The feeling that you are in control of your choices and actions is known as autonomy.

Building long-term motivation and consistent exercise habits are the most valuable things you can do for yourself. Many mindset shifts can help you achieve those goals, and here I’ll address an important one: taking ownership of your exercise.

The feeling that you are in control of your choices and actions is known as autonomy.

According to the Self-Determination Theory¹, autonomy is one of the three primary factors for creating intrinsic motivation.

It’s the type of motivation that comes from enjoying the activity itself, and it’s the best type of motivation for sticking to an exercise program.

The Power of Autonomy

A 2009 study² had participants exercise on a treadmill for 30 minutes. In the first session, they could adjust the treadmill speed to whatever they liked. They couldn’t see the control panel display, so they didn’t know precisely the rate.

About a week later, they came back and did another 30 minutes on the treadmill. This time the participants were told that the researchers were going to set the speed for them.

They didn’t know that the researchers set the treadmill to the same speed that the participant had chosen in the first session.

Before, during, and after the exercise, the participants rated their enjoyment and motivation. Even though they were doing the same workout, they enjoyed it more and felt more motivated when choosing their speed.²

Other research backs this up. Many studies have examined the relationship between cardio intensity and how pleasurable or enjoyable the exercise is. These studies have found that exercise changes from pleasant to unpleasant for most people around the ventilatory threshold or lactate threshold.³

Those two thresholds are slightly different, but they both correspond to the point at which you start breathing heavily.

An Exception to the Ventilatory Threshold

When you pass that point, your workout starts to feel unpleasant. That means interval training, sprinting, or other high-intensity workouts are usually not enjoyable, at least not while you’re doing it. Interestingly, though, there is an exception.

• In research studies, the researchers usually control the treadmill speed or incline during the experiments. Once they increase the speed past that heavy breathing threshold, participants start to dislike the exercise they’re doing.
• In a couple of studies, though, participants were allowed to choose their exercise intensity. When people increased their intensity to or past the heavy breathing point, they didn’t experience that same decrease in pleasure. It still felt good to them.
• In one of those studies, for example,19 women did three treadmill tests.⁴ The researchers set the treadmill intensity in two trials, once below their lactate threshold and once above it. They also did a third test where they were allowed to set the intensity themselves. During each test, they rated how the exercise felt.

On average, they chose an intensity around their lactate threshold.

That intensity should decrease exercise enjoyment, but these participants rated the exercise as feeling much better when setting the treadmill themselves than in either of the other tests. In interviews afterward, they talked about feeling in control and making their own choice as one reason the exercise felt better to them.

When they chose their intensity, they were also more confident that they could handle the exercise and felt it was just challenging enough for them.

Those feelings could describe competency or your belief in yourself and your abilities, which is another one of the three factors in developing intrinsic motivation.

Some people worry that if they choose their exercise intensity without pushing the limits, they won’t exercise hard enough to get the benefits they want. That wasn’t the case in this study.

Exercising at your lactate threshold is enough to improve fitness and get the many health benefits of exercise.

These participants weren’t regular exercisers. They were only eligible for the study if they had exercised less than once a week for six months.

Consistent exercisers usually self-select higher intensities than non-exercisers do, so they would be even more likely to choose (and enjoy) higher intensity exercise, which has even more significant potential to improve their health and fitness.

What Does This Mean for You?

You can improve your motivation and be more likely to exercise consistently just by changing your mindset and reframing your exercise experience:

Exercise is a gift; you don’t have to exercise. You get to exercise.

Furthermore, you get to choose the exercise you do. Take ownership of your workout by deciding for yourself which exercises you will do, how you will structure the exercises, and how hard you’ll work.

Basic Guidelines for Effective Exercise Are Flexible

There are basic guidelines for effective exercise, but there is a lot of flexibility in those guidelines. Anyone can learn enough about exercise to make their own exercise choices safely and effectively.

• Do some cardio, use heavyweights to push, pull, squat, and hinge, and move as much as you can throughout each day. Choose a way to move and lift that you enjoy.
• If you need more guidance in the form of a made-for-you program or a group class or trainer, at least take ownership of your movement within that program.
• Choose the program based on your goals, and learn about the exercises so you can understand why you’re doing them.

If nothing else, take ownership of each movement as you do it. When it’s time to sprint, don’t think,

“Ugh, my trainer says it’s time to go all-out, so I have to do it now.” Instead, think, “I’m choosing to go all-out right now because I know it will benefit me.”

Choose to exercise:

• Because it’s going to make you feel good (afterward, if not during)
• Because it’s going to give you a sense of pride and achievement
• Because it’s going to help you get a little fitter so you can have more energy to do the things you love

Overall, remember that you are in charge of your choices, so choose to do something great for yourself and get moving.

References:

1. Teixeira, Pedro J., Eliana V. Carraça, David Markland, Marlene N. Silva, and Richard M. Ryan. “Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: a systematic review.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 9, no. 1 (2012): 1-30.

2. Vazou-Ekkekakis, Spiridoula, and Panteleimon Ekkekakis. “Affective consequences of imposing the intensity of physical activity: Does the loss of perceived autonomy matter?” Hellenic Journal of Psychology 6, no. 2 (2009): 125-144.

3. Ekkekakis, Panteleimon, Gaynor Parfitt, and Steven J. Petruzzello. “The Pleasure and Displeasure People Feel When They Exercise at Different Intensities.” Sports Medicine 41, no. 8 (2011): 641-671.

4. Rose, Elaine A., and Gaynor Parfitt. “A quantitative analysis and qualitative explanation of the individual differences in affective responses to prescribed and self-selected exercise intensities.” Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 29, no. 3 (2007): 281-309.

The post Take Ownership of Your Exercise Habits To Build Better Motivation appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I set a lot of physical goals. I feel like I have to keep from being a fraud given my job. I’ve woken up more days where I was disinterested in following through than not. I don’t repeat affirmations or watch videos of hero workouts set to motivational music. I flip on Casablanca.

It’s a classic love story, an old-time motion picture. It’s also a commentary on what’s required for an actual virtuous act of sacrifice.

Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, owns a nightclub in Casablanca, Morocco a still neutral territory, around the time of World War II. Both German officials and European refugees made their way to Casablanca. Many of the refugees were trying to get passage to the United States who had not yet entered the war.

Before owning his nightclub, Rick was in Paris where he met a woman, Ilsa Lund, played by Ingrid Bergman. They fell in love but she had to leave suddenly for reasons he never understood.

Years later she shows up at his bar, with her husband. She had been married when she and Rick shared their romance in Paris but had thought her husband was dead after being captured by Nazis. He was a very high profile person leading the resistance to Nazi occupation.

Ilsa reluctantly left Rick in Paris when she found out her husband was still alive. She did not love her husband as she loved Rick but felt it was her duty to be by his side.

When Ilsa walked into his club, Rick was understandably upset to see her. But the two eventually met alone and both confessed that they still loved each other. They began planning how they would be together, letting Ilsa’s husband, Victor, to go on to his work leading the resistance without her.

As he planned this, Rick was told in confidence by those who knew Victor, how important the work he was doing was and how he needed Ilsa to follow through on it. She was an impetus for him. Victor himself explained how the thought of her kept him going while he was captured.

Rick is visibly torn. He wants to be with Ilsa above everything else but he knows what must be done and comes up with a new plan without telling Ilsa. Rick makes arrangements for a small plane to leave secretly from Casablanca for Victor without the authorities being aware. The city had already become too dangerous for Victor to stay and he was needed elsewhere.

Ilsa believed the plan was for her and Rick to get Victor to the plane and send him off alone. At the movie’s climax, Victor thanks Rick and gets on the plane believing Ilsa will follow. She stays behind and turns to Rick expecting him to take her away and for the pilot to leave without her.

But Rick instead tells her to get on the plane. He explains they are likely to be captured if she stays with him and thrown in a concentration camp and that he won’t allow that for her. He goes on to tell her that she is part of Victor’s work. And how this work and what it will lead to is more important than the problems of three individual people.

There’s the story. The something that changes my habitual actions and not just my attitude for the day. Stories highlight some fundamental truth that can be almost impossible to explain straight out.

Understanding truth changes behavior and action for good. And this is far more valuable than fleeting inspiration you get from contrived motivational speeches or exciting action movies.

Rick tells Ilsa, in one of the most famous lines in cinema, that If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.

Some people like to be seen as martyrs. They feel like it justifies their personal inaction. It’s usually tied to some addiction to chaos and attention-seeking behavior.

The sincere ability to look at a situation removed from your own perspective and desires, like Rick did, and act for the benefit of the greatest number in the most significant way, is uncommon.

Rick has a definiteness of purpose and is unwavering in making the most difficult of decisions. He didn’t make himself a sad martyr. He saw only what had to be done for the greatest good, despite himself.

The story shines a light on the truth, a guiding principle to live from. Something that could create better habits and frame of mind. It’s what all the great movies do. It’s what all great books do. Because it’s the story that connects itself to us.

I could watch this movie and take more pieces of the story each time I do. It’s a movie mapped out like a great book. Its story. I love story. And I’ve made it a point to find and watch these kinds of movies. Just like great books, they relax some nagging angst in me. The kind that shows up on a Sunday night.

Without a doubt, one of Will Smith’s finest performances is in The Pursuit of Happyness. And without a doubt one, of the best movies after Casablanca to drive me to train and to keep moving on. Based on the true story of Christopher Gardner, the movie shows how a man can make poor decisions for much of his life, reach a new depth, and still reach ambitions.

