Disclaimer:

For any information regarding going back to the gym during COVID or information about COVID in general, please go to the cdc.gov site so you can make a decision safely. I’m not a doctor or medical expert and this is not medical advice. All of this information is my opinion. If you have any medical concerns, please contact your doctor. 

We’re almost one full year into COVID at this point and slowly we’re coming back to a more ‘normal’ state. Vaccines are here and in the states, most gyms are currently open to some capacity. I’ve just recently started going to the gym myself and I must say it’s great to be back. However, living in the NYC area gyms are always packed even with any restrictions in place. Meaning, catching COVID at the gym is highly possible. Some don’t care, others may be on the more cautious side and don’t know what precautions to take. If you’re reading this, you probably fall into the latter category.  In this article, we’re going over how you can go back to the gym in a ‘safe’ manner. 

Follow the Guidelines

Most gyms now, especially in the metropolitan areas require you wear masks at the gym. Whether you agree or disagree with the notion of masks is a different story, but nonetheless, it’s part of most gym and state guidelines at this point for the time being. Not wearing one can get you kicked out of the gym or make others around you very uncomfortable. If you feel like wearing a mask is too uncomfortable for you, I highly suggest checking out this Adidas mask (Affiliated Link). It’s very comfortable and has a filter pocket in it. I’ll be honest, I never had an issue breathing in a mask nor do I find doing the nose poke out or chin strap really necessary. I will say, the only thing for me that’s a bother with the mask can be vision sometimes especially when I’m squatting. That’s the only time I’ve personally had an issue with it. 

If you are planning on joining the gym, read the gym guidelines prior to joining and see if you’re comfortable adhering to those requirements. Check out reviews as well for those gyms and see if other people talk about others complying with those guidelines too. 

Social Distancing

It’s very hard to get any space at the gym especially in the metropolitan area. With fewer people overall due to the gym it should be a little less packed, however, that doesn’t mean people won’t pack into specific areas of the gym. If you can, try keeping yourself away from the crowds overall. This probably sounds like common sense at this point, but it amazes me how many people will still either go into your personal space or cluster together (even in a non-covid era, this is always annoying).

Personally, what I try doing is timing my areas depending on where others are. If I see the squats racks are packed, I’ll go to any section that’s not busy where I still need to exercise anyway and just do those exercises. If the weight section is too packed, i’ll take the weights I need and move to a less crowded area. (The more I type this portion out, the more this sounds like my normal times at the gym, to be honest). 

Find a Less Busy Time

Working around schedules maybe your best option to avoid a crowded gym. If you ever scope out a gym’s Google page, you can usually see its busy times. Even though this isn’t always accurate, it’s still a good indicator of when you can avoid a crowded gym.

Usually, though, it will probably require some trial and error. For instance, I started getting to my gym at 6 am. It’s actually crowded at this time but starts to clear out about 6:45 am so I adjusted my schedule to come in around that time and it works out perfectly. 

Wear Long Sleeves and Long Pants

Okay, this one doesn’t have any merit to it except that it may give you some peace of mind. From my knowledge, there isn’t any evidence you can get COVID-19 from just touching a service that someone else touched. You would need to be touching your face afterward to potentially get it. (Nonetheless, you should look at CDC Guidelines for more information about this) Anyways, wearing long sleeves and long pants limits the amount of surface area your actual skin is touching the objects.

So if you usually wear just a tank top or short sleeves and you’re laying on a mat to warm up, you may not want your arms exposed touching that surface. Instead, just wear long sleeves and long pants to avoid this.

Again, this is only for peace of mind. There isn’t evidence (to my knowledge) that you can get COVID-19 from just touching an object or touching someone else’s sweat. 

Bring Hand Sanitizer

The secret COVID weapon any gym-goer needs, hand sanitizer! Obviously, hand sanitizer can only get you so far, but it’s pretty handy for when you’re at the gym. Anytime you’re done or about to start using equipment, you can easily just throw some hand sanitizer and wipe your hands down. Now you don’t have to worry about potentially touching your face after touching the equipment. This is something that will probably last in the Post COVID world too. 

