How to Stay Motivated to Train

March 15th, 2010 Posted in Fitness Tips, Motivation No Comments »

The best way I have found to stay motivated to train, is to keep track of my stats.

Here are some statistics you can use to measure your progress at the gym:

Pictures of your body.
Videos of you posing or training.
Measurements using a tape measure:
- Neck
- Shoulders
- Chest/Back
- Arms
- Waist at belt level
- Waist at belly button
- Hips
- Quads
- Hamstrings
- Calves

Body weight via scale
Body fat via calipers, Omron, other body fat tests.
Strength – how many reps you can complete:
- How many pull ups you can do.
- How many chin ups you can do.
- 1 rep max on deadlift, squat, bench press, etc…
- 5 rep max on any exercise.
- 10 rep max on any exercise.
- How many reps you can do in one minute, any exercise, any weight.
- Keep a workout log and try to beat all your numbers each workout.
Endurance – how long it takes you to complete an exercise or event.
Flexibility – record how many inches you can stretch.
Diet – keep a food journal to keep improving your diet.

Test yourself as often as every 2-4 weeks and record the results each time. This will provide you with tangible results for your training, which translates into motivation.

Publish your results online, show them to friends and familly. This will provide additional accountibility to stay disciplined, continue making progress, and ultimately to acheive your goals.

Get a workout partner who is similar to you in body structure, appearance, and goals. Compete with that person to see who can acheive their results the fastest, or to see who can get in shape quickest.

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About Project Swole - Project Swole is managed and mostly written by Steve, a formerly IFPA and ISSA certified personal trainer and sport nutritionist, who has been studying, practicing, and experimenting with fitness and nutrition since 1992. Please use the content at Project Swole to supplement the advice of your doctor or physician. All medical questions should be directed towards a qualified medical professional, and the advice provided at Project Swole should be used at your own discretion.

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Tags: Diet, dieting, Fitness Tips, Motivation, Weight Training, weightlifting, Workout Logs

This entry was posted on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 11:46 am and is filed under Fitness Tips, Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.