The movie starts with Chris’s wife leaving him and his young son. They are working-class people who fall on hard times after Chris makes a poor decision to sell medical equipment no one wants to buy. Chris’ wife leaves without much warning leaving him alone, to provide for their son and maintain a roof over their heads.

They lose their apartment and he takes his son to live in motels, homeless shelters, and in the lowest, deeply stirring part of the movie, he spends a night riding the subway and finally in a storage room at a train station. The scene speaks to the very nature of human vulnerability. He’s holding his son tightly in his arms, crying, with complete desperation in his eyes.

But then, Chris illustrates the indomitable spirit of humanity and the potential in us all. He convinces his son this whole experience can be a game. And by doing that, he protects his son’s innocence and his faith that dad is stronger than the world around them. Chris may not believe it himself, but he keeps his son’s belief.

The very next morning, he walks out of that storage room and goes back to working even harder. The night was intensely disturbing but he only let himself have one night of despair. He climbs out of his hell and alters everything necessary to keep him and his son away from that storage room door.

I’ve dealt with people putting me down and situations that were stacked against me. But no person or thing antagonizes me as I do myself. My own obsessive thoughts keep me up at night, not the opinions that others have of me. I’m consumed with what I haven’t done yet. There’s someplace I haven’t gotten to, that I should be. I’ve tried all the ways to be kind to myself and learn to be present but it’s not until I see or read a story like Chris’ that I understand that the story always has moments where we have to spend a night in hell.

Chris doesn’t stop there, he endures sleepless nights and public ridicule to make some money for him and his son and begins an internship with only a slight chance of leading to a secure, paid position and one in which he many people say he’s not suited for.

In another stand out scene, Chris narrates how he was able to work twice as fast as his peers. He figured out the best times to call potential clients, works through lunchtimes, and even refuses to drink water during his workday so that he won’t have to leave his phone to use the bathroom.

He does all of this out of necessity. The other interns are younger, they have only this responsibility. He has to leave earlier to pick up his son. There were months he had to leave even earlier to stand on a line for homeless shelter so his son could have a bed to sleep in.

And that can sum up the lesson that can be taken from the movie – necessity. As you may have guessed, he gets the position and goes on to become very wealthy. And it’s true of the real Christopher Gardner.

There were circumstances thrust on his life. Some, maybe from mistakes he made, but some because the world is unforgiving. It would be understandable if he became a miserable, depressed person, resentful of everyone and everything, and given up completely.

But he had his son to take care of, and in his mind, he needed to keep going and not lose his faith, and that’s what he did. Acting from necessity can bring out the potential in you that seems limitless if you can act despite all the feelings of hopelessness.

My nights in hell make me feel isolated. But watching this movie and seeing this same story told over and over reminds me that it’s a part of this whole big long narrative. To see the story of a man who traveled so far down, and see how the best of us can still come after.

Have you ever watched The Lion King as an adult? Not the new one, the original animated movie. Even if you don’t have kids and don’t appreciate the humor, watch it again. It’s a masterpiece. The story was written so thoughtfully with fully developed examples of fundamental themes found throughout countless epic tales.

It closely follows the outline of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey which is a model for just about every great story of a champion.

One of the most significant moments of the movie is when Simba, has his initiation, as Campbell describes it, to be called forward as a hero. He’s already been called out by Nala and led through a symbolically dark place by Rafiki.

Then Rafiki tells him to look in the water to see his father. He looks and sees only his reflection, but after being told to look harder, he sees his deceased father in his own reflection.

This follows another fundamental theme in the story of a hero story. He sees the man he could be – a good, competent, brave king, as his father was. It’s a perfect example of a fundamental theme of a hero story.

After being told to “take his place” by his father who speaks to him from the clouds, he crosses the desert to face his greatest trial, his uncle Scar, and restore his kingdom.

If you watch this movie carefully, through this lens, you can see most of Joseph Campbell’s philosophy on the story of what makes up a hero. And the ideas were and are and always will be a model to live by. Seeing your own story as this makes you grateful for what you’ve done and learned and helps keep your faith to keep moving forward.

I grew up watching all of the Rocky movies and enjoying every one of them. But the first is by far the greatest story. It wasn’t an action movie. It wasn’t even really about boxing or training. It was about a man ho had lost hope that the vision he once had for his life was now impossible.

At the beginning of the movie, it seems Rocky has no chance of crawling out from the hole he put himself in. His mistakes were too many and his apathy for change too strong. But as the movie goes on, it reveals two main messages.

The first is that when you find something to use as a force to pivot the direction of your life, have faith that you’re not too far gone. For Rocky, he had both Adrian, his girlfriend, and the extremely serendipitous and remarkably unexpected offer to fight the heavyweight boxing champion of the world.

Adrian was his first chance at some sort of redemption. After many asks, she finally agreed, with a little prodding from her brother, to go out with Rocky. She’s extremely hesitant, but the two begin a relationship.

And with the positivity of having her in his life, he begins cleaning up his life, metaphorically and literally, even improving his appearance. He doesn’t waste the gift he sees in Adrian and this may be the first time in his life he’s ever done this.

After this, he’s called to meet with a fight promoter and offered a shot at the heavyweight title, he refuses at first but is told to think about how this is the chance of a lifetime.

You can see the conflict in Rocky’s eyes as he sits listening in silence. He knows he doesn’t necessarily deserve the opportunity. But as he had just done with Adrian, he takes a step with faith that this is something he can use to change the direction of his life and takes the fight.

The second message is to remain sober in thought while moving forward after drastic change. Not only will failures still come, but they need to be expected and accepted.

And in this acceptance, you need to make an agreement with yourself that you’ll still get up even when you’re getting beat to shit, and you’ll go the distance.

The night before his fight, Rocky tells Adrian that he knows he will lose the fight, that he really has no business being in the same ring as the champ. But he tells her that he just wants to go the distance with him.

He wants to finish the fight without giving up, without being knocked out. He may be knocked down, but he wants to keep getting up and finish, however bad.

Accepting the ugliness of it all, with what needs to be done and with what’s inside you, is how you’ll be able to Eat lightning, and crap thunder, like Mickey, Rocky’s trainer says.

Did you know that Bill Murray created a workout video to support his local gym?

Groundhog Day is definitely not an action movie. It may be a comedy, but there’s much more to it, things that you find between the lines. Bill Murray plays Phil Conners, a cynical weatherman who is assigned to cover the annual Groundhog Day Event in a quiet little Pennsylvania town.

He despises the job and hates the town. He plans to drive back to the city with the producer and cameraman after recording but he has to stay the night because of a bad snowstorm that he, the weatherman, ironically did not know was coming.

The next day he wakes up and finds that he’s reliving the same day over. And to his horror, this continues. Every night he goes to sleep and wakes up to the exact same day. Everyone else in the town does the same thing every day and he is the only one who knows this day is repeating.

It quickly starts to drive him crazy. He begins to do carry out whatever crazy impulse he has because there are no consequences. The next day he’ll wake up and everything he’s done is erased. He lives out fantasies, breaks the law, manipulates people and situations for his own entertainment and pleasure.

Soon, he becomes bitter, resentful, and hopeless that he’ll ever escape this time loop and tries to kill himself. But he wakes up the next morning in the same bed, on the same day. He grows truly sadistic and begins to kill himself in every way possible.

Eventually, he sits down with the producer who came to the town with him for the Groundhog story and tells her the truth of what he’s been experiencing.

Very surprisingly, she believes him. He asks her what she would do if she had an eternity, and she tells him that she would see it as a gift instead of a curse. A gift to make the most of and grow into the greatest possible good from. Learn, experience, put out good in the world, even if it’s never noticed or remembered.

And that’s what he begins to do, every repeating day. He learns languages and instruments. He reads great works of literature and poetry. He acquires skills that make him useful in every situation to every person.

He even finally learns to love someone, more than himself. He falls in love with Rita, the producer, and acts in selfless love. And this is when the spell is broken.

We can see every day in negatively as being just another boring, drab day. Or we can see every day as an opportunity to add more to ourselves and reduce the bad that we have the potential to put out in the world. And we should have more urgency to begin this now because we can’t live a single day a thousand times over

Cinderella Man isn’t just another boxing movie, it is, instead, a beautiful drama about the true story of James J. Braddock’s Depression-era struggles to provide for his family.

Braddock begins as a promising boxing contender. But after injuries and bad luck, he’s no longer offered fights and is forced to walk away from boxing to work on the loading docks to make ends meet.

Things get worse and they can no longer pay to keep the heat on or buy enough food for all of the kids. His wife sends their kids to stay with her sister who is in a better financial situation.

Braddock can’t stand letting his family be pulled apart and, much to his own self-shame has to ask for money from fight promoters and trainers that used to admire him for his ability as a fighter. You can see the shame and reluctance that he feels in his eyes. It almost destroys him but he knows he must do anything to take care of his family.

After some time, he’s offered a fight very unexpectedly. He immediately jumps at the opportunity. He does well and to his surprise gets more fights.

In one of the most moving scenes of the movie, Braddock’s mouthpiece is knocked out by his opponent in the ring. Blood is splattered on the canvas.

As Braddock regains his composure and goes to get his mouthpiece, the movie cuts to his memory from just a few months before the fight when his kids were shivering under blankets in an apartment with no heat and too little food.

Blood in his mouth he turns and looks at the man standing across from him and smirks at him with a bloody mouth. He picks up his mouthpiece and puts it back in his mouth seemingly unphased. His opponent who thought he had gotten the best of Braddock, now looks terrified.

This physical pain was nothing to Braddock, the challenge wasn’t real to him. He had been through real challenges, experienced real pain. He never had a single thought of giving up because nothing was worse than seeing his kids suffer.

