So how does all of that relate to will power and progression? For me it's not so much will power as the drive to reach a goal I've set. I'm not "willing" myself into anything, but simply keeping the prize in my minds eye. Everyday. You see I can be a tiny, wee little bit obsessive. Ok maybe a little more than a wee bit. When I have a goal in mind it's all I think about. This keeps the drive going. I'll tel you a short story as an example of what I mean.
Before After |
As for the plateau issue, well to me that's an even easier issue to solve. If you plateau, your mind or your body is bored. Many times I have plateaued and when I do I simply change gears. If it's running like I do now, I change location, change the time of day, change my runs from long and slow to short and fast, I try hills, different shoes, new music on my mp3 player. You get the idea. When I was skateboarding competitively I always tried new things. I was never just a street skater, vert skater or bowl guy. I did it all. For me it's better to be good at all kinds of things, then the best at just one.
I used to do some personal training and have gone through periods in my life where weight lifting was my only sport or training. Just ask my previous training partners who I helped to coach to better fitness Keith and George. Myself and these two nutcases used to push ourselves until we would sometimes faint or vomit. Why? Why the fuck would anyone do that? Because we challenged each other. I do the same for myself. Small challenges every day. When I comes to working out I have developed a great "routine" that works for me and is really not routine at all. For training you need structure, but that doesn't mean you can have variables within that structure. I train my core and hit the weights once a week for an hour to supplement my sports. Once I'm in my gym It works like this, I have a set routine of what muscle groups I work and the order, but I don't plan anything. I have enough different exercises in my head that I basically decide just before my set what I'll do. I don't repeat those sets for more than 2 weeks in a row. I find trying to beat last weeks results only works once for me then I need to move on. I constantly change from barbell, to dumbbell to body weight exercises. I use pyramid reps, negative reps and whatever else I can think of to just make it feel new and different.
Here is my basic workout:
Core: 10 sets, 15-25 reps per set, approx. 150-250 total - 20 minutes
Abs 2 sets to failure.
Lower back 1 set to failure.
Repeat 3 x
Push-up variation to failure
Weight Training: usually work top to bottom - 20 minutes per round
Round 1: dumb bells, medium weight
Shoulders 8-12 reps
Chest 8-12 reps
Back 8-12 reps
Biceps 8-12 reps
Triceps 8-12 reps
Legs 8-12 reps
Round 2: barbell, heavy weight
Shoulders 6-10 reps
Chest 6-10 reps
Back 6-10 reps
Biceps 6-10 reps
Triceps 6-10 reps
Legs 6-10 reps
This routine has helped me to stay motivated and be creative by inventing my routines on the fly. It also helps to keep the dread factor down, since I don't even know what my workout will entail it becomes useless to dread it. It also helps to design the workout to how you're feeling that day. Not all days are created equal.
To sum all of this up. Pick a goal. Live it, eat it, breath it. Stay excited about that goal. Tell it to others and make it your reality. Keep things fresh through constant change. Come up with new challenges for yourself or challenge your workout/training partner to a competition or a race. This will help to keep your mind out of the "gotta just get this done" mode and into a "I wonder how good I can do today" place. For me it has always been living in the moment that kept training and sports so exciting. Could I learn this new trick today? Can I beat my last running time? Can I actually lift this much? Can I last just one minute longer? I hope you'll find like I did that the incredible sense of accomplishment that comes with answering these questions for yourself is truly the most addicting and motivating factor there is.
No comments:
Post a Comment