals?

That has to be what wakes you up in the morning. That has to be what gets your ass in the gym.

When you need motivation to get in the gym… Think about that.

And on the other days… Don’t even think about it! Just know that you have to do it. Treat it like going to work. And then get in there and get it done!

Remember, your rewards come outside of the gym… not in it.

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Most of us know about the importance of setting long term goals and while I don’t dispute their importance, I think it’s equally important to focus on and to set short-term goals.

Short term goals help keep you motivated on those days when you feel like you’re never going to reach your long term goal.

If your long term goal is to lose 20 lbs…

Set some short-term goals like:

• lose 5 lbs.
•  to exercise 4x a week

And don’t forget to reward yourself after you hit your goals.

At the outset, it can be very hard to stay motivated and it’s important that you take the extra steps necessary to keep yourself motivated to stick to your exercise program at this time.

Once you start making progress, you won’t need the extra motivation…

Feeling and looking better is usually enough motivation for most people.

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It sounds easy enough enough right?

But after a few weeks you run out of ways to continue challenging yourself.

It’s unevitable unless you:

a.)  continue to learn new exercise/ workout routines and techniques.

b.) keep a training log.

The easiest way to satisfy the first is to subscribe to fitness magazines  or maybe hire a personal trainer depending on how serious you are.

You can also stay up to date by checking this Blog often as I plan on posting some sample workouts pretty soon and I’ll of course keep you posted on all new excercise programs that hit the scene.

The latter option is actually what I want to focus on today.

By keeping a training or workout log, you can make it 10 x easier to consistently challenge yourself to improve upon previous workouts.

A training log is simply a log that details every exercise you perform (in the gym or at home), number of sets, number of reps and of course the weight.

By logging all of this information, all you have to do to improve on your previous workout is look at your previous workout (in your log) and “pick your spots” as I like to say where you can make some improvements in.

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This post is for my wife who didn’t like the advice I gave out in a recent post titled This is How to Motivate Yourself.

This is for those of you who think it’s a little too risky to give a less-then-flattering picture of yourself in a bathing suit to your friends for fear of having it plastered all over the internet.

Another great way to get and stay motivated and to stick to an exercise program is to find a training partner who has similar goals as you and to train together.

Having a training partner is great because you can pick each other up when one of you isn’t motivated. You can spot each other in the gym. You can push yourselves. And it’s a lot easier to eat healthy when you have “nutrition conscious” friends to hang around with.

So if you’re having trouble motivating yourself, you may want to consider a training partner.

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