Nothing could hurt him more than this thought, nothing could beat him down harder. He knew he’d receive money for his family and that’s all that mattered. The challenge of the man trying to hit him was nothing in comparison to the challenges he’d faced trying to care for and keep his family together. And that’s the great truth to be taken.

He who has a why to live, can bear almost any how

– Friedrich Nietzsche

It’s a Wonderful Life is probably a movie no one expects to see on this type of list. However, if you watch closely, you’ll realize there’s more to learn from it than how to be holly and jolly during Christmas.

In the movie, George Bailey takes over his father’s small business after his death to make sure that his little brother can go to college, that the employees are taken care of, and that the community is taken care of by providing opportunities for those with little to own homes.

George does what’s best for everyone except himself. He assumes this role and remains there although he’s always dreamed of leaving the little town, traveling the world, and creating beautiful things. As the movie unfolds, you see bitterness building in George.

It boils to the point where he considers suicide when a large sum of money that was entrusted to his Building and Loan business is misplaced. If the money wasn’t found there’d be scandal, bankruptcy, and he would most likely be thrown in prison.

He decides his life isn’t worth more than his life insurance policy and goes to take his life so his family would receive this money and at least be provided for. In his mind, this is a final sacrificial act of his life.

As he goes to jump off a bridge into freezing water, his guardian angel sent to him in human form, jumps first and cries for help. As he’d done all his life, George puts his own interests out of his mind for someone else. He dives in and pulls him out, as the angel knew he would.

As they sit drying off, George mentions to the angel that everyone would be better off without him. So the angel shows him a world where he was never born. George is horrified with what he sees and realizes all of the things he bravely stood for and the evil he prevented from happening. And he saw how one man’s life touches so many others.

His lesson and that of the story is unmistakable. His life was the masterpiece he wanted to create, what he wanted to build. And gratefulness for what was all around him was key to realize this. He focused himself on where every great man and woman should focus, first. He saw what needed to be fixed immediately around him and went to work doing it.

He was given the gift to truly dissociate from his own life and thoughts on how he imagined he influenced the world to see how much he really had to be thankful for.

We can’t be given this literal gift, but maybe we can be imaginative, think through, and put to paper everything that our lives have touched, everything we have, and everything we are to others. Then perhaps we can behold our very own work of art.

One of my college roommates asked me once how I remembered so many movies. We were flipping through the channels on a Saturday afternoon and I called out the movies on each channel.

Honestly, I just got lucky. They were all movies I’d seen a few times. I’ve seen my share of movies, but I’m not really a movie buff. But movies I do like, I wear them the hell out.

The first time I watched these movies, I didn’t understand how they gave me a calmness and clarity to keep on moving toward the targets I aim at. But the more I watched, the more I saw in it.

I was watching my story, that’s why I was connected with it. Well written stories aren’t just telling the record of the main character. They’re also reflecting the story of the entire human race.

Regularly making progress in my physical growth has everything to do with character and perseverance. I’ve watched these movies and remembered these stories because they reminded me of my own story.

The story where I take on the same challenges and learn the same truth. Because their story is mine. And like them, I’ll keep moving on even when I can’t see the reward. And this itself is the reward- the journey taken.

The post Bill Murray Made Me a Better Lifter appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

It is prudent to pursue perfection, even though it’s rarely attainable. We all make mistakes. There is nothing wrong with that, because many great things have come about in that pursuit. The road of forward progress is littered with minor hiccups, significant mistakes, and complete failures. Not one single person is immune to that. It’s reality.

Let’s turn this discussion to your physical training, diet, and recovery.

Is Falling Short a Total Failure?

Do you beat yourself up for not completing your ultimate goals? You train hard, eat well, rest adequately, and sacrifice valuable time that could be spent on other things, but somehow fail to reach your ultimate goal. The fact you failed on that goal ruins all the sweat you shed, the fatigue you experienced, and sacrifices you made for it. But should it?

Couple that with the often-cruel world we live in, full of critics and naysayers, and not achieving your ultimate goal can become a beat down. You went 100 miles and fell short by 100 yards. Is that truly overall failure? It shouldn’t be.

I don’t believe in participation trophies, but I do think we need to give pause and acknowledge the goodness we either consciously or unconsciously did. Again, not to yearn for a pat on the back, but to credit ourselves with staying the course and knowing even the routine and trivial tasks performed are part of the path forward to success.

What’s Your Batting Average?

If you’re average, that’s neither bad nor good. It’s 50-50; middle of the pack. But you know you are not average, and want to aim higher.

If you attempted something 10 times and were successful on seven of those attempts, that 70% success rate is pretty good. Regarding your training and physical goals, if 70% of all your workouts were dead-on, you’d achieve good results. If 70% of the meals you consumed over one week were high quality, that’s good as well, in light of all the temptations that can derail your overall diet plan.

One of the most difficult athletic tasks is hitting a baseball. Batting .400 is the gold standard for it, but it rarely occurs. Let that sink in: four out of 10 times is considered superior. If you lived everyday life succeeding only 40% of the time, you’d have a fairly hard time every day. But we are talking physical training and competing, not swinging at a 97mph fast ball.

In your training and physical pursuits, rather than beat yourself up in the pursuit of perfection, find the goodness within you and give yourself some credit. Remember, 50% is neither good nor bad. 70% would be good, 80% really good, 90% exceptional, and 100% complete dedication.

A Graded Quiz for Your Pursuit of Fitness

Give yourself credit for sucking it up by doing the little things, sacrificing here and there, avoiding the temptations that poke holes in your diet plan, or whatever you are doing to pursue your goals.

You may be a younger, competitive trainee looking to improve your physique, win a competition, or just up your strength levels. You may be an older trainee who seeks to improve or maintain your general health and ability to live an active lifestyle. Either way, here’s a way to determine if you’re on the right path to success, regardless if you attain your ultimate goal. 

16 Questions for Young Athletes

For the younger, competitive trainee, provide answers to these 16 questions in each of two areas: training and recovery, and dietary intake. Confine your answers to the seven-day week, traditionally Monday through Sunday.

Training & Recovery

1. Did you engage in quality physical training on at least three days?
2. On non-training days, were you active and moving for at least four hours on two of those days?
3. Were you able to get at least eight hours of sleep on five nights?
4. Did you perform some type of resistance training at least two days during the week?
5. If you sat for six hours or more each day, did you get up and move for at least five minutes each hour?
6. Did you spend time tending to a current or past injury to resolve or minimize it?
7. Did you perform a proper pre-session warm up routine for at least five minutes (dynamic movement drills, light range-of-motion movements)?
8. Did you perform a cool down routine after each training session (i.e., static stretching, foam rolling, light jogging, or walking)?
9. If you became tired at some point over the day, were you able to engage in a 15-minute power nap?
10. Was your heart rate elevated to at least 70% of your maximum heart rate for at least 20 consecutive minutes on at least three days?
11. Did you have at least one very demanding competition or training session during the week?
12. If training very hard or competing, did you allow for at least one complete rest day (no actual training)?
13. Did you follow a progressive plan of training?
14. Did you document your workouts?
15. Did you perform “pre-hab” exercises or drills to prevent a future injury in a vulnerable body part or joint (i.e., eccentric hamstring work, rotator cuff exercises)?
16. If you engaged in resistance training, did you perform a demanding, multi-joint lower body exercise (i.e., squat, dead lift, leg press, lunge)?

Dietary Intake

1. Did you consume at least 70% your total calories from non-processed foods?
2. Besides hydration at training sessions—pre, during, and post—did you consume at least 32oz of plain water each day?
3. Did you at least consume 0.8g of protein per pound of body weight each day?
4. Did you abstain from over-consumption of alcoholic beverages at least five days?
5. Did you eat at least four times per day every day?
6. Did you make at least three conscious decisions to substitute a healthy alternative over another option (i.e., nuts over chips, water over soda, banana over candy bar)?
7. Did you eat a healthy breakfast each day?
8. Did you consume an effective post-workout meal within one hour of completing all training sessions?
9. Did you consume a protein source at each meal or snack?
10. If attempting to lose body fat, did you create a calorie deficit on at least six days, or if your goal was to gain muscle, did you create a calorie surplus on at least six days?
11. Did you consume fresh or frozen fruit as opposed to canned fruit containing syrup?
12. Did you emphasize multi-grain carbohydrates over simple sugar carbs?
13. Did you eat vegetables and fruit covering a variety of colors (i.e., green, yellow, red, purple, and white)?
14. Did you consume at least 50% of your daily protein requirement via normal foods, rather than mixes, shakes, or bar supplements?
15. Did you emphasize healthy fat intake from plants and fish oils and minimize trans and saturated fats?
16. Did you avoid drinking large amounts of sugary sports drinks?

20 Questions for Older Athletes

For the older trainee seeking general health benefits, answer these 20 all-encompassing questions. Again, confine your answers to the seven-day week, traditionally Monday through Sunday.

