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Keeping it up! Why Working Out is Important


Why is working out important? Instead of going through the laundry list, let’s look at this differently.

So, you’ve started your workout routine. You’ve maybe missed a few days, then a week, then a month, and now you’re just not motivated anymore.

Rest assured, you’re in good company. Lots of people start working out then burn out after a while. Instead of being discouraged, take a different perspective.

Failure is an option.

Failure is the reason why working out is important.

About Failure

Our modern world criticizes mistakes and exploits weakness. Same is true with business competition, defeating the enemy on a battlefield, or even tests in school. We’re conditioned to believe that we’re not worth it if we fail at something.Failure

And that bleeds, no, hemorrhages into our excuses to why we’re unable to maintain a workout routine. Just because you missed a day, week, month, YEAR that doesn’t mean that you’re not worth another shot.

If you feel like you’ve failed to maintain a workout routine, shake it off, cry a little (or a lot…it’s ok), throw a pillow, and then at the end of the day you still can make the decision to make fitness a part of your life.

And here’s another spoiler: once you start working out, you’ll miss more days. You’ll fail. But instead of being discouraged about your failure, how about rising up and just making that decision to do it?

Failure in Fitness

Fitness is all about failure. It’s about reaching the brink of human capacity and then showing you can still do a little more. Why do you think sports are so exciting to watch? It’s about stretching the human ability to accomplish incredible things.

I know most of us Garage Gym Goers aren’t going to be the next Micky Mantle or Serena Williams, but think about it for a minute? What have they accomplished? How hard did they work to get to where they are? Do you think they failed a time or two?

BaseballIn baseball, a great batting average is above .300. You’re CRUSHING it at the sticks by getting a hit only 3 out of every 10 at bats. That’s 30%…enough for an F on an exam. If professional baseball players are failing 7/10 times at the plate, then I think we’re good to fail as well.

One of my favorite exercises is push up burnouts. I want to see how many I can do before my arms totally give out. That stretches MY physical capacity to the point where I can do no more. But then again, I know I can.

Fitness is all about pushing yourself and your limits. It’s pretty exciting when you reach a new height. There’s a euphoric feeling when you do more reps than last time, or break your personal record on a run, or squat more than you ever have.

So, if you find yourself struggling to work out, visualize yourself breaking a personal record and that feeling of accomplishment. It’s all about working to improve your capacity as a person, no matter where you are in fitness.

Motivation

There’s intrinsic motivation (inside of you) and extrinsic motivation (outside influences). I just talked about an intrinsic motivator by visualizing yourself. But there are other internal struggles that go on before going to work out.

Pushing yourself can be difficult if you’ve never had to do that. You might just have to put it on the calendar and do it no matter how tired you are. When you’re working out and you don’t want to do it anymore, all you have to think about is that next minute…the next rep…then next step.

Think in little steps. The more little steps you do, you’ll end up doing an entire workout. I know I’ve talked about this before, but it means so much more now when you’re motivating yourself.

So, what about extrinsic motivation? That’s where your workout buddies come in. Women do this so much better than men do. My wife goes to a mommy workout group. They have a set schedule every day for their workout usually at a park. She goes, works out, then plays at the playground with the kids afterwards.

Fitness classes are a great motivator as well. Participating in shared struggle increases the likelihood that you will increase your fitness habit.

If you’re unable to go anywhere, invite a friend to workout with you. I’ve had some of the best conversations with people while I’ve worked out.

I once had a boss at work, who took a morning and worked out with me. He was a very busy person, in charge of hundreds of people under his watch. He sought me out because I was struggling, and the time he took to exercise with him changed my perspective about my job. He motivated me to do better.

Same goes for you. With technology now days, you don’t even have to be in the same room. Call each other on your favorite video chat app/program, set a routine, and do it. Doing a workout video together will even encourage you to continue your routine. Social media has accountability groups you can join or create. Try one out and see if that works for you.

So, use your friends, co-workers, acquaintances, or anyone else who wants to join you. They’ll applaud your efforts to be a better you.

Maintain Your Fitness Routine

I went over a lot of stuff, and it might seem jumbled. If you don’t remember anything, just remember these things:

-Failure is an option. If you fail, do it again.

-Find a friend to workout with if you can.

-When you’re working out, and don’t want to, concentrate on one rep, set, or step until you’re fully engaged

Alright, Garage Gym Goers, I hope you continue doing your fitness routines! Let me know about your failures and how you overcame them down below in the comments. If you haven’t overcome your failures, comment below and we’ll see what we can do to help you out! Thanks!


Bobby

7 Comments

  1. Hello, Bobby and thank you for the article. I know that my failure to workout begins and ends daily with my inability to consume the calories needed. What advice could you give me(maybe a trick or two?) to help get me over the hump of simply consuming the calories and protein needed to even consider working out?

    • Joseph,
      That’s a great question! Nutrition is vital to getting good results. For starters, start by eating three good meals per day. Sit down, and eat. No rushing on that, because when you rush you’ll forego parts of your meal, which can add some calories for your energy later on.
      Next, eat some simple carbs just before a workout: bread, a banana, an apple, grapes to give you energy to burn. Think of that pre-workout food as dry leaves on a fire. It’ll burn fast for when you need it.
      After your workout, eat some protein and carbs together. Eggs do well for protein, toast and milk should do.
      Later in the day you can snack on things that’ll put some calories in you. Mostly nuts, dried fruit, other fruit you like…
      I hope that helps! I know caloric intake is a big one when it comes to working out. I hope that’ll point you in the right direction.

  2. Hello Bobby,
    I am one of the guys who love to do a workout in the gym. I normally enrolled myself for at least a minimum of 6 months to get a discount on the fee. But the problem with me is I normally lost my drive going through my workout every day. Sometimes I only go to my gym 3 times a week. There is nobody to motivates me. Thank you for reaching me out in your article and I found it very informative, especially to a person like me. Maybe you could give a piece of advise on how can I deal more seriously with my workout.

    • Hadrian,
      Yes yours is a valid concern. How do I keep doing my workouts when I don’t have someone to motivate me?
      I’ve found that tracking my progress has helped to intrinsically motivate me. It doesn’t have to be much. Give yourself a goal, say I want to bench press 150lbs (or 68kg) three times. Then start marking your progress. Make a note in your phone of how much you’re doing each workout. Then once you reach your goal, go reward yourself: maybe a movie you’ve wanted to see, a favorite treat, or an outing with friends.
      That has helped to motivate me from my daily workout grind. If you have something to work towards, then you’re more likely to go and do it. So, that would be my advice to you:) Start tracking your progress and see yourself get better. Let me know how it goes!
      Bobby

  3. Great advise Bobby. I fail all the time. My husband is my workout buddy. We started with planking for a month, by the fourth week I felt so good. I did it!

    However, my work hours changed and for two weeks I was so exhausted from work that I didn’t want to exercise anymore.

    I don’t know I think it has been 3 months since I worked out or go out for a walk. Now that summer started and our temperatures are in triple digits I don’t feel like doing anything.

    Lol I know it’s an excuse but I will start today with my daughter she’s back and maybe all three of us can tackle the heat together.

    Thank you for the motivation.

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