Workout Motivation: 15 Reasons Other Than Looking Good
Nov 2nd, 2010 | By Todd Bowman | Category: Motivation
I have to admit I get the same question asked to me quite frequently. It’s a question that always surprises me but it’s also a question I can understand on a few levels. What strikes me as interesting is how many different types of people ask this quesiton. So what is it?
I get it all the time. I have to say I’ve been a warrior as far as this goes. I rarely miss working out. Ever since changing my diet I have only been sick 2 times since 2003. So I don’t miss the gym because I’ve got the flu or something.
If I go on vacation I’ll miss the gym obviously. But one of my favorite things to do is when I get back from a trip, I immediately hit the gym. Last year when I went to Australia (my wife and I go every winter to visit family in Sydney), we arrived back at 7am and I took a quick power nap and then I worked out for about an hour.
“To get something you never had, you must do something you never did.”
Many people need to get the motivation, get their mind right and decide they’ll workout on XYZ date. That’s actually fine. But for me, when I miss a lot of time like that, It’s more about the habit than it is about the actual workout. Once you get the habit down, then it becomes more about the workout than the habit.
For example, right when I get back from a long workout layoff, I’ll just go in the gym and lift really light weights and perhaps workout on the treadmill for the first couple of days. The point is to get the habit going again.
If I do not workout for a day or two, I can’t stand it. I’ve been workout out consistenly since 1996 so it’s pretty much just a part of me.
So, how do I stay so consistent? What is the trick to building that discipline?
Here are 10 ways to motivate yourself to lift weights.
Workout for your kids, wife or family
Many times we focus on ourself and our own personal goals. But how about your wife, husband or kids? Do you want to be in good shape for them? Do you want to not be a burden on them when you are older? How about attraction? Do you want them to look at you and be happy they are with you because they are actually still (after all these years) physically attracted to you?
Workout as an example to others
Be an example to others about how to take care of their bodies. When you pass on, other people should be able to say that you were a great example in many areas of your life, and physical fitness was one of the areas you mastered. Be an ispriration to others.
Workout for your longevity
Do you want to be alive when your 90? If you’re not doing anything about it to achieve that goal, do you think it’s just going to happen by chance? Let’s say by luck you live till your 90 while you abused your body ally our life. There’s a high chance you might still be alive but you’ll be in a rest home hopped up in 29 different medications. Why not live life to the fullest and be out golfing and having fun when you’re 90 instead of in a hospital bed.
Don’t waste your youth in the pursuit of money and then spend your final years in pursuit of health. Build habits now that will get you there.
Workout to help others
There’s something called Logotherapy I studied a while back. In a very small nutshell it has to do with the fact that you’re still alive, so life needs you. People need you. When you go to the gym, who could benefit from your presence there? Who’s life and day will be enhanced because you participated in it by interacting with them?
You never know who you could meet or what friend you can make or what person you might be able to help or inspire if you skip going to the gymt that day.
Workout to prevent heart attacks
Everybody knows that cardiovascular training and aerobic training are great for the heart. But recently the Amercian Medical Association (AMA) released a study that says moderate weight lifting increases bone density, increases muscular strength, improves quality of life, increases lean body mass.
According to Dr. Mark Williams chairman of the American Heart Association (AHA): “Just like we once learned that people with heart disease benefited from aerobic exercise, we are now learning that moderate weight training also has significant benefits.”
As of 2005 cancer and heart disease are the #1 and #2 killers in the United States. Lifting weights and working out help reduce the risk of both of those diseases significantly.
Workout to improve other sports
If you play sports, like basketball, baseball, hockey or even do sports such as tennis, wrestling or running, lifting weights and increasing your muscle mass will help you be better at those sports. There is no doubt that the best and most skilled atheletes all incorporate some sorty of weight training routines into their daily regimens.
If you want to be better than the next guy at whatever sport your doing, gaining muscle is going to be critical for taking your body and career to the next level.
Workout to meet your goals
Why do I go to the gym? Simple. Let’s say I have a goal of bench pressing 250 pounds by the months end. Right now I don’t do split routines but let’s say I were doing a split workout routine 6 days a week. That means I only workout each body part twice per week. If I miss my chest workout today, then next week I probably won’t be able to lift what I’m supposed to because I missed today’s chest workout.
In other words each workout depends on the last one. If you make a goal where you are supposed to lift a certain amount of weight each time you go into the gym, you’ll be less likely to skip or miss any one workout.
If you’re able to reach your goals for a workout routine, what else are you capable of in life?
Workout to develop discipline
Discipline is the number one trait that seperates the men from the boys. It’s what makes some people successful and others not successful in life. By being able to will yourself to do something when you really don’t want to and when everybody else is going out having fun but you develop your discipline, you invest in yourself.
Every single time you make that decision to take action and have discipline, you’re growing in power and success. Developing life long habits and daily disciplines is one of the most important skills you can ever master.
The great thing about developing discipline is that it has a snowball effect. Once you do it in one area of your life (like fitness or diet) it carries over into other areas of your life like finances, relationships, family etc.
Working out to develop discipline is like creating new neuro pathways in your brain that help you to rewire how your brain works. It’s basically setting you up for success. Each day you do this, it gives you power, it changes you in just a small way. It’s like waves crashing against a cliff. You don’t notice any difference in the cliff from one day to the next, but come back in 5 years and see how that cliff has changed shape. What will you look like in 5 years?