1. Did you engage in quality physical training on at least two days?
2. On non-training days, were you active and moving for at least four hours on four of those days?
3. Did you eat at least three times per day every day?
4. If you sat for six hours or more each day, did you get up and move for at least ten minutes each hour?
5. Besides hydration at training sessions—pre, during, and post—did you consume at least 32oz of plain water each day?
6. On your work breaks, did you move/walk at least once per day?
7. Did you spend at least five minutes of static muscle stretching three times during the week?
8. Did you consume at least 70% of your total calories from non-processed foods?
9. Did you abstain from the over-consumption of alcoholic beverages at least six days?
10. Was your heart rate elevated to at least 60 percent of your maximum heart rate for at least 20 consecutive minutes on at least two days?
11. If you work or reside in a multiple-story building, did you use the stairs over the elevator each day?
12. Did you stand/move around for at least one-half of your typical work day?
13. Did you consume a protein source at each meal or snack?
14. Did you emphasize multi-grain carbohydrates over simple sugar carbs?
15. Did you perform some type of resistance training at least two days during the week?
16. Did you emphasize healthy fat intake from plants and fish oils, and minimize trans and saturated fats?
17. Were you able to sleep uninterrupted for at least five hours each night?
18. Did you intentionally park your vehicle further from the entrance of the facility you were visiting (i.e., work, store, other)?
19. Did you supplement your diet with vitamins D, E and multiple Bs, along with the minerals calcium, zinc, and magnesium?
20. Did you consume an effective post-workout meal within one hour of completing all training sessions?

The Results Are In

What did you score? Was it at least 60%? Anything over 60% is a credit to your sacrifices. Of course, the higher the better:

• 60% (10/16 or 12/20) = baseline
• 70% (11/16 or 14/20) = good
• 80% (13/16 or 16/20) = really good
• 90% (15/16 or 18/20) = excellent
• 100% = are you even human?

Knowing that you cannot be perfect all the time, seek excellence in what you can do. Give yourself some credit for taking the time to do the little things that eventually lead to the possibility of achieving your ultimate goal. Remember, you’re not perfect. Some days are good, some bad, and some so-so. Have a bad day on Tuesday? Get after it on Wednesday, because it’s the averages that matter more than the days.

The post Grade Your Effort and Give Yourself Some Credit appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Each day we’re exposed to hundreds of competing thoughts and opinions, most of which are designed to reinforce the consumerist values of the masses. We adopt what we are repeatedly exposed to. Sustained passionate living requires that we intentionally feed our mind with the right thoughts, the right people, and the right lessons. The most common avenue to inspired life lessons is to read, although podcasts, audio books, trainers, and many other sources are available. If we will only read, we have cheap access to the wisdom of all of humanity throughout history. What a powerful gift! We have the experiences and actions of our most heroic and inspiring individuals at our fingertips, just an internet search or bookstore visit away. Unfortunately, the lessons we need are often drowned out by the clamoring of the 21st century, and its seductive, toxic outlets for information.

The education path I am advocating will provide a framework for focusing attention on lessons that are formative, positive, and constructive. If we can better understand the needs of the human experience and use this to create purpose, we’ll find the motivation to create an inspired life guided by inspired vision.

Teach Principles Instead of Methods

Too much of education is centered on methods. The emphasis is on “this is how you do this,” versus “this is how it works; what are pros, cons, limitations, and opportunities.” We must quit our obsession with methods, and instead invest our limited time on more essential lessons.

We don’t know what the jobs of the future will look like. What we do know are the values and mindsets that are conducive to growth. Impactful teaching and coaching is full of lessons and principles that shape our perspective and guide our behavior. The world is changing constantly, and this demands principles and depth of understanding, not dogma and some canned path to “success” based on an illusion of what you’re “supposed” to do. Go to college, find a stable job, punch the clock for 45 years, retire, die. Does that pump you up?

I do not believe in adding lessons just to add them. More is not better. But we are missing the true essentials—those lessons that allow us greater understanding of ourselves and how we find meaning and motivation. Understanding human needs will shape all future decisions and relationships. When we begin to understand our own motives and others’, we can master interviews, marketing, or any other human field.

The Foundations of Human Motivation

To give context to our own development and enhance understanding of others, my training will emphasize the 6 Human Needs outlined by Tony Robbins. These are needs, not wants. People will seek to satisfy them any way they can.

Needs of the Personality

• Certainty and Comfort: The need for control, comfort, and an assuredness that you can avoid pain. Many people find this in foods. I tend to find this in daily habits, rituals, and routines.
• Uncertainty and Variety: Your adrenaline junkie side. This is your need for novel experiences, surprise, and exploration.
• Significance: The need to be thought special in some way. Whether we want a certain certification, fame, fortune, or even extreme piety—these are all methods of making ourselves feel significant or special. Criminals are often highly motivated by this need, as are consistent volunteers.
• Love and Connection: We all want to belong and be deeply loved. Man is a social creature, and will go to great lengths to feel accepted.

The paradoxes of life are on grand display in these first four needs. Despite their contradictory appearance, all these needs exist in every human. We all will find them somehow. When we understand this, we can begin to understand why a poor, struggling young man might be attracted to what a gang offers.

The last two needs are the those of the spirit. Many miss these completely, but fulfillment is not possible without them.

Needs of the Spirit

• Growth: This is a constant process we must embrace. Nothing is static. Not growing is dying. This is why many who make it to the top are miserable. They think they’ve made it and stop growing.
• Contribution: The more we grow, the more value we have to offer. All our talents can contribute if we make that our focus, especially as coaches and athletes. I’m reminded of a prevalent theme in Christopher McDougall’s Natural Born Heroes: “be fit to be useful.”

Robbins describes the two master lessons of life: the science of achievement, and the science of fulfillment. Both matter. To achieve a change in physique or athletic development, we must understand the principles of training and nutrition, and have the habits and skills to steadfastly practice them. Still, many find that once they have achieved their goal, they do not find the fulfillment they were sure would ensue.

There is very little training offered in the art and science of fulfillment. A curious oversight, given that we all seek fulfillment and it is so intimately linked to sustained performance improvement.

George Clooney tells the story of how he struggled to land acting roles until he began going into auditions asking himself, “How do I solve their problem?” Greater patience and understanding are yours when you can begin to see what needs might be influencing the actions of others. Hokey as this all seems, take this wisdom and use it. When we understand how we meet each of these needs, we are far better able to understand ourselves and shape our own actions and choices. How could we not consider this framework essential to human development?

The Secret of Success Is Consistency of Purpose

The next step, after identifying the human needs, is to develop our own path to growth and contribution. Motivation is a challenge. It wanes and we lose steam. This is why the right habits are a necessity, and chief among these is to feed our minds the right lessons.

For sustained growth and contribution, we must intentionally develop purpose. Our purpose will evolve as we do. It should be vivid and honest. The power of purpose was highlighted to me a few weeks ago, when a group of students visited my office. I was presented with a handmade award for consistency, and on it was a quote:

“Commitment to an unerring purpose enables one to pour out passion, energy, and enthusiasm in his or her endeavors.”

This perfectly highlights the power of purpose. When we have it, our actions are aligned with such emotional momentum that success is inevitable. Great lessons and self-discovery will promote an ever-evolving purpose, intelligently made with our human needs in mind.

These lessons not only offer success and satisfaction, but are keys to mental health. Our thoughts and actions fuel our emotions, and with the right habits, an understanding of human fulfillment, and a clear purpose, we will be far more emotionally stable.

Training and education often focus on a prescribed workout or an assignment that we are supposed to master to move on to the next. This approach certainly has its place, and is solid progression. However, every trainer knows that it’s not just about the weight on the bar. Movement quality matters most. I believe we must get to the essence of each person in order to create the greatest impact. We start this process with the introduction of habits proven to increase health, happiness, and self-awareness. These include a mindfulness practice, daily reflective writing that trains gratitude, and a physical training practice. These three habits alone have the potential to radically improve one’s life.

To get the most out of these practices requires constant refinement of lessons and a strong sense of purpose. Self-education and understanding of the human needs are essential for giving context to our lives. Couple this with an introduction to the values of inspired people, and you have a powerful foundation to bring a sense of direction and possibility to your endeavors.

The post Find the Foundation of Your Purpose appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

As adults, we continue to do all sorts of things we don’t want to do, because we know they’re for our own good. We pay our taxes, mow the grass, and change the oil in the car. We go to the dentist, to family gatherings we’d rather skip, and to jobs we don’t like.

So how is it that, when it comes to taking care of ourselves physically, people just can’t seem to muster up the gumption to do what’s necessary, even if it isn’t always enjoyable?

Honor Your Human Potential

We use a whole lot of words on this website to describe the various concepts and nuances of health and fitness, but the essence of physical improvement is simple: don’t eat crap, move a lot, and get adequate sleep. But to hear many people describe it, there is an immense metaphysical chasm that separates those who bear the title “athlete” from those who watch them on TV.

Part of that fallacy is understandable. The athletes we see in the media are peak performers who have spent a lifetime honing their skill and physique. The distance between the average lite-beer-swilling couch potato and the Olympic sprinter he just watched set a world record isn’t vast. It’s inconceivable.

The saying goes, if you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.

But in what other area of life do we set ourselves against such a standard? We don’t tell our first-graders they should stop writing stories because they’ll never be Kipling. We take our kids to piano lessons and soccer practice, with the full knowledge that we aren’t raising the next Rachmaninoff or Messi. We still go to our jobs every day, even if we have no realistic expectation of ever being the CEO.

When someone looks at an athlete and says “I could never do that,” what they’re really saying is “I don’t want to put in the work that you did to get where you are.” The heart of the difference is not ability or even talent, but desire. Michael Jordan might’ve made a fine accountant. But his desire was basketball, and so he mastered it as fully as anyone has before or since.

To be sure, not everyone has the level of athletic talent, desire, and determination displayed by the world’s elite athletes. So if someone doesn’t have the desire to be an athlete, isn’t that okay? Not really. The human body was undeniably built to walk, run, climb, lift, and jump. We have specific physiological adaptations, like enormous lungs and the ability to sweat, that are only relevant to athletic organisms. The human body is, by design and construction, an athletic machine. To neglect the required maintenance of that machine is to deny its nature.

