- How do I keep up my motivation to exercise? – Where do I find the find the time?
These questions are probably the most frequently asked amongst peers who want to go to gym but cant find the discipline to do it.
“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.” Robert Fritz
We ultimately are in command of the decisions that make or break us. The majority tending to steer more towards the easier option – which is to procrastinate and avoid making the choices that take a little bit of commitment and effort. Why? The reasons could probably fill encyclopedic volumes from A-Z. Everyone has commitments and restraints incurred in the hectic lifestyle we endure today. The most difficult part of this is to break out of the counterproductive cycle of making excuses and deal with finding the solution.
Now I am going to ask you to take a minute and really think what your physical goals are – visualise what you want to achieve. To illustrate this for arguments sake let us say you aspire to have have a physique like Brad Pitt’s Tyler Durden in fight club – you are city worker aged between 21 – 38. This can be realistically achieved with commitment and discipline. Some of you may think that this is a complete fantasy, stop and ask yourself why? Unless you have a severe physical disability or illness there is absolutely no reason why you as a normal living breathing human being can’t achieve what is natural. But I can’t because I haven’t got time… Make time – sacrifice a few of the activities that are taking this time away from you. My workouts last no longer than an hour and I train 4 times a week. Add up all the time you spend watching television, playing Xbox or even surfing the Internet and simply take out 3-4 hours.
Once you have established your physical goals and allocated your time write it down on a notepad as a contract to yourself. The next step is to find a premise to exercise. I personally find going to the gym far easier for the type of training I want to do which is body building, in terms of equipment, atmosphere and spotting on heavy lifts. Choose an environment that suits your personality and physical goals, my preference is a gym with all the core equipment I need (i.e. a lot of free-weights, squat rack, flat/incline bench etc.) I tend to steer away from cosmetic gyms with endless amounts of running machines and MTV screens, that is just my personal preference and it suits me. Some of you may prefer to do cardiovascular work in an open air environment, others may prefer to to buy gym equipment and train at home. I believe that if you surround yourself with like-minded people you tend to achieve your goals with greater speed and purpose.
When you begin perhaps start with a friend or friends to make the experience more enjoyable. Research your workouts properly, without a strategy or method you will have no direction. Understand how the body mechanisms work and remember that technique and properly executed form are crucial factors in training (nutrition which I shall delve into in another posting is the key element that unifies your physical development.) Take control of your training and educate yourself – remember you are doing this for you! Do not rely wholly on friends or a personal trainer to offer you the magic remedy, being spoon fed will not benefit you in the long term. Once your training has become part of your routine things will get easier; when you start to see your physical goals becoming a reality your training will become even more rewarding!
On a scientific level of analysis it has been found that exercise stimulates various brain chemicals and boost feel good endorphins, which result in making you feel better after a workout. It has also been found that when an individual trains consistently for a period of at least 6 months – they will always return to training no matter how much time they take time out.