Wipe Down the Items

In general, it’s always good to wipe down equipment after you use it. This includes items that you usually lay or sit on. It’s considerate to anyone who is going to use the equipment after you. Incase whoever used the equipment prior to you didn’t wipe down the equipment, now it’s a bit cleaner too. I’ve noticed a lot of gyms give you sanitizer spray to spray items down, so you can utilize that too. I would highly suggest not use this on barbells though as it can destroy the quality of it over time and may rust it up. 

Final Thoughts

The more I wrote this guide, the more it seemed like normal things you would do at a gym anyway. (Except the whole wearing masks thing). I do think if you follow the ideas mentioned above, you can return to the gym and feel relatively safe. Obviously, if you see someone sick, stay away from them. If you’re sick with COVID and you’ve been to the gym recently, notify your gym in case they have some type of procedure to follow. 

Unfortunately, I don’t have any studies to say ‘Hey, look it’s safe to return!’. There was one study that indicated that the gym was a super spreader event. That was in February of 2020 if I’m not mistaking when no one really knew how much it was spreading. We didn’t even have tests from back then.

If you still don’t feel comfortable going to the gym during COVID, check out this article I wrote on how to keep fit during the pandemic. 

Stay safe and get them gains in!

Photos:

• Photo by William Choquette from Pexels

Keeping fit during the holidays has to be one of the toughest things to do. I give props to people who are able to maintain their nutrition and workout ethic past Thanksgiving, cause usually from there, things start to go downhill for a lot of people. What may seem like an impossible task, maybe a bit easier to do than you think if you follow some of the basic principles of weight management or even just change up your goals a bit for this time of year.

Changing Up Your Goals – The Tale of Bulking

Usually, during the winter, most people tend to hunker down go on bulk, and workouts like madmen and women. You pack on some extra weight, it keeps you that much warmer and overall it just fits with the season. Around this time of year, I’m almost exclusively on bulk and if you think about it, it makes sense logistically to do so.

Here’s why.

Not so Much Guilt

If you’re cutting or trying to even maintain weight during the holidays, it always tends to be a bit more difficult. You don’t want to skimp on your Holiday traditions and fun but you also want to achieve your physical goals. While you shouldn’t still go on a complete binge when you’re on a bulk, you will be able to allow yourself to eat more than you would on a cut. You wouldn’t feel so guilty and you can treat yourself a bit more cause you’ll be making all the gainz anyway (kidding). Seriously though, the more you’re capable of eating and being able to hit your goals is always great. You won’t feel too guilty if you splurge a bit on the actual holidays.  

Best Time of the Year for It

If you’re in North America, this is probably one of the better times of year to bulk. In most places, it’s fairly chilly so you can pack on extra layers of clothing to hide that extra weight you may have put on. As well, with the holidays and knowing there will be more days of indulging, bulking seems like the best option to fit into this plan from a caloric standpoint. If you live somewhere warmer, it would still probably be the coldest time of the year regardless. During Spring/Summer, you’ll probably want to be a bit leaner but obviously, that’s up to you. 

Changing Your Weekly Calorie Intake

If you’re on a cut or maintenance, it’s not the end of the world. Yes, staying fit during the holidays is a bit harder, but you have some strategies you can implement to stay fit and maintain/lose weight if needed.

One of the things I like to do is plan out my weekly calories and adjust my calories for specific days. For example, currently, I’m eating 1800 calories a day. If I know I’m going to have a Christmas coming up on a Friday, i’ll do the following: 

• Monday – 1730
• Tuesday – 1730
• Wednesday – 1730
• Thursday – 1730
• Friday (Christmas) – 2200 
• Saturday – 1730
• Sunday -1730

As you can see, what I did was increase my calories for Friday (Christmas) and decreased it everywhere else throughout the week. You can easily do this by adding X amount of calories to the day you know you’ll be eating more.

From there, take X and divide it by the number of days you’ll be following be eating ‘normally’ which will be Y. Then subtract your normal daily intake by Y to get your new daily calorie intake.

So if you’re only adding 400 calories to one day of the week, you’ll do 400/6 = 66.66. Then you would do 1800 – 66 = 1733.  

