Workout Motivation... or Lack There of

J

jpmoney

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Here's my story...

About a year and a half ago I decided that it was time for me to lose some weight. I am 30 years old, 5'8", and was 216 lbs. I was mostly fat, living on your variety of fast food, and got winded doing just about anything physical. Then, my middle son started wrestling and it was tough, to say the least keeping up with him and his training. I decided that I had to make a change. I was unhappy with myself. I changed what I ate, how I ate, and hit the gym. I began taking vitamins and natural supplements. Now, a year and a half later, I'm 161 lbs and feeling great.

I still eat great, still take natural supplements, but the exercise has kinda fallen to the wayside. I bike semi-regularly, but my motivation to workout further kinda blows right now. I have set a goal that I want to get down to 155 lbs and get a little more lean (my Body Fat % is somewhere around 14) and I know that it mostly lies in my belly, but even still I'm not getting my lazy butt up to do anything about it.

I've been trying to figure out why and what to do about it. Is this something that happens after you hit a certain point? I'm kinda pathetic in regards that I have no friends to work out with and I can't afford the gym anymore.

I'd love to hear from anyone that this has happened to and what you've done to overcome this.
 
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Man, I don't have any "real" advice to say other than just tell yourself to go. It's like me in jiujitsu...I absolutely had/have to tell myself to be aggressive. At the beginning of each session, I say aloud (only to where I can hear it most of the time), "Alright dude, be aggressive, push the action." I do the same when I am wanting to not lift weights. I say aloud to myself, "alright dude, no point in skipping, start warming up."

To hold yourself accountable is a complete other problem...but that is a start.
 
Why don't you work out with your kid? That would give you a workout partner and should give you some motivation. Get a family membership at a gym or by some cheap equipment on craigslist. I doubt it would be that much. You and your kid could start strength training together. It would be good for you, but it would be really good for your kid. If the money is really that much of an issue, then you guys could come up with a good bodyweight circuit and do some running or cycling.
 
to be honest i would find working out fairly boring without a sport to go along with it, this allows me to actually see my hardwork in the gym pay off in one way or another. this is aside from strength training as making gains is almost like a sport itself to me.
 
Gierrod said:
shutupsquatblack1.gif
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Don't gloss over this post, even though the gierrod is being kind of a dick here, a 20 rep squat prgram always lights a candle under my ass when my motivation begins to wane. The reason? There's a sense of accomplishmet just from surviving the fucking things. Not saying you need to do a 20 rep squat routine (but let's face it, it probably couldn't hurt) but redouble your efforts and take on something really challenging.

Other than that, I just look back to my initial motivation and repeat it as often as needed.

A teacher I had once told us about his first marathon he'd just run (lord knows why anyone would do that to themselves... but I digress). Said at around mile 18 people really started dropping out. Mile 18 is the good enough point. Its where the voices in your head say you've accomplished enough, no one is gonna trivialize what you've done. Its good enough, you can quit now... and besids, look how much further you have left to go!

On the way to our goals we are almost always confronted with that milestone. Where "almost there" isn't quite within reach, and halfway is far enough behind us to keep pushing us further. Its that thirteenth rep, the 18th mile, 465 on the road to 495. Don't quit. Redouble your efforts, and push hard to finish.
 
You have to find a sport/type of lifting that you enjoy and run with that. At the end of the day you aren't going to keep doing something if you don't enjoy it/see the benefits.

For example: for me lifting is really easy, I pretty much never miss training unless i'm really ill but that is because I enjoy it. Now on the other hand i absolutely hate cardio just bores the crap out of me and even if im wide awake and feeling fine half the time i will find an excuse not to do any.

Like brassballs said I would start lifting with your son that will give alot motivation to spur each other on and keep it up and its quality time you can spend with him. Also despite my brother (Gierrod) being abit of twat about it I would go squat lots.
 
Do you want to be successful and be the best that you can be? Or do you want to choose the easy path like everyone else? Everyone else is just a failure and is happy with mediocrity, but are you?
 
Gold182 said:
You have to find a sport/type of lifting that you enjoy and run with that. At the end of the day you aren't going to keep doing something if you don't enjoy it/see the benefits.

For example: for me lifting is really easy, I pretty much never miss training unless i'm really ill but that is because I enjoy it. Now on the other hand i absolutely hate cardio just bores the crap out of me and even if im wide awake and feeling fine half the time i will find an excuse not to do any.

Like brassballs said I would start lifting with your son that will give alot motivation to spur each other on and keep it up and its quality time you can spend with him. Also despite my brother (Gierrod) being abit of twat about it I would go squat lots.
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I agree with this.

As much as I love lifting, I need something that makes it applicable in other situations. That could be another team sport (football, basketball, soccer, rugby) or an individual sport (martial arts, oly lifting).

