How to get the motivation back?

Jimmy Bottlehead

Hey all.

You probably know me from popping up on here every so often... I lurk more than I post

Started training May 2007, and got terrific advice from this forum. In about 9-12 months I put on 2 and a half stone (~35lbs) and was going great.

But I've really lost my fire for it in the past six months or so. My diets gone out the window pretty much, I skip gym, and am just lazy in general.

Has anyone else gone through this and if so, how did you give yourself that proverbial kick in the arse to get going again?

Part of the problem is I'm busy with the missus pretty much every weekend... we only see each other at weekends, and so my diet especially goes to pot then.

Any help and recommendations would be great.

Thanks a mill,

JB

JMCD

Going through a similar pattern myself Jimmy. Just cant seem to motivate myself to be able to get up and do something, finding myself eating crap during work and convincing myself its alrite because I will work it off in the gym but when its gym time I notice that im finding and looking for exscuses not to go.

So it will be interesting what other people think and if they have any advice!

I should just really get up and do it....but I seem to have lost my "mojo" so to speak.

celestial

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

Hey all.

You probably know me from popping up on here every so often... I lurk more than I post

Started training May 2007, and got terrific advice from this forum. In about 9-12 months I put on 2 and a half stone (~35lbs) and was going great.

But I've really lost my fire for it in the past six months or so. My diets gone out the window pretty much, I skip gym, and am just lazy in general.

Has anyone else gone through this and if so, how did you give yourself that proverbial kick in the arse to get going again?

Part of the problem is I'm busy with the missus pretty much every weekend... we only see each other at weekends, and so my diet especially goes to pot then.

Any help and recommendations would be great.

Thanks a mill,

JB

Alright dude. Just get back in the gym and DO IT! Seriously. Don't overthink it. Even if you don't feel like going just still go. Once you get there you will feel better. Feeling better and getting that great 'worked out' feeling we all know and love. Once you get that you'll feel like going more. Then you go again and again and before you know it you are back where you started.

Funny you should ask cos I am somewhat in the same place as you, sort of. My motivation has dipped a little cos was away for nearly a month and had maybe 3 workouts in that time and ate absolutely whatever I wanted. Drank feck all but ate biscuits, ice-cream, crisps, chips, chips and more chips, coke etc. Have had over a month of that really and haven't seemed to put on any weight (another reason to love the weights!), but I do find that not going does make your motivation dip (I too had other distractions;)) - Moral of story is use it or lose it.

Get back in the gym and you'll be flying it again in no time and lovin it.

celestial

JMCD wrote: »

Going through a similar pattern myself Jimmy. Just cant seem to motivate myself to be able to get up and do something, finding myself eating crap during work and convincing myself its alrite because I will work it off in the gym but when its gym time I notice that im finding and looking for exscuses not to go.

So it will be interesting what other people think and if they have any advice!

I should just really get up and do it....but I seem to have lost my "mojo" so to speak.

Ha yeah man! Me too - the odd sneaky bag of Malteasers in work - 'ah sure it's grand will work it off in gym, won't make much difference'....see my reply to Jimmy!

Another really important point is that going to the gym has a dynamic effect on your eating/snacking habits - watch how you don't want the junk when you are training. Two sides of the same coin.

davyjose

I'm just back from holidays. Back in the gym tomorrow. I know that once I start squatting I'll be back in the zone. But right now, it's tough. Mainly because I know I've fallen behind in the last 2 weeks and it's mentally hard. but as celestial said, you have to just DO IT. just decide to do a killer workout and you should have your training hat back on after it.

I'm looking forward to having Doms again

CoachBoone

This happened to me about maybe 4 weeks ago, was after losing a good bit of weight and my body shape/composition changed a fair bit but then I got lazy. Stopped doing my Cardio, put in f-all effort on my resistance and generally let everything fall to pieces.

IMO You have to set yourself goals. Otherwise your continually just working for nothing. You're not surpassing anything.

For example I want to be able to bench my bodyweight, and have decent deads and squat numbers. I also want to be half a stone lighter but looking much better before my 21st in Januray.

In your case, you could convince your missus to join you in the gym maybe once a weekend. You won't wanna look like a schmuck in front of her so you might work harder.

I don't know what your goals are, or if in fact you have any, but tbh having goals really helps with motivation. Ask any sports psychologist.

Oh, and music. Find some music you enjoy listening too and run or lift to it. Make yourself a playlist or whatnot.

Hope that helps.

brianthebard

Have a look at Hanley and Kevpants logs and the videos of them squatting for twenty reps. Doing anything for you??

BossArky

CoachBoone wrote: »

IMO You have to set yourself goals

Exactly.

You need to set yourself targets, both in the short and long term.

e.g.
short term --> within 3 months I will loose or gain X amount.
long term --> within 1 year I will run 10 km in Y minutes, or add Z to a particular lift

52 weeks in the year. Deduct 8 weeks max for holidays, illness, random distractions. This leaves 44. Now use these 44 weeks as small increments to progress towards your goal. If you are not making progress in a month or so, try something new.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

You could try turning your weekends with the missus into sporting occaisons: walking, hiking, wall climbing, cycling, etc.

g'em

It happens to a lot of people. It happened to me earlier this year - I was dealing with a lot of stuff in RL that was was stressing me out and while normally the gym would be a great respite from all that crap I found that I was demotivated and lethargic. The training itself wasn't going particularly well either, it had no focus and no real goals (or at least no attainable ones) so I took some time off and switched tactics. I ended up changing gym, found new training partners (werd up for wasabi & co.), got a new coach and started a whole new style of lifting. Now I'm back to the point that I can't imagine not going to the gym three or four times a week.

