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How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

ZeroedForImpact

Private
Minuteman
Jun 26, 2011
17
0
39
U.S.
Hello everyone,

I know enough about what to eat and what not to eat, what are good fats and what are bad fats. I know about timing your meals and the like.

My problem is staying motivated and focused on my overall goal when it comes to working out. I'm wondering what you guys or gals, do to help run through your workout each week and stay motivaed till the end, when your just maintaining your fitness.

Thnx!
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

It may sound cheesey but my two kids motivate me. I want to be around for them.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

I've tried alot of things through the years and the biggest thing that keep me motivated is my close friend and lifting partner of three years (so far). I have a very strong connection to him on an athletic level and because we know each other so well it is very easy to push one another to be the best that we can be. I know where his limits are, I know what to say to make him work his hardest, I know every little detail about him to keep him going so that he can push through the day and meet my expectations. The same goes for him when he's pushing me. It is this bond between the two of us that allows us to train our absolute hardest when we can train with each other.

Staying dedicated and focussed is exeptionally difficult for alot of people. It truly does make a world of difference to not only have a goal that you're passionate about, but to also have someone who cares to push you towards that goal on days that you're just not quite feeling motivated enough to do it completely on your own. But even if you do have this type of relationship with your lifting partner/spotter, you will eventually have to do without them on occasion. They might be unavailable for whatever reason, and it's on those days that I find it the hardest to push myself. I get this sort of lost and slow feeling when I'm working out alone because I don't have that guidance from a person who knows damn well if I'm slacking or not. It is on those types of days that I resort back to a competitive state of mind. I think about all the mistakes I have made in races, or any other competetive event that I have failed in before. I remember the dissapointment of those days and I find the determination to force myself to improve so that I can be capable of never letting those mistake happen again.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Doesn't sound cheesy at all, if there is ever a good reason for being motivated for a healthy lifestyle that is definitely one of them.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

+1 for being around for children they motivate me for alot of things getting up and going to work is the 1 they probably motivate me the most for
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Having a great trainer has helped me over the years - especially for the 5 AM work outs, but I don't always use one anymore.

As stated, it is a way of life, and surely is a great way to remain healthy for your family and wife.

I really can't imagine not going to the gym....it helps on so many levels: focus, determination, stress relief, and an overall great rush when finished.



 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

I try to focus on my goals. When I look in the mirror in the morning I try to admit something that I can change . also associating with like minded people helps too.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

I try to surround myself with No-Minded people. It just makes me feel so much better. My Wife & My Bills are plenty enough to keep me "On Track" and Focused!
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: blair</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Having a great trainer has helped me over the years - especially for the 5 AM work outs, but I don't always use one anymore.

As stated, it is a way of life, and surely is a great way to remain healthy for your family and wife.

I really can't imagine not going to the gym....it helps on so many levels: focus, determination, stress relief, and an overall great rush when finished.



</div></div>
5am training no-xplode by bsn woke me up awesome and kept me focused I'm not a morning person and it turned me into 1
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Im in my 40s and my kids are all under 10, if I dont take care of myself Im going to miss a lot of stuff in their teen years. Also my woman is smoking hot and I figure I owe her to try to keep myself there as well.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

I get bored easily with the same workout regimens, so i mix it up a little bit so i dont lose focus. I mainly use climbing and swimming for my workouts. I just cant get myself to weightlift or run on a treadmill for 2 hours.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Motivation = retirement from the .mil after 20 years at age 42...then have great habits garnered from those years carried over into my new civi. life.

I can indulge and take part in my subtle bad habits even more...when I regularly function test the personal weapon system.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Knowing that once I become a Deputy Sheriff, there will always be someone I meet on the job that is bigger stronger and faster than I...

-Z
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

It is called Hemo-Rage from Nutrex. Mix two scoops with a 8.4oz sugar-free Red Bull, chug it, and you'll begin working out within 30-45 min. I guarantee it.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

I loomk at these two and want to make sure im around to see pics like this of their kids.