Choose Your Path

In truth, everyone wants to be an athlete, because they don’t want to be the alternative. People don’t want to sit around, decaying prematurely, unable to challenge their meager physical capacity. People don’t want to be in pain or on a half-dozen medications for the myriad ailments that accompany a sedentary lifestyle. They want to be able to eat without gaining weight, sleep without a breathing apparatus, and go to the grocery store without a mobility scooter. People don’t want to be miserable.

So why do they do it? Because they perceive the chasm. That inverse mirage between where they are now and where they’d like to be. They are convinced of their own inability to undertake any sort of training at all. Or they believe if they did train, it would be so painful, and the progress so infinitesimal, as to not be worth the effort. So instead of sweating in some dungeon of a gymnasium, trying to chase down a physique they just weren’t meant to have, they go to great lengths to justify rotting away on the sofa.

But those of us who stand on the other side of that imagined chasm know it isn’t impassable, because we had to cross it ourselves. We had to do it of our own will and for our own reasons, but the same basic principles applied. We made changes to our diet, a little at a time. We found ways to move ourselves that challenged and stimulated us mentally as well as physically. We prioritized our sleep to make sure our bodies had time to repair and grow from the stimuli we threw at them during the day.

We didn’t give up when it was hard right away, or when results were slow to come. We sweated, sacrificed, and gritted our teeth through every manner of discomfort, inconvenience, and even embarrassment. We fell off the wagon, then got back on and started again. Through grim, consistent determination, we made our bodies subject to the will of our minds, rather than leaving our minds slaves to a rebellious and complaining body.

We saw the chasm, too. But we trained anyway.

The road to becoming physically and emotionally stronger is riddled with ups and downs.

End the Excuses

The chasm is wide and deep, and it’s made entirely of your excuses. It is teeming with your busy schedule, your bad knees, the weight you’ve put on since high school. It is your distaste for sweating and breathing hard, your fear of looking stupid, your self-defeating low self-esteem. It is every rationalization you’ve ever made for not doing what needs to be done to properly care for the only body you’ll ever have. It is the misguided modern notion that anything uncomfortable isn’t worth doing.

Everybody has that chasm, and everybody should be training in spite of it, or even because of it. Find something you can do, and then do it. Then do a little more of it. And then do something else. Take up cycling, or yoga, or weightlifting. Take a spinning class. Go for a hike or take up rock climbing. Adapt your chosen activity to the skills and weaknesses you might have. Instead of sitting on your hands, paralyzed at the immensity of the chasm you’ve created, find ways to get over, or through, or around it. And then get going.

If you get off the couch tomorrow and work hard for a long time, will you ever become Rich Froning? Probably not, but I’d be willing to wager that’s not your real goal, anyway. Being a vastly improved you, on the other hand, is still on the table. It will not be easy, it will not be fast, and it will be decidedly uncomfortable. You will not be immediately impressed with yourself. Quite the opposite, you will probably be horrified and disgusted with yourself for some time.

Train anyway.

Conquer the Abyss

Now it’s time to do your homework. Get out a blank sheet of notebook paper and your #2 pencil, and make three columns.

• In the first, write down all the things you wish you could do, if you were fitter.
• In the second, write the obstacles that are keeping you from getting there.
• In the third, write down how you’re going to get around those obstacles.

It’s time to get across that chasm. Right now. If you get off the couch tomorrow, you will be better than yesterday. If you do it again the next day, you will be better still. If you keep doing it, consistently and intelligently, no one can tell you what you may achieve.

Maybe you’ll lose 100 pounds. Maybe you’ll rediscover the pure joy of riding a bicycle. Maybe you’ll be able to run a mile, or ten miles. Maybe you’ll regain the dignity and confidence you haven’t felt in too many years. But if you wait a week, you’ll wish you had started sooner. Just start today.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• There Is No Try: Believe in Yourself
• What Hurts You (a Little) is Good for You
• The 2 Essential Principles of Lifelong Motivation
• New on Breaking Muscle Right Now

Photos courtesy of J Perez Imagery.

The post Life Ain’t Easy: Train Anyway appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Having a motivated mindset and adopting the fitness lifestyle is a noble cause. Obesity, metabolic disease, and many other forms of physical disability are growing global epidemics. It’s better to be “into” fitness than the alternative: laying around and practicing laziness to an art form.

But what if you’re flying too close to the sun? What if you went all in, drank the Kool-Aid, and now you have the feeling as if something’s amiss? You might need to quit fitness and hold a self-intervention of sorts.

Are You an Addict?

When I was in college, all I could do in class was think about how I could improve my training. I would visualize myself performing squats, bench presses, and pull ups. I would imagine how my muscle would expand and contract and grow. I was on autopilot through my day until the moment I walked through the gym doors. And this was before social media and the advent of the selfie.

To some this may sound outlandish and obsessive, but to others it will resonate deeply. Are you in the latter category? Do you constantly and painstakingly obsess over the minute details of training, diet and supplementation?

Looking back, that mindset was not only too much to bear, it was downright damaging to the rest of my life. I was passing up social engagements, not participating in other sports and was extremely narrow-minded. In short, I was in too deep.

Take This Test

The easiest way to find out if you’re caught in the same trap is an honest self-evaluation. Answer the following questions and see if you need a fitness intervention. Afterwards, I’ll break down what you can do to help rehab your way out.

1. Do you painstakingly track every detail of every workout, every morsel of food and closely monitor fluid intake and body weight?
2. Do you carefully regulate extracurricular activity to make sure it doesn’t affect your gym results?
3. Is training the first thing you think of when you get up in the morning and the last thing on your mind before you sleep?
4. Do you secretly judge others on whether they go to the gym or the style of training they practice?
5. Are you unable to pass up a mirror without looking?
6. Do you take countless selfies per week? Per day? Per hour? Are most or all taken in the gym?
7. Is all of your social media fitness-related?
8. Do you wear workout clothes wherever you go?
9. Do you feel like a motivational workout meme?
10. Do you wish someone would complement you on how great of shape you’re in already?!

Is your last thought at night about tomorrow’s workout? 

Check Into Fitness Rehab

So, you’ve taken the test and found a few eye-opening things about your so-called dedication to fitness. One possibility is that all of these issues are related to ego. We sometimes feel the need, for example, to bench press a certain amount of weight. This, we believe, will bring respect and notoriety from our friends. Or perhaps your identity is wrapped up in social media, and you feel the need to be validated. You’re addicted to that small rush of dopamine you get as you count how many likes your latest gym pic received.

The first step to correcting any problem is acknowledging that you have one. You may realize something needs to be done, but are a bit daunted by the task. The key isn’t to quit training and dieting. It has more to do with calming the obsessiveness outside of the gym so you can lead a fruitful life which will include more (real) social engagement, meaningful non-fitness-related discussion, and the will to try new things in general.

The goal isn’t literally to quit fitness, it’s to quit “fitnessing” so much. It’s this all-encompassing, self-absorbed lifestyle that is the real problem. How many “likes” will it take to make you satisfied?

Your New Fitness Perspective

Now that you’ve realized there may be more to life than squat PRs, low body fat, and the perfect Instagram filter, let’s look at ways to shift your mindset to improve your life outside as well as inside of the gym. Let the rehab begin.

Leave It in the Gym

Many gym-goers tend to bring the gym with them wherever they go. You see these guys and gals carrying around gallon jugs of water, wearing gym clothes 24/7, and uploading a steady stream of bathroom mirror six-pack pics.

When it’s time to train, train. But lead a balanced life outside of the gym. There’s an old saying that an artist seldom talks about his work. Your energy is best kept inside so that it may build up and be released when the time comes. This will enable a sense of pent up excitement in your training that will flood you with energy and intensity. Constantly thinking, talking, and imagining your training and nutrition will leave your motivation diluted and your mind exhausted.

Have a Plan, Set It in Motion, Then Let It Be

You’ve seen these guys: program jumpers. They go from one plan to the next barely giving any one program a week to work. They are constantly searching for the perfect program, technique, or trick to give them that secret edge.

The big “secret” is this: Pick a program, stick with it for a significant amount of time (at least two or three months), and then track your progress honestly and realistically. Only then will you truly give any program a fair shot. You can’t just press a button and get instant, overnight results. The body takes time to adapt, grow and progress. Give it a fighting chance.

If You Must Post, Be Helpful

Filling your day with social media posts about fitness (especially self-centered stuff) isn’t a healthy habit. Countless selfies, six-pack shots and triceps flexes only feed your ego and not much else. If you must post, do it to help others. Give advice, motivate the right way (selflessly), and interact with your audience. Be authentic and separate yourself from the pack of the wannabes. Over time many will see your genuine, unique way of communicating.

Get Out of the Gym

Gym rats pride themselves on marathon workouts. You tend to see these guys at the gym at all hours of the day and night. You train in the evening, and they’re there. One day you need to get in a workout in the morning, and they’re there. You drop in for a quick session at lunch, and you guessed it… For some odd reason, they see this as some sort of badge of honor.

Simply being in the gym isn’t an effective way to seek results and progress in your training. Be succinct, efficient, and effective. Get the work done and then go outside and enjoy the world. Don’t be a slave to the weights. Shoot some hoops, go for hikes, ride your mountain bike, or go to the park with your family. Have a life in the real world.

Try New Training

We go out of our way to label people and put them into groups. Bodybuilders, powerlifters, CrossFitters, weightlifters; these are all definable, discernable terms that instantly cultivate specific images, practices and beliefs about yourself and others. These tribes tend to live in a box regarding their training habits.

