Have you been languishing in the gym for months or even worse – years – with little or no progress? Here is the reason for your piss poor workouts.
Do you stroll through your workouts giving them no more attention than you do to waiting in line at the grocery store. Just another item on your “To Do” list for the day?
Well life is short, often unpredictably short, so quit wasting your damned time. If you aren’t getting stronger, faster, leaner, or bigger, just what the hell are you doing?
Here Are 5 Ways To Get Rid Of Piss-Poor Workouts Once And For All…
1. Have A Goal
Do you even know WHY you are at the gym? And don’t give me “to get bigger” or “to get ripped”. Go deeper than that. WHY do you want to get ripped, or bigger, or stronger? Is it to be found more attractive in the eyes of the opposite sex (or the same sex as the case may be)?
Is it to feel more confident and less intimidated by the school yard bully from years gone past? Identify the “why” and you can tolerate almost any “how”. The key is to get to the real-deal honest-to-goodness “why” and not the bullshit you tell yourself and others.
2. Get motivated
Now that you know why you are training, it’s time to summon the power of motivation. This can come in many forms. If you are a visual person, pictures are awesome.
I look at a picture of myself everyday when I was in tip top shape right next to a picture of one of my fitness heroes, Steve Maxwell.
The point is to find your own inspiration – to find your own hero. Why a hero? Because a hero is a person who has done what you seek to do. They have blazed the trail and they have left clues along the way that you can emulate on your own path to success.
3. Use Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s law is . . . . the time to complete a task expands or contracts to the time alloted for completion. Use this in two different formats.
First, give your goals a deadline such as you want to lose 20 pounds in 8 weeks. Second, and most important for taking your workouts out of the piss-poor realm, give yourself limited time to workout. And I’m talking LIMITED.
Personally, most of my training sessions are about 15 minutes long. 30 minutes is going to be about right for most. Anything over an hour is inefficient except in rare circumstances.
For the average Joe or Jane that reads this site, you should be able to get the job done in 30 minutes or less. Actually set a timer or keep track on your watch and don’t let yourself go over the time limit but commit to getting all of your planned training in during the allotted time.
4. Establish the ritual
If you are tracking all of your workouts (and you know you should be), you should have detailed notes of your training.
The good, the bad, and the ugly. Go back through all of the “good” and see what the common threads are. Maybe you didn’t record all of the details, but what you did record will help jog your memory. Maybe it was a certain playlist on your iPod. Maybe it was the time of day you trained.
Hell, maybe you wore the black Chuck Taylors instead of the blue ones. Whatever the details were that set you up for kick-ass training, reproduce them intentionally.
And I’m talking write out a checklist if you have to. iPod charged. . . check. Blue Chucks in gym bag. . . check. Whatever steps you need to take for your personal best beginner weight training, plan them out deliberately and reproduce them every time as best as possible.
5. Ditch Your Training Partner
Yep, fire his or her ass if they are holding you back.
In fact if you are in better shape than your training partner, fire them at least on a “temporary” basis. At least for one session per week you need to train with someone who is in better shape than you. I promise your training will push to another level the first session you have with someone who can make your most challenging lifts look like child’s play.
Why train if you’re not seeing any progress?
Stop the madness, take these five ways to get rid of piss-poor workouts to heart, and start achieving the body you really want and deserve.
If you’re in need of a proven workout plans for men, you should check out The 31 Day Challenge Manual 🙂
How do you break free of piss-poor workouts?
Let me know in the comments below.
Latest posts by Terry M (see all)
- Garage Gyms - Aug 1, 2018
- Kettlebells – Why They Should Be Added To Your Routine. - Jul 24, 2018
- Weight Belts: What Are They Really For? - May 31, 2018
The main thing that used to be for me (hopefully.) is that I couldn’t get motivated to go to the gym. Yeah…I knew I had to go. I knew I needed to get in shape. But those things didn’t make me go. I wanted to go…but I just didn’t. So I got rid of the things that were holding me back from going…and decided that if I’m going to do it…I’m going to do it. For 31 days. If I’m tired or sore or hurt or whatever…I’m going to do it. If it half-way kills me.
So my tip would be: just do it. No matter what…get out there and do it. Even though a piss-poor workout is still piss-poor…its still a workout.
Nice post – I had a quick peeka boo at Steve Maxewell’s site that you linked. His comments reminded me of the gym where I train – men working their biceps and triceps to destruction, and the women chained to the elliptical machines seems more like a recurring nightmare than a training session!
Great article! and eerily timely! Driving on the freeway today, I was scratching notes on the back of a Dr’s referral about ways to get my classes all psyched up and motivated. Number one on the list was defining WHY they are working out…so to get home today and see your post fleshing out my nascent ideas was very nice! and saved me some time!!!! thanks!!!!!! 🙂
Periodization! I set up my workouts, and right on the training log I’ll write down the specific exercise goals I’m aiming for so I’ll have the visual reinforcement each session. I’ve gotten in tune with my training and body to the point of knowing how long each training cycle should last. One other thing I do is always give myself about one week of active recovery between switching cycles.