Keeping Motivated

Extreme

How many of you fall back into old bad habits after reaching a
certain goal you’ve accomplished? Do you diet hard to get in shape for a holiday or for a contest then blow all your hard work after the event by pigging out? I can admit that I am guilty of becoming lazy after I’ve achieved something I once saw as a dream and just let myself slip back to closer to where I started. So how do you keep focus after achieving a certain goal? How can
you achieve more than what you are of naturally capable of, then keep going further into new, uncharted territory? If you feel any of these questions apply to you, then this article is for you.

In professional sports, you see it all the time, a certain team or
individual wins a world championship one year and ends up not making the
the last 16 the following year. Sure there are some exceptions to why this has happened but the main reason is because the team is satisfied with their achievements and feel they don’t have to work as hard anymore. This is a mistake that many teams make much to the distress of their fans, management and board of directors. They could have been one of the great sporting dynasties you read about in books but they end up in a rebuilding mode instead. It is the same way in bodybuilding, you cannot just become satisfied with your current physique or you are destined for failure.

Look at the reigning Mr. Olympia, Ronnie Coleman. Have you ever
wondered why he can win so many Mr. O`s in a row? It’s because he sets
higher standards for himself every year and will never be satisfied with
himself, this is the true mark of a champion. Any person or team can win a first place trophy, the opponents may have an off day or they may get lucky and the run of play may favour them, something as simple as an important player in the rival team getting hurt may contribute to a lucky victory but the true winners are the ones who can do it over and over on a continuing basis, with the ability to play till the final whistle and overturn the odds even when stacked against them.

Have you ever felt that you’ve reached a plateau in your fitness goals
and start to believe that it doesn’t matter how much you try or how long you
keep at your plan that you can’t get any better? This is another one of those
little tricks your mind will play on you but the truth is that you are
actually improving but you just don’t realize it. You must have the
discipline to keep setting higher standards after you’ve accomplished a
certain feat. You see it all the time, a person sets a goal to lose twenty
pounds, loses it, starts eating bad foods again, and gains it all back. What
this person should’ve done was write down a higher more achievable goal such
as gain two pounds of muscle with as little fat gain as possible. The person
would then believe this goal is obtainable because they just lost twenty
pounds already, what can possibly hold them back now?

Most of us have had times where we start getting bored with our
routine day after day, eating the same meals every three hours, spending our evenings in the gym and boring ourselves to death as we do cardio work.
Bodybuilding is a sport that can put a drain on a person both physically and mentally but you have to keep on trying to find ways to overcome the boredom and the mental barriers when they arise, because they will arise at some point for every serious trainer.

Train at a different gym once or twice a week, new faces and equipment is often a good start to keeping the fire in your belly, try different recipes or cover your food in herbs and spices to alter the taste of the same old same old, just changing the tastes you have each day can be enough to ease the monotony.

Keep the fundamentals the same but alter it a bit and find a way that suits you. For over a year my training partner and I included a lot of pure strength movements, deadlifts, weighted dips and chins, heavy bench and shoulder presses and the daddy of them all the squat. We pushed ourselves each workout to see how strong we could get while also doing some work with a lighter weight and repping out, over the time we followed that plan we thickened up loads, our strength increased and our muscle density leaped forward in ways we could only have dreamed of and because each workout was a competition to beat the last one it took well over a year for any boredom to set in.

It may not be the way you may go but it will hopefully give you an idea of how to change your training to suit you and keep you motivated.

www.extremenutrition.co.uk

Nick500

I agree, its due to this that most people YOYO through dieting . Its about constant motivation... once you lose the weight (or gain it), its just as hard keeping it as it is getting there...

For me I set weight lift targets to keep myself motivated, and don't just go by looking in the mirror...

Nick

Fortdaddy

Good post. I have motivation problems and I hate it. Then I get depressed when I see myself start moving backwards. I hate saying "I used to be able to lift that, or I used to look like that". I wish I could keep myself consistant all the time.

Extreme

I find it really hard now too and thats what inspired me to write this, for those who don't know I had open heart surgery 3.5 yrs ago and now have a titanium aortic valve.

I was born with a hole in my heart which was discovered 4.5 yrs ago and bcos it was so enlarged and misshapen they didn't know if they could do anything to help me other than a transplant which had other connotations which would have caused me problems (rejection of the organ, immunosuppression meds to prevent this increase your potential of cancer by 6 times).

I now cannot go for personal best lifts, forced reps, compound movements are supposed to be a no no and training to complete failure is off limits too.

I used to bench 180kg, squat 280kg, behind neck press 130kg, deadlift off the floor 320kg and bent row around 200kg, anything I can do now that doesn't endanger my health feels like going through the motions.

Training with no goals is a greater challenge than getting ready for a contest is so I've found that setting little goals that I can hit in a 3 month period is how I view it now and looking in the mirror to see how much belly sticks out over my jeans is enough to keep me going.

Its another reason I was keen to get involved here, I've learned a lot in the last 15yrs and through studying Bio-Medical Sciences it would be a crime not to share it with guys who are currently in the position I once was with questions and a lack of places to find real honest answers.

www.extremenutrition.co.uk

FierceFrets

Extreme - Your a credit to this site mate.

:twisted: Fierce

MMUK

I think at times because Extreme has business interests which he promotes through the site its easy to not pay as much attention to some of his posts thinking it'll just be a product promo post, this guy has been on a life support machine for 5 hours and was given less than a year to live, 4.5yrs ago.

I know the doctors are at a loss with him because his recovery from his heart condition is beyond anything they expected and the guy is still built way bigger than the average guy who is busting his balls in the gym and taking loads of gear.

We can all learn from him too just as we can from Shredded, PScarb, Caymen, Nick, Sitries and all the other guys with a lot to offer. Extreme has an education, real world experience and this is his business so its his duty to keep learning and fortunately keep sharing what he knows and learns.

I know him personally and he has been a great help to me in my bodybuilding, in starting my shop and as a friend when I needed one, he tells the truth (a little bluntly at times) and wants to help.

But he's still a **** at times too.