(and i like when my 7yr old sees "super heros" on Tv and tells me "I think you could take that guy dad")

IMG_2856-1-2.jpg
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

For everybody it is different. I am not married and have no kids, so i cant say it is for them. But being single definitely keeps me motivated cause i have to be in shape. It may be superficial for some, but at the end of the day whatever reasoning that gets your ass to the gym and works use it.

What i also usually do is give myself a couple of big trips a year to places that you almost have to be in shape such as Vegas and South Beach. When i know i am going to Vegas for Memorial Weekend, you know starting February my ass is on the cardio/weights with Vegas in mind
smile.gif
It works for now, maybe when i get married with kids, i will find a new motivation.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

make list small goals each night for the next day. THen wake up and look at that list throughout the day and make the goals!
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Allow my wife to be brutally honest. When she starts saying things like you look better with a shirt on it usually does the trick
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JJones75</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I loomk at these two and want to make sure im around to see pics like this of their kids.

(and i like when my 7yr old sees "super heros" on Tv and tells me "I think you could take that guy dad")

IMG_2856-1-2.jpg
</div></div>

Cherish them buddy.

As for staying motivated?
If you can find someone to work out with it puts a bit of competition into it and puts an edge on the sessions.
Putting a heart monitor watch on can also help if you know what your VO2 max is.
Give me your weight, and age and I will hazard a guess at a heart rate.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Pronsaios</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Putting a heart monitor watch on can also help if you know what your VO2 max is.
Give me your weight, and age and I will hazard a guess at a heart rate. </div></div>

35yrs old , 278 pounds this am @11-12-% bodyfat , currently doing 15 min HIT cardio 3 days a week at a heart rate of 170 bpm just for the cardiovascular health.

Aside from my Dr being pissed that my diet totally blows his cholesterol worries out of-the water my blood pressure and resting heart rate shoot down that high muscle mass is bad for heart health , 106/51 blood pressure x 49bpm heart rate when resting
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

My motivation is knowing not every fight I am going to be in is a gun fight. Just being more athletic in a hand-to-hand fight will give you another edge to add to other training.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Reply to JJones:

Having been a competitive oarsman and a rowing coach I would suggest adding training sessions with a HR of say 130/140 for longer periods of time. Steady State Training it is called. Doing this on a rowing machine exercises all parts of the body and you can challenge your output all the time, the machine will not lie!
You can also achieve the same result with weights by reducing the weight and increasing the reps and sets.
Do two Steady State (S/S)sessions a week and one at the higher HR.
If you are interested I can give you more info.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

I watch Bruce Lee movies.
smile.gif


Kidding... Sort of. ...

Truly though, I think of fitness/health as the fountain of youth. As long as I can do pullups and burpees like mad I don't feel old. I figure once I can't run, jump, and climb, all the fun's over.

I don't want the fun to end.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JJones75</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Pronsaios</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Putting a heart monitor watch on can also help if you know what your VO2 max is.
Give me your weight, and age and I will hazard a guess at a heart rate. </div></div>

35yrs old , 278 pounds this am @11-12-% bodyfat , currently doing 15 min HIT cardio 3 days a week at a heart rate of 170 bpm just for the cardiovascular health.

</div></div>


I hope you dont take offense but if those stats are right, you are a beast. 278lbs at 11% BF is very hard to do, so i commend you for that and you say your diet sucks what if it wasnt? I would love to see a pic, And no homo here lol
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: alpha6164</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
I hope you dont take offense but if those stats are right, you are a beast. 278lbs at 11% BF is very hard to do, so i commend you for that and you say your diet sucks what if it wasnt? I would love to see a pic, And no homo here lol </div></div>

I don't have any recient pics but their is a couple from a show I did last year was on stage about 255 and I have been having a very productive off season. I was over 300 for bout 12 years before I decided to get into body building.
If all goes right I should be on stage his year 4-5% in the 270 pound range
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JJones75</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
If all goes right I should be on stage his year 4-5% in the 270 pound range </div></div>

You Sir, are a freak!
grin.gif
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Nobody makes you go to the gym (or whatever), it's a contract that you make with yourself. When you cheat at it, the only person you cheat, is yourself. If you are going only to impress a spouse, or think you will magically become more attractive to the opposite, you are setting yourself up for failure. My biggest motivation was the enhanced self-image and confidence being in shape gives me. That and true Love are the only things money can't buy.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Well, you just have to want it bad enough. If you don't want it, if you rely on external motivation, sooner or later you will lose it.

