How to stay motivated for gym past the first few days of excitement

The first week of gym, what an amazing time!

There is this constant flow of energy and excitement that drags you to gym and keeps you trying new things. Of course it hurts, but your gym buddy tells you that that only happens for a while and you’ll get used to it. You believe him/her. The first week passes and you’re sore all over. Anger and pain are the only things you know. You have lost that incredible drive you had a week back. What happened? Where did that energy go? How do you get it back?

Or you have been going to the gym for a while now and the novelty has started to wear off. You don’t see much progress happening on your body. “should I quit and try something else?” Let us get these questions answered.

Motivation is everything. It is the single most emotion that keeps pushing a person forward, and not only in the fitness field, in every field. But now and then, people loose it. It’s natural. But hey, we aren’t here to talk about what motivation is about. We’re here to see how to get it back. Here are few steps to keep that gym motivation topped up.

• Gym buddy: Having a gym buddy is one of the biggest blessings you could have when you start out at the gym. Gym buddies keep each other motivated and push each other to try new work outs, try to reach that one extra rep or just even to gossip during cardio sessions. If you don’t have a personal friend working out at the same gym as you do, don’t worry. This is the best time to socialize and meet some new people at the gym. Do not be intimidated by the folks there. Most of them, if not everyone, are friendly and would love to help you get started with workouts. It’s not a rule that you have to have a gym buddy when you work out, but hey, anything that helps is a good thing.

• Take it easy: You don’t always have to go hulk mode lifting insane weight figures when you hit the gym. Especially in the first few weeks. All this is going to do is make your body even more sore and you, an uncomfortable human being. Take things easy. It might be the slow way to go but it sure would keep your mood and attitude crisp. Slowly building up the reps and weights will not only keep you aiming high every time you enter the gym but also will keep your mind motivated and you body less in pain.

• Pain: I’ve talked about pain a lot before and how it’s a bad thing that spoils your mood. The pain in you muscles means that they have got a good work out assuming you have been doing the workout in the proper form. Pain is good but not too much of it that it spoils your mood and makes you want to quit. I assure you how ever that once your body gets used to the work out, it won’t hurt as bad as the first week of gym. So hold on there, this phase will pass.

• Progress: This is a tricky one. In one hand, positive progress could give a person an insane push of motivation. On the other, It could single handily destroy a person’s will power. Tracking your progress is key to keep one self motivated, don’t get me wrong. But don’t fixate on it. Day to day conditions influence the human body and sometimes not seeing results is okay. Just keep working out. The key to progress is consistency. That’s what matters.

• Goals: This is one of the most important factors that completely destroys a person’s self confidence and makes them stop all together. Goals are good. They help you aim for something that you aspire in the future and makes you work towards it. But setting over ambitious goals really don’t help you in any way and in some conditions eventually ends up in you burning out. That is not good, not only in the motivation department but also in the health department. Another ridiculous thing people, especially youngsters, join the gym for is aesthetics. And a lot of gyms have life size mascot posters to lure them in too. Please do not chase aesthetics. It will happen if you are consistent in the gym. Remember, join the gym to be a more heathier person and nothing else. Everything else will fall into place.

• Take a break: Taking a break from the gym is a good thing. You don’t have to always be there seven days a week strangling your body. Take a day off. Let those hard working muscles breath and grow. Not only does your body thank you for taking a break, your mind becomes fresh too. You’ll be energised to get back to the gym and your work out.