Nothing is worse than waking up hours before work to do a training program you hate. The same can be said for getting done with a long day at work and then realizing that you still have to go to the gym. While discipline does factor in, the “grind” sets in sooner or later, and it isn’t always positive. This wear and tear can make you drop the training altogether and resent it as a whole. How can you feel like your activity destroys you mentally or physically?
In order to stay committed to a training program, you have to have a few key ingredients: interest and enjoyment.
Society will hop into fad training styles, just like they do with fad diets and anything else that is trending at the moment. It’s usually a game of how fast one can lose weight or get “shredded,” but thinking about the long game will help a ton.
What do I mean by this?
Think in terms of six months to a year.
If you start a new routine and after a few weeks doing it, you feel like you can’t possibly manage this for the next six months to a year, then maybe you need to make some minimal or maximal changes.
You have to find it worth investing time into and something that carries meaning. This does not mean that you should change your routine every time it gets hard or you happen to be having a bad day. It means that it is 100% OK to make adjustments, but sticking to the course will be easier when you have a good time with it.
Giving purpose to training makes it much more valuable. Fitness training can even make it enjoyable.
For most getting started, when they think of working out, they may see it as just body punishment to look good, but that is not the case. Finding something you love will not only create positive reinforcement for that activity, but it lets you build a long-term relationship with being active.
You don’t always have to strain yourself and push to the point of breakage.
II understand that not all things can be rainbows and sunshine with training, but we can make a positive outcome from it. If it doesn’t directly create joy for you, allow it to be something that leads to satisfaction. Maybe you love hiking or dancing, but you are fatigued halfway through a trip or a class and decide to get more cardio in. This training might not be the happiest thing in the world, but it can improve the quality of what you do love.
It’s about the long term and being dedicated to something worthwhile. You owe yourself to enjoy what you do, so find an activity or program you love and stick to it. Anything with consistency can yield results. Happiness helps with consistency.
About the author:
Jacob Mills is an experienced fitness professional who focuses on fitness, sports performance, pain mitigation, and movement. Jacob’s personal experiences and passions led him to pursue a career in fitness where he seeks to provide the highest quality coaching and to create the most positive impact on clients’ lives.
As a child, Jacob was always fascinated with working out and what it could do for your body. That interest grew after joining his high school football team when training became routine. From there, he found myself powerlifting while studying sports performance in college. Before graduating from the University of Cincinnati, he interned at Breakthrough, which led to coaching there and providing strength and conditioning for athletes. Since beginning his career at Breakthrough, he has also found himself expanding into the world of movement, pain mitigation, and recovery. He loves working with every type of client; from those working on weight control, to the person focusing on their health or recovery assistance, and even the beginner still discovering what their goals are. Because of his training background, he most enjoys working with athletes in need of strength and conditioning or pain mitigation.