In my introduction, I mentioned that these days when I go to the gym I feel like I’m flying. That comes from confidence — Confidence with a capital C! True confidence only comes after achieving success at something and achieving success requires practice and repetitive action. Meaning anybody can achieve it — in time. But confidence isn’t necessary at the gym. Patience and having a strong desire and compelling reason to hit the gym represent the drivers for your initial success. Patience is crucial when it comes to getting in shape. It takes time. A “strong reason” to commit to the gym provides the proverbial “UMPH!” to keep going back time and again.
Patience is a virtue
Time – an important concept when it comes to the gym! Over time, the body and mind become accustomed to repetition. In fact, there is a part of our brains especially designed for repetition.
Can you believe that?
Repetition can represent a useful tool when it comes to setting up a great routine, but you have to take care not to allow your mind to play games with you. For instance, if you missed out on a Sunday workout for time with your friends at the beach, then don’t beat yourself up over it. Perfectionism kills progression. Make a mistake…it’s normal. Just watch out for the three month red flag.
Three-month red flag? What is that?
When you’ve hit the gym for 3 months, you’ll begin to feel great. It’ll make you so excited, you’ll want to tell everyone about it. The harder you work, the more you accomplish and the louder you shout your success. Then around the two to three month mark something happens… you lose your motivation. You may no longer feel happy with the results. Your workout becomes boring.
What happened?
The three-month mark happened. This is when 70% of people quit and an additional 20% will quit in the following 30 days. Why does this happen? I wish I could tell you, but I am as Lost as Harold Perrineau (he did find his way back to the US to help rock his favorite RockScar Love shirt, but I digress). Maybe it’s that evil inclination within us, trying to distract us right before we hit our goal? Because those who stick it out and pass the infamous three month red flag are more likely to reach their goals and make it to achieve personal success.
So, what is your reason for hitting the gym?
Write down your powerful and emotional reason for hitting the gym on a 3×5 card and tape it to your bathroom mirror
MY REASON FOR HITTING THE GYM IS ________________________________!
Awesome! Now let’s take the next step together in two weeks, see you then…
About Amir:
The sexy Amir is a single guy looking for a new Jewish girl in LA. He decided to pick up blogging with RockScar Love as a way to share a little bit about himself. Amir lives on the sunny west coast where he pursues his passions of acting, playing guitar, and health and fitness (to keep that awesome bod in shape). Amir comes to us through Victoria Dadi, one of our other favorite bloggers, and he’ll share his fitness tips about taking care of your body. Heck, he might just share a story or two about his experiences as a northeastern guy surviving the single scene in Hollywood. You can find out more about Amir through his IMDB site.
Thanks, Amir! This is an ongoing struggle for me and I appreciate your words of wisdom. Of course, ‘hitting the gym’ isn’t really an option for me given that I live out here in Elk Poo so I’m struggling to find alternative ways. I see the potential benefits of tree climbing and trotting in circles in my yard but I see far too much comedy in it to actually execute it.
I think the key is finding something that you love doing. I love mountain biking, so I don’t view it as exercise. I love boxing, so I look forward to that every morning. If I ever find myself not wanting to work out (and that is rare!), I let myself have the day off. At some point over the past five years, exercise became an integral part of my life, something that was never a question of “if” I would do it. It is as essential to my day as going to work.
hi i’m amir, i wrote this blog and i totally agree with you kel. when you do what you love it comes naturally, sometimes it’s hard to figure out what we even love to do.. best way is to try everything and see what works, that’s what i do in my life. eventually you do what you love automatically without thinking about it and then it becomes a routine. i’ve been hitting the gym for over eleven years, so 99% i’ll probably be in fitness shape for the rest of my life. routine is key! ~amir
Hi Amir! I’m part of the branding and promotion team for Amy’s Scars R Sexy campaign and I wanted to give you a thumbs up on this great post about fitness. Fitness has always been a very important part of my life (like brushing my teeth
)
I wanted to ask you about Crossfit. I am a Crossfit FREAK! It’s really quite the craze here in Texas. I work out on a 3 day on, 1 day off schedule. This past Friday and Saturday, I worked out in Galveston (I was on vacation) and the workout was so fierce and brutal that I’m really sore. Any advice for getting over the soreness quickly?
Hi Samantha! Cross fit is excellent because of the variety of exercises it provides and heart pounding speeds. I’m actually auditioning for a new YouTube cross fit video series being worked on as we speak. Getting sore is a GREAT message your body is telling you that you’ve worked on muscles that were not worked on previously, or not as hard. It’s an excellent sign in fitness! These days I plan new excursuses based on whether I got sore or not. If I did not feel sore, I’ll pick a different exercise. If I did feel sore, than I’ll continue that specific exercise until I no longer do feel sore.
So it sounds like you’re on the right track, getting sore is great unless it’s at problem areas like the lower back. Reason being that when you’re sore, it’s a sign that the muscle fiber is torn (don’t worry it’s “A GOOD THING!” as Martha Stewart would say) and that now it needs some rest so that it can rebuild the new muscle tissue, bigger and better. We use our lower back all the time so it won’t get the chance it needs to rest so that new muscle tissue will start growing. So REST is the key. When you rest, the torn muscle tissue begins to rebuild and strengthen again so it’s STRONGER than before, causing muscle growth and fat loss.
So my feeling is that if you’re feeling sore often, take a break the following day. You want to give your body more time to recuperate. Remember your muscle growth is not done in exercise (like some people think), rather during rest.
Aside from resting for longer periods between workout days, better sleep and nutrition (eating more protein to help build that muscle) will also help! From my experience, you can get the best quality protein from:
Cottage cheese
Egg whites
Turkey meat
Lean skinless chicken
Tuna
These five items carry the least (or NO FAT) protein in your supermarket.
Good luck and everyone reading this, for more tips and insights, feel free to facebook friend me referencing ROCK SCAR LOVE and that you saw my blog there so I’ll recognize you:
FB user: AMIR AMIRUSH
Thanks Amir! Yes, I follow the Paleo Nutrition plan and have implemented it (recently) for my kids. It’s been great for me and my family. We don’t eat a lot of dairy (save for egg whites, etc.) with Paleo lifestyle eating, but do eat all of the meats you’ve listed including grass fed beef. My husband and I just went in with a couple of others and bought 1/4 of a grass fed cow.
I’ve never had a weight problem, in fact, I’ve had issues keeping weight on in the past. My issue is getting bored with my workouts. Crossfit changed all of that!