How to motivate yourself to train harder!

They say that the most important thing about training is turning up and doing it. Generally I agree with this statement, but there will come a point in most people's journey's where they are training regularly and hitting a plateau or feel they are lacking motivation to really push themselves.

The way I see it, this is the point between having a workout and training. In the past you have turned up, completed your programme and left the gym; without really giving any consideration as to what you are looking to achieve.

This is the transition point between having the mentality of beginner and  the mentality of an athlete. You cannot achieve your potential with a beginner mentality, in fact you may never achieve anything at all.

That's right, in order to achieve everything you would like to you have to have the mentality of someone who achieves big things. You cannot be comfortable where you are, or take comfort from outperforming the others around you.

Do not be the big fish in a small pond. Turn up to the gym with the intention to give it 100% and if that doesn't make you nervous then you have never really given 100%.




I believe that everyone can stand to train with more intensity, you can always give more. Here's how to motivate yourself to do it:

Pre-workout meditation

Meditation is a very powerful tool, and what I'm referring to is not humming with your legs crossed and thinking of calm fields. Meditation is simply inducing an altered state of consciousness.

What I am suggesting you do is to find a way to illicit the aggressive, determined state of mind which you need to push yourself. You can do this in a number of ways:

• Listening to fast paced/motivational music
• Mentally picturing yourself training incredibly hard. Imagine what it will feel like to make that lift or hit that heart rate.
• Tell yourself how great you are, and mean it. No-one I know of did it better than Mohammed Ali. Whether he was right or not he was utterly convinced he was unbeatable.

• Write down a critical appraisal of your training. How much effort did you give. Make sure you do include positives but you have to be harsh because no one should have higher standards of yourself than you own, there is always plenty room for improvement.
• If you aren't able to train as hard as you can then don't. Don't train because it says so on a piece of paper. Take a rest day and then give it 100% tomorrow.
• This is the hardest decision to make. If you feel the same way tomorrow then you are not getting the point and are just avoiding training because you don't want to. It will take time to be able to make this decision properly but if you are committed then you will learn.