Mix up your training and adopt some other techniques and modes of training. If you’re into a bodybuilding style of training, then mix in some power movements such as cleans or push presses. If you’re deeply entrenched into pure weightlifting, throw in some muscular endurance moves for a new challenge. Get out of your stagnant box and try something new for a change.

Get Another Hobby

Train, diet, recover, repeat. That is the cycle of thought so many fitness freaks possess. They live, breathe, think, and talk about fitness and only fitness. It is their hobby, their habit, and their life. If you ask them what other interests they may have, you will either get a blank stare or some snide remark such as, “I also like to give fitness advice to others.”

Having other interests outside of the gym won’t threaten your dedication to your fitness goals, but enhance them. Ask your family or friends what their interests are. Put yourself in their hands and participate in activities you’ve never thought about before. You will find that you may have needed a break from the constant stream of fitness-related thoughts; a proverbial breather from the familiar and comfortable.

Chase Your Goals, But Live Your Life

All this isn’t to say that you should quit chasing your fitness goals—far from it. It’s just to help shed some light on the possibility of an ironically unhealthy relationship with fitness. Make fitness a part of your life, not your entire life. Cultivate balance and variety, and explore uncharted interests. This will only enhance your fitness experience without the threat of the fear of missing out.

Being fit doesn’t mean you’re healthy:

Inside-Out Health Before Fitness

The post Chase Worthy Goals and Quit Fitness Addiction appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Strength, performance, and “real-world,” practical training has gained a ton of steam over recent years. But bodybuilding-style training, which involves reshaping and building musculature, is still at the top of many people’s priority list. Additionally, with mainstream media having a stranglehold on this industry, not to mention “dictating” training and programming, it’s no wonder truck loads of money has been made but few results ever follow.

Are You Climbing the Wrong Ladder?

Jumping on the media bandwagon of DVD’s, packaged programs, and the one-size-fits-all mentality, it’s tough to even begin to sift through the mess. Many individuals aspiring to better their physiques focus only on the mechanics of training—in many ways, rightfully so. They hone in on volume, loads, rep ranges, specific exercises, and of course the endless list of intensity techniques and tricks. They hope that by taking care of these details, they will uncover that long-sought-after “secret” that will solve their never-ending training frustration.

A popular notion is that practice makes perfect. It is believed that the more you practice, the better you become. But what if what your practice isn’t producing your desired results? Well, there’s another old saying that when climbing the ladder of success, make sure you’re climbing the right ladder. So, if you are practicing incorrectly, then don’t expect positive change. You need perfect practice to become perfect.

Maybe you are climbing the wrong ladder. Maybe you need to dig a bit deeper into the marrow of your challenge and cultivate something bigger than just reps, sets, and choice of exercises. Maybe you need to get unstuck from the weeds and rise above to a higher perspective.

Find the Meat

Yes, goal-setting and the mechanics of training are important; these are the tools of the trade, so to speak. It’s the homework, the in-the-trenches daily grind that needs to be done. Things like determining rep ranges and load, set volumes, rest periods, journaling, regulating rest and recovery, nutrition management, and other detailed factors make the clock keep ticking. But what if it’s not enough to have a toolbox full of awesome tools—tools that are top-of-the-line quality—even if you are highly skilled at using them?

Suppose you have your well-equipped toolbox and your goal set out in front of you, but you still aren’t seeing the results you’re expecting. What may be missing is the meat between the bread. This is the space full of the intangibles that so many gym-goers easily overlook. They aren’t sexy, attractive, or trending, but they are necessary, required, and they absolutely work. Attributes such as discipline and consistency may be the missing links that bring together your toolbox of skills and structure with your end goal.

Lift yourself above everyday frustrations.

The Hard, Simple Reality

I could talk about the details of training all day and all week without even scratching the surface regarding the number of programs, techniques, and beliefs available. But there are a few universal truths that are required for you to gain the resilience you need to succeed at training – or at anything in life.

Discipline: Anything worth accomplishing takes fierce discipline. This includes grinding out the work day after day. Riding the highs and gutting through the lows, staying organized no matter what the conditions, and building on your discipline while establishing a firm foundation. Make discipline your ally; make it work for you.

Consistency: Another requirement is the practice of staying consistent. It’s no use having a good day or two out of each week. You need consistency to create momentum and real, permanent progress. Erratic behavior, missed workouts, inconsistent sleep, and shoddy eating habits will not get you there.

Persistence: Discipline and consistency will only get you so far. You need a taskmaster to lead the way. Persistence is the driver. It’s the general advancing the troops to push ahead and make progress. When discipline and consistency are threatened, persistence takes the reigns.

Know-how: Of course you need to know how to get to where you want to go. This goes beyond the mechanics I spoke of earlier. This entails the overall direction of your efforts. Are you driving down the right road or just spinning your wheels? Confused or frustrated? Hit a roadblock? Seek out the right kind of help and press on once again.

Belief: This last attribute may be the most important. Ask yourself: Is what I’m doing going to work? Do I sincerely believe that I will accomplish my goal? Here’s the reality of belief: the only person that you can rely on that has the potential to truly believe in what you are doing is you. Others will go through the motions and give you well wishes, but you are the only one vested in your journey.

Rediscover Your Purpose

By addressing these hard, simple realities you now have the opportunity to adopt a new perspective. Before, training may have entailed impressing your gym buddies with big bench press numbers, blowing up your upper body full of blood only to neglect your legs, or you may have only focused on your strengths while forgetting to give extra attention to weak areas. Whatever the case may be, you now have a better understanding of why you enter the gym in the first place and solid, timeless skills to put into practice.

If you do realize you’ve been misguided, don’t despair. You won’t be perfect right out of the gate. As with anything, time is required. Much like muscle and strength, discipline and consistency take time to grow and develop. Over a significant amount of time you will develop these skills into a rock-solid foundation and will rise stronger and smarter. You will have cultivated true resilience in the wake of chaos.

Some of the lesser known benefits of rediscovery:

• Less stress: Yes, you will actually have less stress every time you enter the gym. No more worrying about what to do or what the other guy is doing. You will have focus, resolve, and real know-how to take on any challenge.
• Freedom: Less stress allows for more freedom. You will be more apt to try new things without frustration. No more worry about if it will work or not; you’ll make it work. You’ll be free from vanity-driven efforts and truly focus on what matters.
• Joy and comradery: Less stress and more freedom allow for more comradery amongst your fellow gym mates. This will make training fun again which means a better, more positive attitude and better progress.

Refocus and Be Smart

Now that you have everything you need (really, you do), you may find that you will naturally refocus your training. You might uncover a new and more refined focus or goal. Or you could just find a new source of motivation and drive. Whatever the outcome, know that you are now well-equipped for any challenge. You could bust through plateaus, fight off boredom, or re-energize an old routine. It could be larger, like finding new meaning and purpose in training while experiencing long-term progression.

There are no “secret” programs, one-size-fits-all routines, or “best” of this or that. The best comes from you, right here (I’m poking my chest). Follow your heart, your gut, and put in the work day after day, week after week. Cultivate discipline, consistency, and persistence. Gain the know-how and believe in your plan. Lift not only the weight, but yourself above all of the minute details, miniscule stresses, and frustrations of the everyday. Stay focused on the big picture and never waver.

More on mindful training:

The Dark Side of Mindfulness

The post Cultivate Resilience for Breakthrough Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Everyone is responsible for deciding who they want to be and for taking ownership of their path to get there. [Photo credit: J Perez Imagery]

Pin Down Your Reasons

You probably began training for either aesthetics, health, performance, or some combination of the above. You wanted to look good, feel better, or make the varsity team. These are all good motivators, but they’re too vague to focus your training and too wishy-washy to motivate you when you’d rather pound Funyuns and marathon Game of Thrones than hit another set of five squats.

At the very least, we need to dig a little deeper. What total are you looking to hit at your next meet? How exactly do you want to look? By pulling out something more specific and tangible, you can move toward finding a program, choose meaningful metrics to monitor progress, and start moving in the right direction.

This is where most people stop, but with you, I’d like to take this a step farther. If you want to progress quickly or beyond a basic level, to the point where you have to make sacrifices and reevaluate yourself, you’re going to have to get personal. Like Brandon Lilly recently asked on Facebook:

“What does a PR total add to your life?… When you really break it down, what does a PR cost your life (family, studies, other hobbies), and how much is it actually worth?”

It’s a great question that you must ask before it’s too late. It’s a terrible feeling to mindlessly plow through greater and greater performances, striving harder and harder, only to hit a serious setback, get rocked back on your heels for a while, and wonder to yourself: “Why am I even doing this?” To get to answers that last, you might have to change the questions you’re asking:

• Is there anything enjoyable or motivating about the training itself?
• Is there anyone counting on you to succeed? Do you get respect, admiration, or work as a result of what you’ve accomplished?
• Are you doing this out of fear of failure or some other negative outcome?
• If you stopped training or dieting tomorrow, what would you lose? Would you be happy?
• Does it reinforce your self-image? Can you respect yourself if you’re not a “fit person,” and would you lose respect for yourself if you fell off the bandwagon?
• Do your fitness habits define your social group? If you don’t post your session on Instagram, did it count?

Your reason will be different from anyone else’s. More important, you will almost certainly not be proud of all of them. Among your reasons may be a need for recognition, a fear of being exposed as a fraud, or dissatisfaction with your body image. That’s okay. You can’t make an informed choice until you acknowledge them. Like the weird aunt who gives everyone socks at Christmas, you can’t ignore them, and when your training or life takes a sour turn, you never know which motivation will get you back under the bar… or how much you may come to depend on your crazy aunt.

