Tips To Staying Motivated

Posted by Shannon Clark Feb 6, 2007

When life gets hectic we all have trouble ensuring we are still getting to the gym on a regular basis. The good news is that in order to maintain your strength training progress you really do not need to dedicate a great deal of time.

Generally as long as you keep up the intensity of your workouts you will not lose much strength if you need to reduce volume for a certain period of time (due to being too busy for example). Try and get to the gym at least twice per week and perform full body workouts, using as heavy of a weight as possible. This should keep your fitness level up while freeing you up to do whatever else is demanding your time.

Additionally, when setting fitness goals, it is always a good idea to follow the three R's, realism, reminders and routine.

Realism means that you are setting goals that are realistic for you. Don't set a goal that is almost impossible to reach or you will not doubt become discouraged and will likely just lose interest.

Reminders means that you set daily reminders around your living space to help motivate you. This could be a list of reasons why working out will benefit you or a picture of the look you hope to achieve. Find out what works for you and use it!

Lastly, routine means that you have planned out a specific routine that you will follow. If you just go to the gym and wing your way through it, chances are you aren't going to see that great of results. Get a clearly defined program and track your progress. Write down how much weight you are lifting each workout so when motivation starts to wane, you can look back and see how far you've already come.

It isn't difficult to maintain motivation to workout as long as you take the right approach and maintain proper mind set.