I think it's very good to have clear goals to accomplish, something that you can look back on and say 'I did it!'.

Perhaps start rockclimbing?
 
Urban said:
Don't gloss over this post, even though the gierrod is being kind of a dick here, a 20 rep squat prgram always lights a candle under my ass when my motivation begins to wane. The reason? There's a sense of accomplishmet just from surviving the fucking things. Not saying you need to do a 20 rep squat routine (but let's face it, it probably couldn't hurt) but redouble your efforts and take on something really challenging.

Other than that, I just look back to my initial motivation and repeat it as often as needed.

A teacher I had once told us about his first marathon he'd just run (lord knows why anyone would do that to themselves... but I digress). Said at around mile 18 people really started dropping out. Mile 18 is the good enough point. Its where the voices in your head say you've accomplished enough, no one is gonna trivialize what you've done. Its good enough, you can quit now... and besids, look how much further you have left to go!

On the way to our goals we are almost always confronted with that milestone. Where "almost there" isn't quite within reach, and halfway is far enough behind us to keep pushing us further. Its that thirteenth rep, the 18th mile, 465 on the road to 495. Don't quit. Redouble your efforts, and push hard to finish.
Click to expand...

Awesome post. Even though I don't think Gierrod is being that much of a dick but still the post is great.

If your goal is to look better and lose bodyfat and you sound like you accomplished that, then your motivation will diminish since you have accomplished it. Try setting a goal for yourself that doesn't involve body fat or weight. Like getting stronger, getting a better mile time, finishing a 5k in less than 20 minutes, finishing a marathon, having a big 3 total of 1000+, etc. It's up to you but maybe you just need a new goal to reach for to motivate yourself.
 
jpmoney said:
Here's my story...

[...]
Click to expand...

Not being a fatass is a great motive to get off your butt and do some exercise. Congrats on changing that.

Now, being at ~14%BF the above motive no longer applies. You are no longer a fatass, getting from 14% to <10% is really more about narcissism than anything else. I am not saying there is something particularly wrong with narcissism, if that's what rock your boat then whatever. But for many people who are not that obsessed with self-image, that is not a legit motive to keep busting their ass off.

Gold's post was pretty good in that he proposed a fun alternative that would keep you active. My take is that it is time for you to switch from image goals to performance goals. Instead of worrying about losing an extra 4%BF and getting teh sixpack, start focusing on your performance. How much you can lift, how high you can jump, how fast and how far you can run/swim, etc.

Set specific performance goals, choose a program that will help you advance towards them and strive to improve yourself in some sort of way every time you train.
 
Have a general sense of what you want for long term goals. Aim high.

Set very specific short term goals that are attainable. Keep setting new ones after you break the old ones. It's a good feeling being able to check off goals in this manner. Using absolute figures like weight lifted, track times, reps, etc. gives you that certainty of progress. With aesthetics, it seems you would have to stare at the mirror more and more to look for flaws in order to maintain motivation (which seems to me like a horrible endeavor).
 
I'd say that 2 out of every 6 sessions I do a week are the last things that I want to be doing at those moments. I'm either exhausted from work, would rather go to dinner with my girlfriend, relax, maybe cook something, etc. But to paraphrase Mike Tyson, discipline is doing the things you hate to do like you love to do them. And to take it a step further, discipline is doing the things you hate to do first.

My biggest motivation is me. I hold myself accountable. For the first 3 years out of high school, I packed on a good bit of weight. One day I stepped on a scale and couldn't believe what I had become. After that, for every 10 pounds I lost, I told myself I would never go back above that weight.

I would keep pictures of my old, fat and shabby self around and make sure to look at them every day. I remembered that the only thing that separates the me-now from the me-then is wanting to be in shape more than not wanting to work out.

I've eased off of those techniques because I've learned true discipline through them, and now that's what separates the new me from the old me. It doesn't control my life, it's just another part of my life; something that I do everyday simply because it's a part of what I do everyday. Brush my teeth? Check. Wash my ass? Check. Exercise? Check.

Just a suggestion: a good motivator might be setting the example for your son. Although it seams like he may already have good work ethic, reinforcing that idea will never hurt. My father was a great inspiration for me. He worked for 30 years at a job that he hated and that ruined him physically, yet I never heard a word about it when he got home. Much like the first reply to this topic, he shut up and did what he had to do. This translated to me shutting my mouth in the gym and not complaining one bit when I was told to step it up.
 
Thanks everyone for all of your posts. You really gave me a lot to think about. I'll keep you updated which way I go and my progress.
 
The only time I lack motivation is when I'm weaker than I have been in the past (after an injury or layoff).

Once I'm setting PRs again, I get motivated as hell. If that doesn't motivate you, maybe lifting just isn't your thing.
 
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