“That Guy” Doesn’t Matter

No matter who you are, at some point you’ve reached outside yourself for a target to strive for, wisdom to follow, and guidance. This is perfectly normal—no one is an island—but I have never met anyone who did not, at one point or another, fall into the “that guy” trap. “That guy” is a catch-all for any mental shortcut that points to another person as an answer (negative or positive) to a question:

• “That guy is awesome and he did it this way, so that’s how it should be done.”
• “That guy is awesome despite following an inflammatory diet. Don’t follow him- he’s special (and probably on steroids).”
• “Why trust the advice of anyone who’s not as fit as you? Those eggheads aren’t worth listening to.”
• “Why trust the advice of a world class athlete? Their advice is useless to the average Joe.”
• “That guy (celebrity fitness personality) agrees with what I’m saying. Are you saying they’re wrong?”

I have heard all five of these sentiments (more or less) used in the same argument, and not one of them is valid. At best, each individual case may be an example of a larger truth. At worst, it’s outright wrong. If “that guy” is right, he is right because his position is correct, not because he happens to believe it. Einstein was wrong about quantum mechanics. Dr. Oz occasionally says things that are actually worth listening to. Accepting a dumb idea or rejecting a good one because of its source may mean wasted time or missed opportunities.

This gets to the heart of why we do this even when we know it’s wrong: it’s lazy. Instead of doing the hard work of figuring out what works for you, sorting through first principles and honestly assessing what you need to do to get better, you just do what someone else does. It’s an easy out. If it works, great! If it doesn’t, you can blame it on bad genes, steroids, whatever you want.

If you’re just getting started, you probably don’t have a grasp of the first principles or how your body responds to training. That’s fine, just find a good coach. If you don’t have the time, money, or interest and just want something to do, understand the limitations of that approach. Pay close attention to your training as it progresses. If it works, great! If not, move on and find something else. In either case, your experience says nothing about “that guy’s” program or about you. Take what you’ve learned, find another program, and get back at it.

Fitness Isn’t Faith

If there is one bit of advice I wish I could get every trainee in the world to understand at every level, it would be this: never allow your pursuit of fitness to become a religion. Fitness isn’t faith, health isn’t holy, and dogma is no substitute for discipline.

Faith is a “strongly held belief… based on spiritual apprehension rather than truth.” Don’t believe. Be convinced. If you believe a program, diet, or exercise works, carefully consider why you’re using that word. Does the evidence and your experience overwhelmingly support your position? Or is it because the program lines up with your preconceived notions of right and wrong? Has your raw, organic, barefoot lifestyle actually improved your health and sporting performance, or have you equated “natural” with “good” and assumed it must be working?

We don’t need JP Sears’ “Ultra-Spiritual Life” to remind us how overwhelmingly self-righteous people can become about healthy behaviors. Being healthy (however you define that) doesn’t make you holier-than-anyone. You are making a choice to achieve certain goals for your own reasons. This is one reason I refuse to refer to foods as clean, and want you to strike this concept from your mental dictionary. Not only is clean eating impossible to define, but it implies other foods are unclean (and, by association, that the people who eat them are unclean as well).

Dogma, “a set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true,” is a losing battle. The perpetually weak lifter who swears by the Westside Method or the dadbod paleo proselytizer has missed the point on two levels. First, to borrow a term from Dr. Jonathan Haidt, dogmas “bind and blind.” Once you believe them, you’re doubly committed because your reputation or self-esteem are at stake for having been duped. Worse, they lead you to ignore outside evidence, even when it appears that a different approach could get you better results. On a deeper level, we’ve all heard the adage that “a good program done 100% is better than a perfect program never started.” We all know it, but we somehow think that making only half of our workouts or slacking on our diet will work as long as we bask in the warm glow of dogma. Discipline will trump dogma every time.

“Everyone” Includes You

Regardless of where you’re coming from or where you’re going, everyone has to face their reasons for doing what they do. Everyone, at one point or another, will make the mistake of outsourcing their critical thinking to “that guy” or “that idea,” and we are all better off when we catch ourselves doing it before we go too far down the wrong path. Everyone is responsible for deciding who they want to be and for taking ownership of their path to get there. Yeah, “everyone” means you… and it means me, too.

Temper your mind:

Can You Train Mental Toughness?

Motivate your clients and your business:

How to Be a Successful Fitness Business Owner

The post 3 Guiding Principles for Every Athlete appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I’ll let you into what I think really makes the difference: Commitment. When people find out I work with high performance athletes they invariably get round to asking me what it’s like to work with pro athletes. The perception is that it must be some sort of utopian world where every athlete rocks up with a spring in their step, ready to go hard in the gym.

They ask, “Those athletes must be super motivated, right?” Wrong. Elite athletes are just like you and me: They have good days and bad days. They have days where they are bang up for training and they have days where they simply can’t be arsed. They have days where they are super pumped and super motivated (probably due to the quotes they’ve just read) and they have days when motivation to train has dropped off the edge of a cliff, and no amount of “seize the day #mondaymotivation” is going to help.

The secret sauce that separates those that push on through dips in motivation is commitment. If you look at the graph below, in which the red line represents motivation levels in athletes and the blue line represents their commitment levels, you can see that motivation fluctuates massively.

When motivation is high, we are eating clean, training double sessions, and posting selfies with our t-shirts pulled up. But like a rollercoaster, motivation will inevitably dip, and then we are tucking into a tub of ice cream and washing it down with a beer whilst cancelling our gym membership. The key to long-term success is fully committing. Commitment is all about being dedicated to an activity, and the good thing about commitment is it’s far less volatile. Sure, it will also have peaks and troughs but the shifts are nowhere near as violent as the ones we typically experience in motivation.

What you see with an athlete preparing for an Olympic Games over a four-year cycle is their ability to crack on even when motivation is at an all time low. What allows them to push through slumps in motivation is the fact that they are fully committed to the outcome.

I think most people reading this article that struggle to stick to a training plan when it gets tough are doing their own version of the hokey cokey dance. When motivation is high, they put the right foot in, when motivation is low, they put the right foot out. They continue to go in out, in out, and shake it all about, never really accomplishing anything. Successful athletes are rubbish at the hokey cokey, because right from the get-go they jump with both feet in and they stay in for the long haul. That’s what separates elite athletes from most of us. Athletes are very good at committing because they are both feet in.They can ride the motivation rollercoaster because they are committed.

Consider that the reason you struggle to stick to your plans is exactly because you need a feel good motivational quote to get you started, rather than the knowledge that you’ve fully committed to the task. I know for me, I’m not particularly interested in hearing how motivated someone is – I’d much rather see their level of commitment.

Ready for some more real talk?

Life Ain’t Easy: Train Anyway

The post Why Commitment Is More Important Than Motivation appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“Gosh, you’ve lost so much weight,” they might say, following it up with “I hope you don’t plan on losing any more.” Or after you mention how well you did on your half marathon this past weekend, they’ll barely take a breath between congratulating you, telling you how they hate running and you should probably stop because it’s bad for your knees.

The bar of expectations of the general population is laughably low. When just about everybody is fat, fat becomes the new normal. That makes you look crazy for working toward a healthy body composition. When almost nobody can run a mile without stopping (let alone fast), running a half marathon makes you a freak of nature. Running a few of them a year, or a full marathon, makes you almost an alien. And you know what people do with aliens in the movies, right?

People Hate What They Aren’t

The insecurities you expose in others when your lifestyle departs drastically from the plane of existence deemed by society to be normal can provoke some truly ugly behavior. People can’t help but see your success as a threat to their own comfortable, mediocre existence. Because they lack any way to identify with the lifestyle you’ve chosen for yourself and the goals you seek, their only reaction is to distance themselves and discourage you.

I’ve witnessed this phenomenon first hand. Since I decided to stop being such a fat lazy slob several years ago, the way people relate to me, and I to them, has changed dramatically. I have gained a whole new set of friends, but found other relationships scuttled by a lack of common interest and worldview. When you make health a leading priority in your life, hanging out every night to drink cheap beer and smoke cigarettes just isn’t in the cards anymore.

I’m a lot faster than I used to be, but not yet as fast as I could be. [Photo credit: Robert Hill]

Even among other athletes, the conversation can become awkward when it turns to my set of goals. While I’m happy with the progress I’ve made over the past several years, I have a long way to go before I’ll be anything like satisfied. When I mention that I still want to knock several minutes off of my half marathon, some people will take my dissatisfaction with myself as a judgment against their own performance. When I talk about going back and having another crack at the races that almost broke me, I get asked if I wasn’t happy enough just to finish.

To be frank, the answer is no. I’m not satisfied just to finish, although I harbor no illusions of winning.

The Only Standard of Comparison

The interpersonal friction comes from misapplied comparison. I’m competing against myself; against what I believe my athletic potential to be. The goals I have set for myself have nothing to do with those of the average American any more than those of the most elite Olympian. I know where I am and where I’ve been, and all the associated weaknesses and challenges. I don’t know yet how far I can go, but I’m absolutely determined to find out. My circumstances and potential are uniquely my own, so to tie them to any external standard, be it artificially low or high, is to burden them with unnecessary and irrelevant complication.

If I look around at the athletes I train with, it can be very motivating. Their strength, speed, and excellence are examples to follow. But it can also be discouraging, especially for schlubs like me, who learn and progress slowly. I only started running with any seriousness around four years ago, so beating myself up because I’m getting dusted by guys (and girls) who ran competitively in college is just silly.

