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

On Christmas day,  me and Amanda flipped on the Ravens/Texans game while sipping on homemade chicken noodle soup.

Even though the game was a blowout, it was a blast to watch – especially seeing the Raven’s quarterback, Lamar Jackson make history (most rushing yards in history).

But there was another eye-opening moment post-game when a reporter presented Jackson and star-running back, Derrick Henry with football-shaped chocolate cakes.

Rip it open and take a bite, the reporter said.

But the two athletes kept their distance and politely turned down the offer.

I gotta eat a real meal first, replied Jackson.

(Which I can’t blame him, cake after playing football sounds unpleasant…)

After seeing them turn down the cake, I thought to myself:

“I wonder if there’s another reason there...”

I didn’t look into Jackson’s training, but it turns out that “King Henry’s” training regimen sheds some light on his ‘no cake decision’:

• He invests roughly $240K per year on longevity and maintaining his body
• In-season he eats his first meal at 4-5pm (and his second meal at 8pm)
• He doesn’t eat fried food… dairy… gluten… and artificial sugars (which he says his body feels great and he’ll probably keep doing for the rest of his life)
• During the off-season he does two-a-day workouts (which includes 100-yard hill sprints… hammer curls with 80lb DBs… and Bulgarian split squats with 120lb DBs)
• Regularly uses infrared sauna, cold therapy, massage therapy, bodywork and hyperbaric oxygen for recovery.
• Three times per week he gets IV with CoQ10, vitamin E and other vitamins.

Maybe that’s why he’s on his 9th season as a high-performing running back (in a league where the average player lasts 3.3 years). And he is showing no signs of slowing down – in fact, he’s stronger… more mobile… and quicker than ever before (accelerating to 21 mph).

Even though, few of us require NFL-level athleticism and devotion to training – Henry has a champion mindset that we can all infuse into our fitness journey:

"I think the willingness to put the work in, no matter where you are in life, if you're at your lowest of the low or the highest of the high, continue to keep that same drive, continue to want to get better at your game, no matter where you are, and I think that's what makes greatness great. That's the one where the elite separate themselves from the average.” – Derrick Henry

Happy holidays,

Kelan Ern

P.S. For a much deeper dive into the mindset of the fittest people on the planet and how you can get your mind right about fitness and next level athleticism - check out a free issue of Mind-Body Breakthroughs.