If you’re adding 400 calories to 2 days of the week you’ll do 800(total of extra calories added across 2 days)/5 = 160. Then you would do 1800 – 160 = 1640. 

The formula would look something like this: NormalCalories – (ExtraCalories*Days/NormalDays) = NewDailyCalories( In exception to the days you’ll be eating more)

If you need to figure out your calories, check out the calorie calculator tool.

Okay, no more math for a bit!

Put in Some Extra Work

I think this point is a bit more obvious, but one way to counteract the indulgence of the holidays is to work out a bit harder. If you have to incorporate a bit of cardio, that works, or even just adding some extra accessory work is always good. Every Thanksgiving, I go really hard at the gym and sometimes do some extra cardio as well. It makes that meal that much more worth it and feels a bit more guilt-free.

Indulge. Get Back to It the Next Day

Okay, so you may have indulged a bit during the holidays. Guess what?  You can easily just get back on track the next day. The next day will always be an opportunity to make it right and get back on track. This goes for anything in life too. That one day won’t derail all of your hard work, heck even a week won’t derail all of your hard work. You just make sure you get back to things the next day and you’ll be good to go.  Having a sustainable diet will also help you get back on track a bit easier.

Final Thoughts

This time of the year, it seems almost impossible not to gain weight. However, you have many options to keep fit during the holidays.

I would say even if you don’t implement any strategies from this article, let the one thing you take away is to not feel guilt and get back to it the next day. No reason to beat yourself up over a day/week of being off track. You won’t gain back hundreds of pounds. You won’t be even that off track. Just make sure to get back to it and you’ll be good to go.

Happy Holidays from the Blob!

Photos:

• Photo by Olenka Sergienko from Pexels

If you wondered how to wake up early in the morning, then most likely you’ve attempted this difficult task before and may have succumbed to the alarm clock.  That alarm clock goes off and it’s so easy to hit that snooze button. You sleep another 10 minutes. Those 10 minutes turn into 20 minutes and so on. We’ve all been there. If you read my article on reasons you should be working out early, you’ll know that working out early is can be a huge benefit to you. You may want to do, but you’re just having trouble not hitting that snooze button. Let’s explain how to wake up early in the morning. 

How To Wake Up Early in the Morning? You Need a Good Night’s Sleep

Okay, so this point can be a bit obvious. It’s surprising though how many people don’t get a good quality sleep though. Oddly enough, one of the reasons you should be working out early is because it helps with your quality of sleep. However, you need to get into that cycle. Here are some ways to get a better night’s sleep.

Magnesium at Night

Magnesium has been shown to help sleep and sleep quality(1). About 75% of people don’t get the suggested/recommended intake of it either (2). Taking a supplement for it is not a bad idea. However, if you decide to take one, I would recommend taking magnesium glycinate or malate. Other forms of magnesium may not get absorbed as well and may cause laxative effects. 

Limit Caffeine, Alcohol, and Large Meals Before Bed to Wake Up Early

All of these compounds can lead to you losing out on good sleep quality. Caffeine in general will keep you up. Alcohol, even though most people claim it puts them to sleep, can actually cause a worse quality of sleep. Larger meals also tend to possibly cause acid reflux or heartburn and can cause issues with your sleep. 

Wake Up Early in the Morning by Placing Your Alarm Clock Far Away From You

Most likely, you’re using some type of an alarm to get up. If this is the case, place your alarm clock across the room from you. The idea behind this is to force you to get up and turn it off. Usually, by then you’re already up so you won’t be going back to bed. However, if you tend to still fall asleep right afterward then move onto my next point…

Multiple Alarms on Your Alarm Clock

Placing multiple alarms on your alarm clock can be annoying! That’s the point though, it will get you up. No one wants to sit through 2 or 3 alarms. It’s torture! I’ve seen some people even have 10 alarms set. If that’s what get’s you up though, so be it.

