Now that the calendar year has turned a new month a common theme has started to redevelop in the gym again…..it’s empty. I remember just a couple of weeks ago when I would walk into our training facility and I would literally have to wait 5-10 minutes just for a few precious square feet of gym real estate to open up so that I could train one of my groups. So what happened? Where did all the New Year’s Resolutioners go? The intentions were good, the motivation was high but the moment has officially passed.

I’ve also noticed that even some of the gym regulars have reduced their own training frequency again in the gym since the end of January. Did all of these people achieve their target health and fitness goals already? If they did, I would love to know their secret because it’s been well over 15 years since I first stepped foot in the gym and I’m still nowhere close to accomplishing what I set out to achieve.

To be in honest though, what I think really happened was that reality set it in. Life got hectic, work became stressful again and family just got in the way. Oh and perhaps there was a slight injury or two to go along with the justification of taking some time off from training. Now rather then sit here and judge or question as to why these people gave up and quit so early I think it would be more beneficial for me to try and provide you with a few of the tricks and ideas that I use to keep myself motivated and continue to train on a daily basis even when there is no fitness competition in sight or beach vacation around the corner.

So let’s start!

Make Training Your Job

Okay so obviously it’s fairly easy for me to tell someone to try and make training their job considering that I spend 80% of my waking hours in a gym telling people what to do (and get paid for it! Crazy right?). And by no means am I encouraging any of you to make a career change. I’m simply stating that if you start to take training as serious as you take your job then you might find it very difficult to skip a day or quit the gym all together (unless of course you are currently planning on quitting your job, in which case you probably shouldn’t refer to this analogy at the moment anyways…). My point is that if you were to continue to constantly miss workdays or only put in half hearted efforts when you were at work, you most likely would get fired, and rightfully so. Nobody likes or wants to get fired, so very few people would do this. Start treating you training session like your work and I guarantee that you’ll find it harder and harder to find excuses not to work out.

Make Training Part of Your Daily Routine

Traditionally human beings are creatures of habit. Most of us crave for some sort of routine. Sure it’s good to mix things up from time to time but for the most part we all have our little quirks and daily rituals that we like to follow. As boring or predictable as this may be it does provide most of us with some sense of comfort and well being knowing where we will be a which part of the day. Now I’ve said it a thousand times before and I’m sure I will say it a thousand times again – There are 24 hours in a day. There is absolutely no way that a person can be busy for all 24 hours of them. Many of our own clients are CEO’s, Doctors, Lawyers and Business Owners who have very demanding and stressful careers. Many of these people have families of their own yet still find the time in their day to get their butt into the gym. If this means waking up at 3:45am to get to their 5am training session with their trainer, they do it. If this means budgeting for a babysitter or daycare provider to look after their kids for an hour after work, they make it happen. If this means fitting in a quick workout in between meetings, they pack their gym outfit and a protein shake into their briefcases. If they can make fitness part of their daily routine then surely we can as well.

Uniquely Unique

It’s no secret that I like training. In fact I find that a good workout can be extremely therapeutic and is an excellent way to relive stress. However even I have to admit that there are times when the absolute last place I want to be is at the gym working out.  As rewarding and challenging a training session may be there are just some times when I either don’t have the energy or lack the motivation to get myself moving. These are the times where I really have to dig deep and find a way to self motivate myself. The one thing that gets me going is knowing that I’m doing something that the general population does not have the discipline or mind set to accomplish, especially when they are feeling tired and/or run down. I use always think of this when I need a good push forward when getting myself to that 4am cardio session or midnight madness workout becomes tough. It gives me some sense of power knowing that I am able to focus both mentally and physically on something that so many people would just give up on or not even attempt to try because of the difficulty of the task at hand. I also find the workouts that I don’t want to do to usually end up being the best workouts once I have completed them. For they not only test my physical limitations but more importantly they test my mental limitations. And there is nothing more gratifying and empowering to me then having a strong mind set.

Till Death Us Due Part

The one final mental technique that I continue to use to move forward with my training is that I constantly remind myself that working out is a lifetime commitment and not just a 3 month makeover to achieve that beach body look, at least it is for me anyways. I’m in this whole training game for the long run. Even though working out is my hobby and my job it’s also my way of life. Training my body on a regular basis keeps it strong and healthy. I don’t need to rely on a caffeine fix for energy nor do I have to constantly hit the snooze button to get myself out of bed (in fact, I usually wake up before my alarm even goes off). I never take sick days as I’m rarely sick and I can’t even remember the last time I had a sore back or sore anything for that matter! I don’t say any of this to brag or gloat, these are all just some of the benefits that I attribute to working out on a regular basis. So in hindsight, I guess one could say that the true reason I go to the gym is so that I can continue to live a healthy and productive life, kinda of selfish no?

I hope you have found my little tips and tricks to be helpful for you and encourage you to try and use them the next time you find yourself lacking the motivation and desire to get yourself to the gym for your next training session.

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove