Reigniting Motivation

winterskeeper

winterskeeper

Orthodox
Remnant
Hey fellas,

I'm in a slump right now, haven't been to the gym in a while (a back injury (muscles) had me down for the count), except for today where all I did was a bit of cardio. Perhaps it's winter blues as well?

What are some of the ways you guys manage to get your behinds back into the gym after a period of mental/emotional darkness?

I think I'm on the road to recovery and have psyched myself up to go back after today and begin my weight training again.
 
Rhytm helps me. A daily fixed evening and morning routine.

Evening: packing sports bag with normal clothes/towel/bottle, having sports clothes ready, make sure to have a breakfast ready (i do 2 fruits and yoghurt and oats)

Morning: fixed wakeup time, dress directly in sports clothes, eat breakfast, read a passage in the bible, go to gym.
 
Last edited:
Warm up. Going light is better than nothing. Make exercise easier for yourself. Once you get into it you can push yourself harder. That's my strategy everytime I have to force myself to work out when I don't feel like it.

And keep some gym clothes and footwear in your car.
 
JCSteel said:
Warm up. Going light is better than nothing. Make exercise easier for yourself. Once you get into it you can push yourself harder. That's my strategy everytime I have to force myself to work out when I don't feel like it.

And keep some gym clothes and footwear in your car.
Click to expand...
I agree that going light is better than nothing. Sometimes my motivation is low, and I want to skip the gym because I think my regular workout will wear me out. I tell myself all I have to do is go in and start. If I feel tired or sore, I can quit early.

Normally once I get in and start the first set, it feels good, and I finish all my sets. Sometimes I skip the last set or two if I've already been going hard on the previous sets, but that's still way better than not starting at all.

I find the principle applies to other things in life, that take effort, and will be good for me, but my laziness threatens to keep me from doing it. I try to make myself just start, and if I can do that, I often enjoy it once I finally make myself start.
 
Routine is the currency of gains.

The absolute simplest routine that I have found is 3 to 5 sets to failure of one movement a day. Push one day, pull the next day, leg or hip hinge the third if you want to be balanced. Take Sunday off if you are so inclined. Maybe add a little 10 minute jump rope session or some burpees later in the day if you desire some conditioning.

You build muscle the same with 6 reps as you do with 30 reps provided you go to failure.

No counting reps, no bothering with time between sets, nothing complicated or fancy, just go hard for 10 to 20 minutes and call it a day. An actual set takes a minute, tops.

If you don't have an uninterrupted block of time then squeeze those sets in between doing laundry or household chores.

Works even with the most accessible exercises like pushups, pullups, and lunges. Even a bullworker, resistance bands, chest expanders, a 30 lb dumbbell, a rusty kettlebell from a garage sale, a 60 lb bag of softener salt, that weird machine that chuck norris was selling, a diy sandbag that you built from a military duffel, any of the exercises from convict conditioning, irrelevent, they will all have a training effect.

For example, I like dinking around with a 30 dollar lifeline chest expander in front of the TV if I am feeling particularly uninspired, casually sipping beer between sets. They look dumb, but they can go up to 300 lbs. There are guys who performed iron cross and one armed chinups without specifically training for them, solely due to chest expanders.
 
winterskeeper said:
What are some of the ways you guys manage to get your behinds back into the gym after a period of mental/emotional darkness?
Click to expand...
My experience is a bit out of line with the forum's norms.

This past several years when I was trying to be a serious Christian, I motivated myself to lift by thinking I'm developing my mind, soul and taking care of my God's given body every time I lift and do exercise. But in reality this doesn't motivate me at all. I rarely lifted and exercised and became an out of shape loser.

Now I stopped being a hypocrite and focused on what I want and the rewards I will gain. To be frank my most effective motivation is by thinking of women. "I must get strong and in shape to get a woman. I want to be worthy to get the woman I want. God I really want her". Even when I'm feeling weak and unmotivated thinking like this gives me the motivation to get up and lift.

This past several months I have made more gains than the last several years. Stopping being a hypocrite and focusing on women not only gives me the motivation to lift, but also in working harder, losing weight, getting better education, and going out more.
 
Still trying to figure that out. I know I have to do the basics, i.e., shower, and sometimes that alone is difficult. I have been quite prone to depression since leaving the military. Best explanation I've had of it is that I miss the brotherhood of it. Totally relate to what Doraemon said about how females once being a source of motivation. I am always curious what drives people. So often it seems to be either carnal desires or a chip on the shoulder. I am good when in survival mode as survival is an easy motivation, but it gets trickier when I'm trying to reach new heights.
 
I've been feeling more motivated lately. I lift three times a week but I've been pushing myself harder. I think it's because I've been working on my lower body more than I have since I was in my 30s. There's nothing like a good leg workout to see and feel real gains. Once you push yourself hard on one or two muscle groups that carries over to other parts of the body.

Always look for new ways to shake up your gym routines. There's plenty of good people on youtube for that.
 
Last edited:
I have a weird take, but I say **** motivation. If you feel it, great, use it and make the most of your day. But don't expect to rely on it. It won't last. Supposedly motivation can fuel you when you set goals and make active progress towards them, but in my experience that isn't really the case, or at least, it only goes so far. Sometimes your immediate goals can be reached way more quickly than you realize, but then you're left wondering what you're doing with your life once you're "there". The hierarchy of needs is relevant here. Only once we have achieved our basic needs for food, shelter, belonging, security, etc can we examine ourselves and know what we really want. Usually, once we have achieved all that we might realize we don't actually know what we want. So in this sense I think motivation is kind of an illusion, at least in the long term.

I think it's better to use rely on discipline and momentum. Set daily goals you can achieve, no matter how small. You don't even really need to write this down, you can just ask yourself every night or every morning: what is bothering me most right now? What steps can I take to solve this problem? And the answers will jump at you. Just taking steps towards that every day will make you feel immensely better. Is that motivation? I guess. I think it's more of a departure from the despair that comes from inaction, procrastination, etc.

I have found that my life has changed the most when I was in my darkest places, because the negative feelings drove me to change my situation, far more than a carrot being dangled in front of me with the promise of future happiness ever could. Truth is, we're not really supposed to be happy in the conventional sense, we're supposed to live life in accordance with our own values and principles, and there is a lot of suffering in that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top