Set an Alarm at a Time You’re Most Likely to Be Awake

Personally, I like to get up at 4:30 am. It’s a time I’m in my lightest sleep phase and tend to wake up easier. I can tell you that I use to try waking up at 5:00 am and it was 10x more difficult. That 30 minutes truly makes a difference. If you have an Apple iPhone, there is an app called Sleep Cycle that does exactly this.

Take a Multivitamin at Night

BRO-SCIENCE ALERT: I’ll be honest, this one I’m making up. I take a multivitamin at night and it usually tends to get me to wake up early and I feel energized. There are no studies proving this is real. It’s just something that I’ve done and I noticed a correlation between the two. Give it a try though and see if it helps you in any way. 

Final Thoughts

Waking up early can be very difficult. I’ve struggled and the options I’ve listed above are some of the ways that helped me start to get up earlier. Good quality sleep can make all of the difference though when it comes to getting up early. Even if you’re getting good quality sleep, sometimes it’s just the fact of actually getting up is a long grueling process. If that’s the case, I hope some of the techniques I mentioned above can help you. 

References:

1. Abbasi B, Kimiagar M, Sadeghniiat K, Shirazi MM, Hedayati M, Rashidkhani B. The effect of magnesium supplementation on primary insomnia in elderly: A double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. J Res Med Sci. 2012 Dec;17(12):1161-9. PMID: 23853635; PMCID: PMC3703169.
2. Guerrera MP, Volpe SL, Mao JJ. Therapeutic uses of magnesium. Am Fam Physician. 2009 Jul 15;80(2):157-62. PMID: 19621856.

Photos:

• Photo by Neale LaSalle from Pexels

If you know me, you know that I love working out early in the morning. Many people are put off by having to get up early and I get it. I love my beauty sleep like everyone else. However, the pros you should workout early, highly outweigh the cons of doing it. Let’s go over why.

Reason 1: Working Out Early keeps you Disciplined

Discipline in relation to fitness is one of the key components of it. Without a disciplined lifestyle, you won’t get the results you want and you won’t be able to sustain nutrition or training habits. 

I’m sure you heard people say when you first wake up, you should make your bed. The main reason being is to keep you disciplined. I’m all for that. In addition, why not take care of the task of working out too? Working out early will keep you disciplined and keep you in check. As well, you’ll start to notice that a disciplined lifestyle carries over into other aspects of your life.

Reason 2: Working Out Early has No Distractions

If you go to the gym at night or afternoon, you may notice it’s usually pretty packed. It’s hard to get equipment and if you have a social circle in the gym, you’re bound to socialize a bit more. Even if you have a home gym and workout at night, you’ll probably get distracted by your family or other aspects of life like work or friends.

Working out in the morning has no distractions. Most likely, unless your job is very demanding no one from work is bothering you early in the morning with issues. Your family will most likely be asleep. Most of the world is asleep for that matter which means gyms will be emptier. You have the time to focus on yourself and nothing else but your training, and let me tell you, that’s therapeutic in and of itself. 

Reason 3: Working Out Early lessens your Burden throughout the day

Do you know how good it feels knowing that one of the biggest tasks you have has been completed? It’s always an amazing feeling.

Now, something I personally believe is that health and fitness should be my main priority. So working out is one of the things I want to check off ASAP.

Once that workout is complete, guess what? You’re done! That task has been completed and if it’s one of your more prioritized tasks, you no longer have to worry about it. The rest of your tasks throughout the day become less stressful and you don’t have to plan everything around your workout. 

Reason 4: Working Out Early Gives you Freedom

Kind of piggybacking off the last statement I made, not having to plan your workout around everything is amazing. There was a point I use to work out in the afternoons for my lunch break. I would have to go at a time of work where things weren’t crazy, rush to the gym, and rush my workout to get back to work. To put it lightly it wasn’t convenient.  

I tried working out at night, and I had more time at the gym but I was burnt out. Having to commute home to still make dinner was a pain. If there was something going on at night with friends, I couldn’t do it either.

Working out early eliminates all of those problems though. Your normal day today will be normal day to day without the stress of still needing to workout. It will free up time throughout your day to do more and probably maintain your social life a bit better. 