Goal setting is, as has been said, key. If you don't know where you're going it's hard to put one foot in front of the other. The Fitness Logs are full of inspiration too - nothing like a bit of healthy competition to keep you on your toes

AARRRGH

You could try giving up alcohol. I gave it up, as a well as a few friends, and the changes in energy level (both physical and mental) are incredible.

Vegeta

Hanging around here is usually motivation enough for me (125 and 140 by 20 reps, is very impressive stuff, what makes me go :eek: is how easy they made it look)

Coming out of a 3-4 month bad patch myself. No excuses, was just lazy, life was busy but I didn't make time for it, lost my training partners too but again that's just an excuse. Cant believe how quickly I have lost strength, disgusted about it really.

There's only one cure for that though

kevpants

Goals goals goals. It's all about goals.

So many people go to the gyn to do their "routine". The word in itself speaks volumes. You need to have something to aim for week to week and then an overall goal, no matter how much of a dream you think it is.

You talked about adding mass, is that what you want to do? You wanna get big? If so set a goal. Take a T-Shirt that fits you now and use it as a measure. Try and get it to not fit anymore. Each week or two throw it on and see if it's getting tighter. When it doesn't fit any more throw it out and get a new T-shirt goal!

Set goals of how much weight you want to lift. Say it's the big 100kg in the bench. Probably the most popular goal, tell yourself you'll be there by next summer, next xmas, whenever. And every week say right I'm gonna do 70 x 5 and next week I'm gonna get 72.5 x 5 or whatever level you're at.

Don't be afraid to set a goal just cos you're scared dyou'll fail cos when you look back even after not achieving everything you wanted you'll notice one thing for sure. Progress.

bob04

I hear ya bud

Im in the same boat

I think a training partner is a good start, someone to push you, make you wanna go, you dont wanna let them down etc

For me this is the way to go, get you back into it, when/if they fail later on, you might be back into it enough to keep going yourself

Jimmy Bottlehead

Wow

Kinda shocked by how many other people it's happened / happening to! Thought it was just me, which was a downer in itself!

Mucho thanks everyone... I was kinda aimless the past while and slipped into a 'routine', as KevPants said. I do want to add mass, so the tshirt idea is brilliant. I'll definitely use it.

And JMCD and Celestial, I completely identified with you two! Eating poorly, and then making excuses as to not going gym... the old "I'm tired tonight, so no point going. I'll go tomorrow instead and start then!'

Cheers everyone!

corribdude

Well here's my 2c,

You need goals or you have nothing to work towards. Writing a log is good because you set the goals down and you can track your progress towards them.

And change the routine every so often. I start finding the thoughts of lifting very offputting and tough every month and a half or two months. As soon as I change the routine tho I get the motivation back amost straight away and I look forward to working out again. It's interesting to see how much stronger you've gotten when you switch back to your old routine after you've tried something else for a while.

Ace Of Knaves

These never fail to motivate me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woOu_4l3lio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BirIEDYrw0Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTuk5Uloyjg

joker77

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

Wow

Kinda shocked by how many other people it's happened / happening to! Thought it was just me, which was a downer in itself!

Mucho thanks everyone... I was kinda aimless the past while and slipped into a 'routine', as KevPants said. I do want to add mass, so the tshirt idea is brilliant. I'll definitely use it.

And JMCD and Celestial, I completely identified with you two! Eating poorly, and then making excuses as to not going gym... the old "I'm tired tonight, so no point going. I'll go tomorrow instead and start then!'

Cheers everyone!

I think everyone goes through phases where their motivation doesn't come naturally, and really needs to be worked on. It's happened to me regularly over the last couple of months, and especially gets me down when I pick up some kind of injury or another.

The problem for me is that it can become a vicious circle - the motivation goes so it gets harder to go to the gym, then the diet can slide - a little bit at first, the auld comfort eating that I'm sure most people on here who train will recognise, then the diet slips even further, so the energy levels start to slip then. You go to the gym and are only doing about 70% of what you should be able to do, this demoralises you and the vicious circle continues.

I can definitely recognise these patterns in myself, and make a concious effort to see them to not let the lack of motivation / energy that I feel get me down too much.

What everyone has said about logs is right though - if you can try to keep one regularly - it's definitely a help.

The other thing that I find helps me is sleep. If I'm feeling really zapped and no motivation, I try to get a few early nights! Simple, but effective

JMCD

Just to let you guys know, I hit the gym this morning and had a really good session and feel great now and cant wait till my next session

My advice to any one in a slump like I have been in is JUST GET UP AND DO IT:)

another world

Totally agree with everyone talking about the goals. Especially having an overall goal with mini subgoals within it. For example, my goal is to run the marathon next year. If I left it at that I don´t think I´d stay motivated because it just seems like such a big goal and so far away. So, what I´m doing is breaking this down into 2 week training sessions i.e. changing my subgoals every 2 weeks. The sum of all the subgoals should mean achieving the final goal, plus, it makes it more interesting having an immediate goal to achieve every time you go to the gym. This seems to work for me, hopefully it can be of help.

Brock Lesnars training video on youtube is enough to get me going.