I spend 4 years in grad school trying to make the olympic trials as a marathon runner. I got damn, damn close but no cigar. Then in short order I start a full-time career, bought a property (not just a house, but a house and 15 acres to mold/maintain), and had a kid. In less than a year I was in the position where I was training 75% as much as before and still LOSING fitness.

Talk about demotivating.

After a couple years I threw in the towel and quit running for about 8 months. Not a step. Well, then I went on an elk hunt which I had been on the year before...while still training...and it SUCKED. I felt like a fat, couch-sitting MF. I hated sucking wind, I hated people I considered non-athletes almost keeping up with me.

I realized that I needed to train because I loved being healthy, I loved being fit and being able to do whatever the hell I wanted to do. I stopped comparing myself to my old self and just focused on being fit and able to do whatever I wanted to do. I'll never run that fast again but I can go from seal level to 8000ft and keep up with absolutely anybody, and that's good enough for me.

Training may suck...I ran 15 miles in 2 runs today and plan 20 tomorrow. It's not always fun. But being able to do the hunt...or run a 2:30 marathon...or bench 150% of my body weight or whatever....when I can do whatever the goal is it makes it worth it. So set those goals.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

My second chance keeps me going.

Hope this is not a too long story...

I have never been much of a fitness person, but things took a new direction just over seven months ago. Me and my two colleagues were working in Sweden (I´m finnish) at the time and we were driving from work in a small Mercedes van towards our accommodation near our job site. I was sitting next the passenger side door. 17 year old kid with narcotics in his blood comes from the opposite direction driving like a mad man. He lost the control of his Volvo estate and crashed right into us. Both of my mates died before the medics arrived. The medics cut open the van so they could get me out of that pile of scrap. I was rushed into the hospital and intensive care unit. I had broke my spine, my right knee, left wrist and my pelvis was shattered. Also my spleen was torn and it was bleeding quite heavy. My pancreas and left lung suffered some damage too. They could not operate the spleen because my pelvis was collapsed over it and the pelvis operation would be also too risky because i was bleeding quite badly internally. So they pumped bags of fresh blood in me and after four days in intensive care the spleen stopped bleeding and my condition was stabile enough for a medic flight back to Finland. After three quite painful operations I started to think I have to get better and make it fast. I can´t get my buddies back but I´m only 30 years old and I have so much to do in my life!

So I had the right mindset, I just needed to wait until doctors gave me the green light to start walking and getting in shape. Even one of my
thoracic vertebra was broken and collapsed (TH 12) I was not paralyzed. Weeks went by and I got off the bed. Then I got off the wheelchair and started using crutches. My friends drove me to my local shooting range many times and helped me behind my Tikka T3 that i had ordered just before the accident. Shooting was pretty hard with my spine support brace on and I could shoot only from the bench but I was loving it!
smile.gif
The cool thing was that I "learned to walk again" without the crutches in the range.
laugh.gif
Weeks went by and my doctor gave me the permit to start going to the gym. I recovered enough to even go hunting in september. I was walking slowly and got tired very fast but again I was doing what I love to do.