At the same time, if I compare myself athletically to the vast majority of the population, all I will get is complacent. There is nothing challenging about the average American lifestyle. Sitting on the couch in front of the TV, cramming a taco 12-pack down your throat and washing it down with a liter of Mountain Dew is not a stimulus for growth. Unless we’re talking about your waistline, or your chances for heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The only useful, reliable comparison is the one made objectively against myself. Am I better than I was yesterday? Last week? Last year? Have I gone faster or moved a heavier barbell? Have I solved a problem with a recurring injury or learned a new movement? Have I improved my focus, consistency, determination, or mental balance? As long as these markers are moving forward, I will continue to move the goalpost further afield.

I may never become an elite athlete, but I can reach the pinnacle of my own potential, and that will be good enough.

To Be the Best, Compete Only With Yourself

This is a mindset shared by the most elite athletes. We have watched that reality unfold for the last two weeks at the Rio Olympics, where swimmers Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky have exerted their dominance over the world in ways nobody thought possible. Where Simone Biles literally invented a new way to trounce the competition. Where Wayde van Niekerk ran blind, from lane 8, to devastate the field and set a new 400m world record.

These athletes, and others at the top of their sport, train with others who will elevate their game, but their only standard is their own performance. Anything less would not allow them to reach their maximum potential. The same applies to any athlete at any level.

Ours is a culture which, by virtue of its size and diversity, constantly fights against societal norms. But the most pernicious of them is the pervasive mediocrity that would stop you from going out to achieve great things. The best mental change any athlete can make for their development and performance is to free themselves from the useless, damaging web of comparisons to others’ expectations. Once you’ve done that, nothing can stop you.

Are your goals scary enough to keep you focused on them?

The 2 Essential Principles of Lifelong Motivation

The post Why Better Than Average Isn’t Good Enough for Me appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In the pursuit of success, all of the choices that are presented to you are just illusions. As legendary football coach Nick Saban explains:

“All these guys that think they have a lot of choices are really sadly mistaken. If you want to be successful, you really don’t have a lot of choices, because it takes what it takes. You have to do what you have to do to be successful. So you have to make choices and decisions to have the discipline and focus to the process of what you need to do to accomplish your goals.”

What this means for us is that in our constantly changing world, you need an unchanging purpose that you can measure against all of the other things that are forever changing. The United States’ unchanging purpose is the constitution. With only twenty-seven amendments in 240 years of existence, I would say that it has stood the test of time.

If unchanging purpose is pivotal to your success and if choices are just mirages, how can you weed through all of the distractions?

The choices we face in life often disappear when contrasted with our goals. [Photo courtesy Pixabay]

Success Requires Taking Risks

Sometimes we have to sacrifice what we want at the moment for something more important. Risk taking is a common trait among successful individuals. They have learned that being comfortable taking calculated risks will bring about positive change. This mindset, and its accompanying mechanics, strategies, tactics, or training methods are essential for success. Residing in perpetual comfort zones and associated risk avoidance will consistently blunt progress. If you want to be successful, get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Many times, we stay in the same situations because we are fearful of the next chapter. Like a river that becomes quiet and turbid after a fallen tree blocks its flow, so does your mental and spiritual growth when waiting to muster up the courage to take the next step or change paths from the route you are currently treading.

Success Requires Evolution

Successful performances evolve over time. Tactics, mindsets, and behaviors that worked in the past must change as demand increases and as situations transform over time. Living in the past is a guaranteed avenue to frustration for both you and those around you.

Selective effort will result in disparities in performance during pressure situations. If you are less than mindful and lack purposeful attention to detail, you are guaranteed to have gaps in your performance. Success is in the details and the most successful people never tire doing the fundamental tasks that support their career and enjoyment. When everything you do daily has a purpose and intent, you won’t be just ticking boxes without understanding or value.

Don’t Let Perfectionism Ruin Everything

Strive for balance and excellence in all areas of life. Whether it is at work, in relationships, or in the community, successful people are always pushing boundaries, limits, and currently accepted ceilings. However, believing there will be a perfect performance is a deadly trap. The attachment to perfectionism ruins both practice and performance and will ultimately decay your own life balance. All performances contain flaws, but within the imperfections lay opportunities for improvement.

See the big picture and do not get hung up on minor letdowns. Failure is embraced by leaders in all walks of life. Never let it paralyze, diminish risk taking, or influence behavior. Treat failure as a catalyst for problem-solving and change. Resiliency and being anti-fragile in nature gives you the ability to pay attention to, embrace, and accept constructive criticism from your mentors. This feedback will allow you to keep detailed records of your journey. Find patterns in the critiques you receive in order to eliminate faults and damaging behaviors.

Finding pleasure is critical in all endeavors. Find a way to enjoy every step because there is always another chance for everything in life. But, there is no chance of another life, so enjoy every moment.

Communicate Well, Inside and Out

Self-talk is powerful. What you think and say to yourself eventually becomes habit, and then drives your practice, competition, and life. Body language is closely related and if you express despairing traits, they will drive everything you do. Self-talk and body language may have a considerable negative effect but when positivity is expressed, the effect can eclipse any destructive behaviors.

Your external communication is just as essential. Successful people are on a never-ending search for answers and solutions and will usually have a mentor that will give them wisdom, guidance, and advice. The most successful individuals know how to network and use networks and communication as oxygen to those relationships. The inability to express your thoughts, moods, concerns, and desires will be the demise of any relationship. Learn to communicate, or any relationship will be short-lived.

With a Defined Purpose, Choices Make Themselves

Successfully balancing all that life has to throw at you is a finely tuned skill requiring years of practice, along with the ability to calmly ride out the multiple peaks and valleys of frustration that will inevitably occur along the way. Creating your own unchanging purpose will guide your decisions along the way and make the vision of your future distinct and well-defined. Allow yourself to accept that choices are just illusions and distractions on your journey to the top. Because if you want to be successful you don’t really have a choice, it just takes what it takes.

Start with your purpose, then get rid of all the clutter in your life:

Get Your Fitness House in Order

The post On Success and the Illusion of Choice appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Whatever you don’t like doing is probably what you need to do.

Statements like these drive me crazy because they are not true. Before you leave an angry comment about how important it is to challenge your physical and mental capacity to develop resilience and overcome training obstacles, hear me out.

Prioritize your health and your happiness with a crew that knows how to have fun.

The Perpetual Quest for More

These fitness clichés encourage us to shame ourselves into doing things we think we should do. When we adapt our lives to programs, diets, and routines, we force ourselves into a one-size-fits-all mold that may feel tight and uncomfortable around our waist.

For someone with an all-or-nothing personality, this kind of dedication is often misguided stubbornness that hinders the ability to admit that maybe his or her style is a little less CHANEL and a little more grunge. The polish of a plan may look flattering on the runway, but when you try it on for size, it may make you want to stay in the dressing room.

Let me be clear: I don’t advocate quitting a program simply because one hard workout leaves you feeling slightly defeated. But if you find that over time, your motivation slowly wanes or you feel like you’ve lost your training mojo, step back and take a serious moment to consider, “Am I having any fun?”

The Training Program Trojan Horse

The allure of a training program is enough to light a fire from the weakest flame. The promise of PRs is the apple in our barbell Garden of Eden. We hold the plan in the highest regard, as if it holds the magic key to unlock our performance potential. We structure our lives around reps, sets, percentages, and macronutrients. It’s like we’re kids on Christmas Eve, eagerly waiting to unwrap the gifts Santa has left under the tree.

But after a while, the hype of the program often fades and that shiny apple loses a bit of its luster. Sometime between calculating percentages and rest intervals, you realize your training has morphed into something you think you should do instead of something that you want to do, and you’re no longer having any fun.

When you find yourself wanting to deviate from your plan, how do you hit the reset button without feeling like a complete failure?

Movement Is More Than Exercise

Strip away the program, the gear, the diet, and the expectations. Force yourself to take an extended rest period and allow yourself to just be. A week or two off from your typical routine won’t kill you. If the thought of skipping a few workouts makes you freak out, that’s exactly why you need to take a break.

Use this time to figure out what makes you happy on both a physical and emotional level. Think about the last time you were active without the sole purpose of exercise. Maybe you were on a hike with friends or shaking your ass on the dance floor. What was it about these activities that made you happy? Reflect on how the environment and the social interactions influenced your level of fun.

When you take stock in identifying these positive emotional connections, you can find ways to support those feelings through movement.

Perhaps the missing piece in your training puzzle is a day off from the gym to take a hip-hop class at a local dance studio to step out of your comfort zone. Maybe you need to hit the trail on your mountain bike to rekindle your love of adventure, or play on monkey bars at a local park to feel carefree and youthful. Sometimes all you need is one small shift to reroute your attitude and return to your programming with a refreshing appreciation for fun.

Hitting the trail may take more effort than heading to the local gym, but it’s worth it.

Find Your Fun

So before you jump head first into a popular training program, figure out what the healthiest version of yourself looks like and make that your training goal. And I’m not talking about body composition. Prioritize your health and your happiness.

When you find what makes you happy, do it. Movement should make you feel good, and when fun is the focus, it doesn’t really matter what you do. Choose a path, follow it without guilt, and don’t make excuses. Life is too short for fitness to be so serious.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Don’t Let the Fitness Industry Tell You What to Do
• Your Brain on Movement: Challenge Your Nervous System
• Why Do We Train: Finding Purpose in Movement
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo 1 courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography.

Photo 2 courtesy of Dave Silver via Wikimedia Commons.

The post Are You Having Any Fun? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.