And what better way to kick off the 2014 Jtrain Fitness blog posts than with a discussion on New Year resolutions and goal setting? LET'S GET INTO IT!
 |
| Source: newyear-2014.net |
If you have Facebook or any other social media service and / or frequent the gym, chances are you've seen the statuses and memes discussing or highlighting the impending doom that is an influx of gym goers around this time of year akin to a wild west gold rush, as dreams of fitness success are renewed in the hearts and souls of many wanting to make a difference in their lives.
Many people who go to the gym often HATE this time of year for this exact reason. What were once go-to areas of equipment with predictable wait times have now become a cluster-you-know-what of inexperienced lifters and gym-goers throwing monkey wrenches into your routine....making you wait longer....and giving you little to no room to work out to your level of standards in the most efficient way possible.
 |
| Seen here: Most weight rooms on New Year's Day Source: i2.asntown.net |
I understand the hate. For 2 years I worked out at a university gym that was the only real gym on campus for a school that enrolled 52,000 students. NOTHING was open (as far as gym benches, equipment, etc.) after New Year's day OR at the beginning of the fall semester (the busiest gym times of the year on a college campus), and I had to wait for practically everything while I tried to keep my pump and go to war with my muscles. Not only did I have the newbie crowd around, who brought their friends so they didn't feel intimidated, but I also had the frat boys and their overwhelmingly bright shirts taking like 10 minutes in between sets to admire each others' overdeveloped chests and nonexistent shoulders from doing nothing but bench press exercises 24/7 as they relentlessly rained an onslaught of one bro-storm after another on the house of pain. And on top of ALL of that, you had the ladies and their 20 set, 100,000 rep leg presses of 15 pound weight (for both legs, while texting during and in between said sets) as 10 people waited in line before you ever had a chance to even look at the machine.
So I get it. I've dealt with the frustration of wanting to be in and out of the gym and finish up my routine, only to get gummed up and slowed down by those less experienced. I'm not going to sit here and act like it isn't something that has gotten on my nerves, but excuse me if I don't really understand the utter disrespect and nastiness that goes on behind the backs of these gym newbies. Yes, they don't know what they're doing.......yes, a lot of their exercises look absolutely ridiculous.........and yes, they probably will not stick with it.
But everyone starts somewhere, your routine probably isn't perfect and is constantly evolving, and you and even the most elite at their particular fitness craft (bodybuilders, etc.) still falter once and a while.......as you and they themselves are only human.
 |
| Source: eagle.northwestu.edu |
My viewpoint on the subject is that we should embrace those who want to be involved in the fitness community, so long as they are willing to learn and don't overstep their boundaries of being new to the game. We should encourage, respect, and support those who deserve it and who truly want to make a positive difference in their lives. Whether or not someone sticks with the program or not will not impact YOUR routine, so why not be willing to help a fellow gym-goer out? Who cares if they do it as a New Year's resolution or not?
I feel so strongly about this because NOBODY was there to give me any real form of guidance when I started bodybuilding. My friends were never drawn to dominant body aesthetics or the gym scene, and my family was never into any kind of fitness activity. I myself was never involved with any sports at my high school or anything......so I had no experience with any weightlifting exercise, and had no idea what any of them really worked out. I was the kid who would go to school early in the morning to play cards with his friends, and was into all of the nerdy stuff you would expect from someone who was pretty socially challenged. So I almost couldn't have been further away from the bodybuilding spectrum.
The only thing I had to go off of was the visions of superheroes in my head whose bodies I would aspire to, youtube videos for advice, and an undying desire to relentlessly attack and change my image for what I felt was for the better. I can recall to this day how much of a solitary effort it all was, being by myself at night after classes during my undergraduate career, churning away with these exercises I had never in my life been accustomed to, hoping they would do something. That was a time were I had absolutely zero confidence in myself, and would be too shy to ever ask anyone for advice. Looking back, it would have probably sped up the process and would have been fantastic to have a mentor of sorts or someone who could show me the ropes. But then again, all the trial and error and ability to learn how to workout and invest / believe in myself really gave me strength and in my opinion made me a better person in a lot of ways. Some people would now call me arrogant or too into myself, but aside from the fun I'm having with developing my image, a lot of it is due mostly to only having myself during some of the most formative times of my life.
And when did I decide to go about this journey? You guessed it......right after New Year's Day. I was one of the people that all of us experienced in the fitness community are supposed to hate. I would try to purposely go at times that I didn't think were that busy so that if I messed up or looked stupid, there weren't that many people there to laugh at me.
So there's a soft spot in my heart for New Year's Day gym-goers. I know what it's like to be completely new to something that is the complete opposite of who you've been for so many years, and not having a strong support base for you to start from.
And with ALL of that said, I'd like to actually get into some tips that have helped me keep my New Year's resolution going 4 years strong now. You may agree or disagree, but these are some viewpoints and techniques that I have developed and used over the years that have kept me dedicated and consistent with this lifestyle of mine. So here we go (in no particular order):
Make ONE big resolution
I think this is very important. When you can devote all of your time and effort to ONE thing, the quality is often times a lot better. The more effort and focus you put into something, the more success you'll find in my opinion.
 |
| Source: marketingpilgrim.com |
Maybe it's just me and my personality, but when I have too many bases to cover or put too many things on my plate and overcomplicate goals, the end product is not as good as if I took each goal at a time. Make ONE big resolution, and knock it down or master it before moving on to another goal. Having multiple resolutions that are complex and take time have the potential to sike you out and / or burn you out, causing you to be unsuccessful at achieving your resolutions and goals.
