Recently, one of the fittest Hollywood actors had a confession.

Tom Hardy (Venom, Dark Knight Rises, The Revenant) has gotten beaten up over the years in his highly physical roles on the silver screen. Throughout all the fight scenes he even competed in several Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions and won.

But his body has been flashing warning signs. Apparently, he’s had two knee surgeries, slipped a disc in his back, suffers from sciatica, has plantar fasciitis and then pulled a hip tendon.

In an interview with Esquire the 47-year-old shared:

“It’s like it’s all falling to bits now, and it’s not going to get better”

Someone recently posted online that they feel like Hardy.

Despite being 35 they feel 65 with knee pain… tennis elbow… chronic back pain… shoulder tendonitis… ulnar nerve impingement… and more. They really want to play sports pain-free again and not have all the aches and pains that their first half of life has been riddled with. But they don’t know if it’s really possible for them anymore, and wonder:

Is it possible to turn it around?

When I slipped a disc in my low back, I limped around everywhere and couldn’t tie my own shoes. It was one of the most painful and discouraging injuries I’ve ever had. There were moments where I worried if this shooting pain would ever go away or if I was going to be hunched over for the rest of my life.

What turned it around?

It was a wake-up call that simply running more… lifting more… had its limits. I couldn’t just focus on moving move. I had to focus on moving better – improving my mobility, flexibility and balance so I could “bullet-proof” my body for greater resilience. All this helped me limber up more than ever, heal from that herniated disc and build a much more solid foundation for fitness.

What’s possible for our battered and beaten 35-year-old friend?

I don’t know exactly.

But I know a lot can change when you shift gears and double down on moving better while you try to move more. I’ve seen people regain mobility they haven’t had in years, in some cases decades while also doing more outdoor activities and hobbies they love – without hurting for days.

If you’ve struggled with stiffness, tightness or lack of balance while getting in shape and want some guidance on this topic, I’m putting together a new program that might help. It will give you personalized, daily support with helping you move better, feel better and restore your athleticism.

Join the Mind-Body Breakthroughs newsletter to learn more

Kelan Ern

Piggybacking off last week’s ‘gym vs. at home’ workouts, comes another timely question:

When will I start wanting to go to the gym?

According to this person, they’ve been working out (somewhat consistently) for five days per week for a few months and they HATE it.

Reminds me of a few years ago when an aspiring content creator  told a well-known podcaster that he’d been making videos for 4 months and had barely seen any results.

The podcaster replied:

“4 months! That’s it!? You aren’t even out the door yet!”

If you’ve only been working out for a few months, you aren’t out the door either.

Although two months may feel like a lot – and some experts say it takes 30 days to build a habit, there’s research that shows it can take up to 254 days!

So the fact that you haven’t found a fulfilling relationship with exercise at this caterpillar stage is no surprise.

You’ve barely started.

With that said, here are five gym motivation tips, but really these are motivation-blockers that could be getting in the way:

1. Your training volume may be too high – especially if you just started. You might find a better, more enjoyable (and sustainable rhythm) downgrading to three days per week. Then upgrading once you psychologically manage that.
2. Your intensity may be too high – and so you are creating a negative association to working out and stepping into the gym in general
3. Your mindset. You can want to enjoy it all you want, but if you are silently telling yourself, this sucks… I hate this… why is this so hard… so you’re dousing any spark of enjoyment with your downpour of negative thoughts.
4. You might have unclear goals or a murky fitness vision that doesn’t inspire you and so you feel like you’re going through the motions.
5. You might have unreasonable expectations about how long it takes to reach your goals. You might believe you can just go beast-mode for a few months and then “be fit”. This is a rude awakening for anyone who’s tried. It’s not the path to any sort of lasting transformation.

 
One last thought:

Some people expect that they should love exercise and should want to do it and if they don’t they believe something is wrong.

Let that relationship naturally evolve.

It doesn’t just happen. It requires a level of observation and reflection to find out what cadence and type of exercise works for you. You may despise the dreadmill and feel more at home with lifting free weights… trail running… or group exercise classes.

I don’t know.

But part of it is a discovery process.

Not forcing yourself to enjoy something, and when it’s not enjoyable you believe something is wrong or you aren’t a “workout person.”

Kelan Ern

Here’s one of my all-time favorite questions:

Why is going to the gym easier than working out at home?

While in college in rural Iowa, I had a grizzled psychology professor who gave riveting lectures which led me to become fascinated with the applications of psychology in fitness – especially conditioning and associations. I started to ask myself:

• How can we create a positive association to exercise where people want to keep doing it?
• What negative associations do we tend to create around exercise?

One light-bulb moment was realizing the difference between gym workouts and at-home workouts.

With at-home workouts, you have a lower barrier since you don’t have to drive anywhere… change in a sweaty locker room… wait your turn for the leg press machine… or endure grunting gym rats. But for many people it’s a struggle to maintain a workout routine from home.

One reason is associations.

Think about the emotional associations attached to your living room. Most people associate relaxing… hanging out… and Netflix and chillin’ in this space. So every time you step into that room, those associations start to take over.

Now what emotions are required for working out?

Usually the opposite. Usually higher-energy emotions such as drive or determination to power through a workout and give it your best.

So when you try to work out in a space such as living room, you are mixing associations.

It’s not impossible but it’s confusing for the brain.

It’s similar to why sleep experts say don’t work on your laptop or go on your eye-phone while in bed. That’s because you are mixing up the associations of work and sleep. And it confuses your brain as to which one you are doing.

A gym can become a powerful association for nothing else but intensely lifting weights… doing light cardio… or getting your sweat on.

And the more you do it, the more you build that emotional association to that space - where your mind naturally gravitates towards those higher-intensity emotions whenever you are there.

If you prefer to skip the gym, a home gym can do the same thing.

Here’s a personal example:

A few years ago, I decided to cancel my gym membership and workout in my office. I would do strength workouts with heavy bands and a push-up plus (a more comfortable way to do band push-ups). This worked okay for a season but I noticed it was becoming a drag and required a lot of push motivation to follow through.

When I decided to create my garage gym, this all changed.

Then I had a designated space for working out where I could escape and get away from my work environment that I had been in most of the day. It became a sanctuary of sorts where just being in that space was conducive to attacking the weights… getting after it… and focusing on the present moment.

Whether it’s a gym or a home gym, create a designated space for working out and see what it does for helping you get into a routine, become more consistent and get more traction on your fitness goals.

Kelan Ern