7 Genius Workout Motivation Tips

If you want to lose weight, get fitter, and build a better body, then there’s no way around it – you need to be working out. Exercising burns calories, ramps up your metabolism, builds and maintains lean muscle mass, and helps to define and strengthen your physique. But working out is tough.
   

1. Stick to Your Diet

Hopefully, if you’re training towards something, then you’ve got your diet in order to. If weight loss or fat burning is your goal, that means a calorie-controlled, well-balanced diet with no junk food. If muscle gain and bulking up is what you’re after, then you’ll need more calories, and more protein, and even if you’re just training for general health and fitness, you need to make sure you aren’t over or under eating, and that you’re selecting good quality, nutritious food choices.

Sticking to a diet will definitely increase your workout motivation. By keeping healthy, and outing in the effort with the foods you eat, you’ll automatically be more motivated, as you want to put the hard work from dieting to good use. A good diet will also boost your energy levels, and improve your training performance.

2. Set Yourself Goals

Once a month, set aside half an hour to plan your goals. Use the SMART Goals system. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Time-based. You need to make sure that all your goals adhere to these guidelines. Your goals can be whatever you want them to be, but you should have one outcome based goal, such as “I want to lose five pounds in four weeks”, and one behavioral one, like “I will do ten 45 minute gym sessions in the next month”.

Once a week, sit down for ten minutes, and see if you’re on track with your goals. If you are, then great, if you’re not, then it’s time to do something about it.

3. Plan Your Training

Planning your training does two things. Firstly, it ensures that you’ll be following a well-rounded, balanced program based around attaining optimal results. Secondly, it can be good fun, and give you renewed vim and vigor for training.

It’s up to you whether you follow a pre-made routine, or design your own. There are plenty of excellent standard routines out there for any goal, and you only have to pick up a training book, flick through the latest fitness magazine, or browse the Internet for 15 minutes to find a ton of great routines. Likewise, you can make your own. Provided your workout includes weight training, cardiovascular exercise, mobility work, and some form of corrective or “pre-hab” exercise, you should be fine.
 

Try not to just include exercises you like doing either – we all need to do more of the stuff we dislike, as more often than not, it’s this stuff that needs improving the most, and making it better will lead to greater gains.

Take your plan with you to the gym, and follow it to the letter. You can make small adjustments to it once a month to keep training interesting, and maintain motivation levels.

4. Buddy Up

There will always be days when you just don't feel like going to the gym, even if you had told yourself you'd do it. Motivate yourself by making sure you're accountable — agree to work out with a friend. You won't want to let them down or allow them to see your bad days, and that can be incredibly motivating.

5. Focus on How You Feel

We'll always hit weight loss or muscle growth plateaus from time to time, and when that happens, keeping your eyes on the goals you've set won't be motivating enough. Instead, remember how you used to feel before you started training, and zoom in on the knowledge that you'll feel more accomplished, energetic, and happier when you work out. 

6. Take a Break

To achieve your goals, you need to workout regularly — but you also need to give your muscles the chance to recover from your hard work. If you are really not feeling up to it, maybe your body is telling you that it is time for a break. Take one, and return to the gym with renewed motivation in four days to a week. 

7. Surround yourself with affirmations

It sounds silly, but it works. Write down quotes that inspire you to keep training, and surround yourself with them. Put up pictures that remind you of your goals, too, if you like — maybe of people running a marathon, like you are planning to. Try not to focus on your looks, but rather the things you will be able to achieve when you train hard.

Even the most dedicated gym goers sometimes struggle to motivate themselves, so don’t worry if you go through phases of not wanting to train. The important thing is that you know how to deal with lapses in motivation, and follow these seven genius motivation tips to make sure you keep up with your workouts.