Make a resolution you can keep
The new year is a time for big ambitions in changing something about you or your life. But make sure those ambitions aren't so big that they are impossible. I'm sure you know what kinds of resolutions may be too big for you to try and combat, but also don't try and make drastic changes too quickly. I've discussed before why trying to make drastic changes too quickly can cause you to relapse back into bad habits, but having unreasonable expectations can also be bad.
But why is it bad? Shouldn't you always shoot for the moon? I mean kind of, but within reason. Try making a resolution of trying to workout and learning how to lift before you worry about mastering drop sets, negatives, carb loading, etc. You can always add more to a resolution as you gain more and more success. Make your resolution to learn how to stimulate muscle growth or eat before you set your goal to losing 50 pounds and putting on 30 lbs of muscle in a year (which is impossible naturally by the way).
 |
| Source: nationwidevehiclecontracts.co.uk |
Making unreasonable expections is bad because when you fail at them, you start to lose confidence in yourself, and put yourself in a negative mindset that is non-conducive to wanting to stay committed to something and make progress for yourself. Even worse, it may lead you to crash back harder into the negative tendecies and habits you were trying to overcome in the first place.
Plan on how you will attack your resolution
This is important. It's good to know where you want to end up, but it's even more important to figure out how you're going to get there.
 |
| Source: cascadestrategy.com |
When I started bodybuilding, I actually did a lot of planning and research before I started actually working out. You don't need to master the theories behind a new skill, or know everything about how you're going to achieve your resolution, but it's important that you have a game plan. Know what steps you're going to take in achieving your resolution, and stick to the plan. You might have to change it up once and a while, but it should still be fairly consistent.
I believe that one of the worst things someone can do while trying to achieve something is to "wing it" every day. It just invites disaster, and often times leads to an unsuccessful or suboptimal result. This is especially true with things like nutrition and body transformation. I guarantee you that if you wing your diet day to day it will become a colossal mess and your results will suffer for it.
Work every day at that resolution, in any magnitude
To help you stay consistent with your resolution and goals, as well as make progress, it's important that you do SOMETHING involving that resolution EVERY day.
You want to get into the habit of making your resolution part of your every day life. You want it ingrained into your DNA and who you are. I'm not saying you need to make breakthroughs or huge advantages on a daily basis, but you need to make sure that you train yourself into making sure that you remember to work at your resolution day in and day out. Doing so makes it a habit, and doing it often makes you better at it. If you can justify taking one day off from working towards your resolution, you can justify it 10 times, then 100 times, and then you quit. Work towards your resolution, to any degree (big or small) every day. Maybe it's a lot of time spent, or not that much time spent, but you have to spend time with your resolution every day to some magnitude.
Don't just focus on the end game, take one day at a time
I've stressed this concept before. One way to not sike yourself out of working towards a goal or resolution is to worry only about what's in front of you. Always keep the vision of what you're trying to achieve in your mind, but never focus on it exclusively. If you take one step at a time and concentrate on winning each day and not focusing on the magnitude of the mountain you're trying to climb, you'll find mini-successes that will build up over time and eventually see positive results without being intimidated out of your resolution or plan for success and goals.
Accept and look forward to the good AND the bad
Eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman had a very popular saying:
"EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A BODYBUILDER, BUT NOBODY WANNA LIFT THIS HEAVY A** WEIGHT!!"
And it's true. People get so caught up in the glamour of things, that they forget about the difficult and monotonous things that make up the journey of getting there. Everyone wants a rock hard body with great definition and size, but ask them to eat bland food for a week and they look at you like you have 5 arms.
 |
| Source: 2.bp.blogspot.com |
Everyone wants it both ways, with as many shortcuts as possible. They want all of the success with none of the pain and sacrifice........and then blame everything in their universe when things go wrong.....except for themselves of course.......but that's a blog post for another day.
The point is, before you do ANY resolution making, accept and invite in all of the potential hard work, sacrifice, and other mind-numbing forms of grinding that you'll have to be doing. Know that their will be a tough road to go down, a mountain to climb, and hard work to be done. Once you've readied yourself for that, you won't find yourself completely blindsided and more inclined to quit once you realize that you actually have to do work to achieve success in your resolutions and goals.
Don't look at it as a resolution
The problem with looking at something as some sort of novelty item, tool, or course is that you program into your mind that there is an expiration date. Maybe there IS some kind of finish line to your goal (i.e., learning a song...becoming fluent in a language...getting an A in a class), but I encourage you to look at a resolution not like a start and stop kind of thing, but rather as a continual progression towards something. Something that you keep etching into your life and lifestyle. Something that is planted inside you and is constantly growing. When you look at it as something you want to actively change in your life, and make it part of who you are, you will find more success and become a lot more committed.
 |
| Source: addconsults.com |
And those are just some tips that I would give anyone trying to succeed in a resolution, be it in bodybuilding / fitness, or any other kind of change in their lives that they want to make. You may find other techniques that work for you.
You can absolutely change the things in your life that you can control. Don't let anyone intimidate you out of making you want to change something about yourself or acheiving something you want for yourself. Dig deep......make it your passion and top priority. Don't let anything sway you or make you take a break from your gameplan. And above all else, stop at nothing to achieve what you resolve to conquer in 2014!
Good luck!
-Jtrain
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment