Top 3 Motivators for Muscle Building in the Gym
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at
9:38 pm
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Find a partner. There is a reason that having a training partner helps you get big, other than the obvious spotting duties. Each feeds off the other in a variety of ways. If you have the resources to have a paid trainer, they serve a similar function. Bottom line on days you mentally wander, having someone to scream at you is a very good motivator. Though partners don’t have to scream to motivate. If you train alone, on down days, slide up to someone you know, or don’t know, and work in with them on some sets. Just having someone standing by you will provide some incentive to work harder than you might have otherwise. This brings me to the second motivator.
Compete. This is my favorite. You don’t have to ACTUALLY compete with someone to do this. What I do is pick out a couple people who are busting it big, and from a distance I try to “match up”. They don’t know I’m doing it, or maybe they do. Doesn’t matter. But I use their energy to kick start myself. A variation on this is sometimes I focus on some schlub who thinks they have it happening, and I use my ego to say to myself “no, THIS is how you are SUPPOSSED to do it”. Speaking of ego.
Ego. The evil twin of competing. Part of what allows the newb to do what they are is to have the ego working. The “watch me” mentality. I have no idea, when I’m focused, on what’s happening in the gym around me. To get myself to that point I envision EVERYONE in the gym is looking at me. Got to make a scene now. Can’t give this session a walk through.
The beauty of these little mind games occurs post workout. Often going in unfocused and lacking motivation, after employing one of these little tricks on myself, I walk out having had a better workout than if I were focused from the start. Such is the power of the mind. Use it to your advantage.