Not a day goes by that I´m not in the gym or on my exercise bike. Not because I have to, but because I can and I have a second chance to have a better and healthier life. So I´m taking it!

http://kovaluu.kuvat.fi/kuvat/kolari/lantio.jpg
My pelvis as it is today. My johnson is not made out of steel, it´s a shield for the x-ray.
grin.gif


http://kovaluu.kuvat.fi/kuvat/kolari/polvisivu.jpg
Right knee.

http://kovaluu.kuvat.fi/kuvat/kolari/rankasivu.jpg
Spine. Can you spot the collapsed part?

http://kovaluu.kuvat.fi/kuvat/kolari/ranne.jpg
Left wrist


So there you go... My little story and motivation.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

sometimes we lack "sticktoitiveness" sometimes having a buddy who's motivated and wont accept no for an answer is the key. that and hollow threats, those work sometimes haha
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

julle, that is incredible...and a motivating story.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Work out with someone or a group of people who are serious. I am amazed at how much faster/longer I can run when we do AGRs. It's hard for me to stay motivated when on vacation/out of town. But I just gotta grit my teeth and do it otherwise I know the boys will seethat I've been slacking. (I fuckin' hate that)
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

There are some pretty knowledgeable people on the hide when it comes to fitness .


How I stay motivated ... FAT people motivate me I see them and I'm like wow look at that ...... If I did not train I would look like that .

Being fit is good to especially if you look like you lift .
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

or at the ER
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: robertsma</div><div class="ubbcode-body">1 scoope 1MR and an 8.5 oz sugar free red bull, within 30 minutes you will be at the gym and working out. </div></div>

For me it's 3 scoops of jack3d.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: palma</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: robertsma</div><div class="ubbcode-body">1 scoope 1MR and an 8.5 oz sugar free red bull, within 30 minutes you will be at the gym and working out. </div></div>

For me it's 3 scoops of jack3d. </div></div>

They recalled jack3d, military can't purchase it on base anymore. That's what I was taking before, the 1MR is a lot stronger than anyhting jack3d did for me, definately my new favorite.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Aside from the desire to keep up with my two children. The only way I can stay motivated to do cardio is to compete. I sign up for a tough mudder or spartan one day race in the summer to get motivation to train threw the winter and into spring. Always need the goals and the competitiveness. I have a hard time training for no real reason. Same thing with shooting, training for a match drives the need and desire to get to the range. Surrounding myself with like minded people helps a lot as well.

On a side note..if nothing else is motivating.. the soon to be zombie apocalypse should get you going..
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

I always found that having a work-out partner is one of the best ways to get through workouts. Having somebody to motivate you goes a long way, provided that you aren't shooting the sh!t the whole time.
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

All great advice and stories. I'm 42. 6'2" @ 185lbs. My motivation is a 17 year old daughter who luckily has her mother's beauty. The pukes (boys) come sniffin' around and I want them to see me and think, rather know that they cannot take me out. I run, weight train, and live a healthy lifestyle to accomplish this. To have the strength to grab them by the neck and squeeze the life out of them. Shake their hands and crush their grubby paws. A punch that will knock the thought out of them going to heaven.......sorry I got carried away....I also like to remind the slobs at work who the fittest man is. Walking across the parking lot is work for some of them. Good grief! Great topic. Good luck and good shooting!

Doug
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Emilio</div><div class="ubbcode-body">It may sound cheesey but my two kids motivate me. I want to be around for them. </div></div>

I hear that, my 3 girls keep me going!
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

Here's a few ideas...

1.Watch the 70 yr old nun finish the Iron Man in Kona for the ????th time. That'll make you feel inadequate and get you off the couch.

2 Send in your $$ for a Triathlon or Run or Swim or Adventure Race...then you're committed!!!

3. Just wing it and go do a Mountain bike race and be around all those folks...pumps you up!!
 
Re: How do you stay Motivated and Focused?

I notice it helps to have someone who is going to go with me to the gym. But if you can just force yourself for a little while til you start reaching goals, then you get into it either way. If you make small, very achievable goals like 5lb increase on weights, once you reach it you are going to want to make it to the next increase.

Also, when you start noticing a difference in how you feel, look, and how clothes fit it's another motivator.

Just keep doing it and you will start getting sucked in!