If you workout as a tool to start developing disciplines in your life, you’ll be shocked at how your whole life can change in 1 year from now.
Workout to see what else you’re capable of
Are you intersted in human potential? How about becoming the best version of yourself? Sometimes when I don’t want to go to the gym, the one thing that actually motivates me is this thought: “Today I must be better than I was yesterday.” Why not see how strong you can be, how flexible you can be, how cardiovascularly fit you can be? Why not push yourself to the extreme limits of self imposed endurance just to see what you’re made of?
Imagine reaching goals you thought were never possible? Imagine losing 50 pounds of toxic dead weight, or think about what you would look like with 25 pounds of solid muscle on your frame?
Workout for your self esteem
If you’re not willing to workout based on how you look, you may want to consider working out to feel better and more confident. If you think about it, it’s kind of an endless cycle of goodness. The more you workout, the better body you will have. You’ll gain muscle, lose fat, have more energy and you’ll start looking better in your clothes. When that starts happening, it makes you excited. But what it really does is build character. It does this emotionally because you knew what it took to achieve these goals.
You took action and actually made changes to your physical appearance. This give you confidence. You understood the hard work, the sweat, the discipline and agony you put yourself through at the gym to reach these goals. When you realize that you’re starting to seperate yourself from the population into the “elite category”, that gives you confidence and self esteem.
Workout to be well rounded
Nobody likes to be one dimensional. In order to truly be successful every area of one’s life must be successful. It does no good to be rich from a financial perspective, but fat and out of shape. I see people all the time who have the best bodies in the entire gym but their marriage is falling apart. Or a church leader who leads his church but has a poor home life. I see this kind of stuff all the time.
Working out and lifting weights gives you control over 1 aspect of your life. And when you start getting that area of your life working well, you’ll be more motivated to work on other areas of your life. Do this for 5 years and you’ll be ripped and strong, you’ll have all the money you need, you’ll have an awesome family and love life, what more could a guy ask for?
Using working out and taking care of your physique as a stepping stone for greatness in ALL areas of your life.
Workout to be succesful
There is no way around it, the most successful people (not just financailly speaking) have a program to take care of their bodies and they stick to it. It’s a recipe for success because it helps build daily disciplines like we previously discussed.
Workout to detox
Detoxing your body is critical for long term health. If you want to live a long time, you need to open up the pathways to get rid of poisions and toxing throughout your body. The main avenues of elimination are the skin, the lungs, the lymphatic system, the liver, the kidneys, the colon and the urinary tract.
The skin is your body’s largest organ. If you sweat it helps to get rid of these toxins we get from living a modern lifestyle. The more you sweat, the more toxins you get rid of. “But Todd, I don’t sweat that much when I workout.” My suggestion is twofold. You need to workout much harder and really push yourself with the weights. Number two, you need to get your blood checked. People who don’t sweat typically have a heavy metal load in their blood. Search for a microscopist in your area.
By weight lifting on a regular basis you increase your digestion as well. The colon helps moving and become more regular thus eliminating even more debris from your body. Workout out helps to detox and it’s something you should consider if you want to live a long healthy disease free life.
Workout for injury prevention
Every professional athlete will workout in the gym specifically to prevent injuries. If you build muscle and get stronger, you’re going to be healthy and fit while the other guy is nursing swollen tissue or recovering from a torn ACL in their knee.
If your’e talented ahtletically don’t waste that tallent by not working hard in the gym. Remember, youre competition is probably working out right now. What are you doing?
Workout to meet meet inspirational people
Every time I go into the gym I always meet or see inspiring people. Whether it’s the guy in the wheelchair who cannot walk and is crippled for life, or the overweight 85 year old grandma who recently decided she needs to make some changes and begin a weight loss workout routine for herself. Think about the kind of guts and willpower it takes to join a gym and learn a whole new fitness pattern at that age?
Or think about the what motivates the guy who can’t walk. What motivates him? Do you think that if he were able to walk, he’d be sitting down watching TV? He’d probably be working out much harder than he can. Here you are totally healthy, with a generally healthy body with all your facalties and you’re finding it hard to get motivation for working out.
The very fact that we GET to workout is motivation enough. Having a body that can lift weights, do crunches and bench press is absolutely incredible. Don’t waste that on apathy. There are lots of people who would kill for the opportunity to have just one day in your body so that they could run and jump and maybe workout. Don’t take it for granted.
Workout to look good
Last but not least. This is the #1 reason people workout. So they can get a tight butt, firm chest or rock hard abs. This should be the least motivating factor but it still is a good one. Imagine looking sexy in skin tight jeans. Or guys think about how cool it would be to have a ripped upper body. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be the buffest guy in the gym and have people look up to you and and ask you for workout advice?
How great would it be to go to the beach and rock the swimsuit? To walk down on the sand and just know that other people wish they had your body. Well they can’t because you worked extremely hard for it and they just don’t have that kind of will power and discipline.
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to attract hotter looking guys or girls? Well you can, if you put the effort in. It’s that simple, it just comes down to effort and discipline and you can have anything you want.
Did you notice that the first 4 items on the list have to do with other people and not yourself? Did you also notice that the #1 readon most people workout (to look good) is one of my least motivating factors. Although it is still a factor it’s not what drives me.
Let’s face it, there will be days when you are exhausted from work and you eat your dinner and you’re so tired you can barely move and it’s raining outside. The last thing you want to do is hop in the car and drive to the gym to lift weights.
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