Reason 5: Working Out Early can Provide Better Quality of Sleep

Studies have shown that working out early may help with your quality of sleep (1). I know plenty of people who suffer from not sleeping well, and I think working out, in general, helps with that.

However, working out early can help even more. From personal experience, when I workout early, I know by the time I’m going to bed I’m exhausted and can’t wait to get sleep. It’s imperative though that this isn’t unhealthy exhaustion that when I wake up and feel like I needed to sleep more though. 

Final Thoughts

Working out early has so many benefits. I believe I can go on and on about why it’s so good and how it can benefit you. 

If you haven’t tried working out early though, give it a try for 2 weeks. I personally try working out at 5 am, so I’ll be up at 4:30 am to get myself ready. For you, this may be getting up at 6:30 am and working out at 7 am, and that’s fine. The pleasure you get out of it and the benefits of having your workout done and not having to think about it throughout the day will make you want to continue working out early permanently. 

If you’re having trouble getting up early, check this article out.

References:

1. Fairbrother K, Cartner B, Alley JR, et al. Effects of exercise timing on sleep architecture and nocturnal blood pressure in prehypertensives. Vasc Health Risk Manag. 2014;10:691-698. Published 2014 Dec 12. doi:10.2147/VHRM.S73688

Photos:

• Photo by Joseph Redfield from Pexels

Keeping Fit During a Pandemic

As sad as it is to see, we’re in very unprecedented times. COVID-19 has unexpectantly struck the world and has left us very vulnerable. Many people are sadly losing their lives and getting sick. Others are left at home alone. In times like this, it’s easy to fall down a slippery slope and get into bad habits. For some though, we’re coming to a realization that we can use this time to build better habits and achieve goals we couldn’t before. Some goals might be to stay fit or get fit during this pandemic.

Take Advantage of These Times

While COVID-19 is striking us, a good amount of people are thankfully healthy and under stay at home orders. It’s easy to use this time to not do much and sit around. Maybe play some animal crossing or create a new Tik Tok?  However, there is no other time like it to start accomplishing goals you couldn’t have before. You’ll see a lot of people write off “getting fit” due to gyms being shut down. (I can’t lie, I’m MISSING being able to deadlift and squat) The thing is, you don’t need a gym to get into shape. Realistically, all you need is your body and the floor you’re on. 

No Gym, No Problem

Gyms are great due to the amount of cardio equipment they have how many different actives you’re able to do. Unless you have a home gym, you probably can’t do much besides some calisthenics and resistance band training. Guess what though? That’s more than enough! We’re going to go through some quick exercises that can end up being a good 30-minute workout and burn about 250-300 calories. 

Home Gym Equipment for You

Let’s go through a comprehensive list of items we can get that can help you achieve your fitness goals at home.

Pull Up Bar

The pull-up bar is one of the most essential home items you can have. Pull-ups target your back and can target your biceps depending on which variation you do. It will also provide a bit of a core workout for you. You have a pull-up bar and you can have an amazing tough workout in front of you. Pulls ups for me was one of the essential movements to growing a bigger back. It’s a great foundational exercise that can lead to many benefits.

What happens if you can’t do a pull-up? Well, you can always modify it. You can either put a chair underneath you can do the pull up that way or you can attach a resistance band around the pull bar and around your foot to do it. 

Great thing is, most pull-up bars now in days can also be used as a push-up bar. Some of them you may be able to do dips on! It’s a win-win situation. Just before buying one, consider the havoc you might put on your door frame.

Resistance Bands / Dumbbells

I remember when I first got into training, and I use to do at home workouts like P90X and all I had was a resistance band. I didn’t put on a ton of muscle, but it got the job done. Granted, mine had a resistance of max 30lbs and it was the only one I had. What does make resistance bands so great is how easy it is to add resistance and the fact they’re fairly affordable. Most exercises you do with dumbbells you can do with resistance bands too. You can easily do curls, shoulder presses, tricep kickbacks, an alternative to pull-ups, rows, and more exercises with resistance bands. Just be careful with them, it’s easy to not tie them well and then have them smash you in the face. 

