08/20/2022
Motivation is bu****it.
I said that to an athlete yesterday. Why?
Because motivation is temporary. It’s all too easily affected by emotions, pain, soreness, gym environment, your job, your home life, sleep, diet, life in general.
You can’t rely on motivation in the long term, there has to be discipline. There has to be something that gets you in the gym when you don’t want to.
Ask any “older” strength athlete and they’ll agree, the days that suck, the days when you don’t want to lift, are the most important training sessions.
Now I’m not trying to be all hardcore and say you have to train 6x a week at the exact same time and never miss a session. Life happens. Some days it is genuinely inappropriate to go train. Your 10 hour shift got extended to 12, you gotta go home and cook for the family, pack your kid’s lunch, or whatever it is, is a valid reason. (And that’s also why you should adjust training to what’s compatible with your life).
But even with the best workout plan that fits your schedule, your recovery, and has all your favorite exercises, there will still be days you don’t want to lift.
When talking to athletes about this we use the “Why Exercise”.
Ask yourself “Why do I train?”
Whatever is your answer, ask “why?” again.
Repeat this process.
It’ll be frustrating, you might need a day or more to answer one of those why’s.
But that why is really important on those off days. And it can be applied to tasks outside of lifting.
Listen to episode 7 of the where .brentwoodbarbell and I talk all things motivation.