Now in my opinion, if I have the option I’ll usually choose dumbbells. Unless I’m doing an exercise for tension or some type of physical therapy, I would usually choose dumbbells. So if they’re accessible to you, I would suggest getting them. If money is a factor then resistance bands is the way to go! You can find many sources online that give you different resistance band training which I will link a couple of here.

Mat

A mat is always good to have in your house if you’re exercising. One option to pick up is to do some yoga. Many people are doing online yoga classes via Instagram live and you can always join one. Besides a mat, the only other option you may need is some yoga blocks but they’re not needed. Yoga is a good way to increase your flexibility and core strength. It will definitely burn a good amount of calories and can help you relax. Here is a good source of a beginner’s yoga video. 

Your Body

Well if you’re missing your body, you got yourself a bigger issue… I also don’t know how you would be reading this. Anyways, if for some reason you don’t have access to any of the following resources your body is the ultimate provider of resistance and can be used at your main tool to stay fit. You can easily configure a HIT workout with no weights and easily burn 200-300 calories in 20 minutes. Here’ a quick example of a total body HIT workout:

• Squats – 1 min
• Alternate Leg Lunges – 1 min
• Push-ups – 1 min
• Burpees – 1 min 
• Jumping Jacks – 1 min

Repeat this in a “Ladder” fashion. After you do a minute of each exercise. Take a 20 – 30-second break and then do all the same exercises for 50 seconds, then 40 seconds, and so on until you finish 10-second increments. You should work your way up to about 15-20 minutes and you’ll get a quick total body workout in. 

Quick Workout with Equipment

So let’s say you do have some equipment at home. You have a pull-up bar, you have some resistance bands, etc. Now what?

Let’s go through a quick total body circuit you can go through.

First, do a warm-up for 10-15 minutes. 

Now let’s try doing the following:

Repeat for 5 rounds. 1-minute rest between rounds. 

For those looking for a little bit more, you can try the following:

• Pull-Ups – 10-15 reps  (assisted if needed)
• Push-Ups – 20 reps (assisted if needed)
• Shoulder Press – 15 reps
• Bicep Curls – 15 reps
• 30-second rest
• Tricep Kickbacks – 15 reps
• Rows – 15 reps
• Lunges – 20 reps
• Squats – 30 reps
• Burpees – 1 minute

Repeat for 5 rounds. 1-minute rest between rounds. 

Work on Your Weaknesses

One of the things I struggle with the most is mobility and flexibility. Ever since I was a kid, I always lacked any form of flexibility. I figured since I can’t stick to my normal gym routine, I’m going to start focusing on things I lack. In this case, it’s my flexibility and mobility. One of the additional things I’m trying to do is also fix my posture since I’m on my computer all day.  Additionally, I’m also trying to do more core exercises. I don’t do as much core as I use to when I was younger so it’s something that I’m trying to get back into. 

What are your weaknesses? Figure them out and try making a plan to fix those issues if it doesn’t require a gym. 

Final Thoughts

I hope that you’re not experiencing the rough side of this pandemic. If you’re not and you’re safely home, this is a good time to start getting better. You probably have more time to work on yourself. Come out of this pandemic mentally and physically stronger than before. Stay fit and stick with your goals. Don’t let the pandemic win and debilitate you. 

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

It’s a New Year! Or almost a New Year depending on when you’re reading this. So Happy New Year to you, dear reader or happy almost New Year! A new year means it’s time to start setting your goals and crushing them! You’ve got the extra motivation to get it done and you want to start the year off right and productive. Often you hear convictions of people saying they don’t believe in new years resolutions or they’re not into setting goals. That’s fine if that works for you. I believe New Year’s Day marks a new beginning and it’s a mental fresh start to accomplish your goals. Let’s go through some ways you can maximize your abilities to achieve those goals.

Writing Your Goals Down

Before the new year starts, I write down all of the goals I wish to accomplish. I either grab a notebook or use Google Sheets and mark down all the goals I wish to achieve in the New Year. Depending on the goal, I usually set up more “mini” goals.

Mini Goals

A mini goal is a smaller goal that helps you progress to completing the main goal. As an example, if my goal was to lose 30lbs this year, I would make a goal to lose 2lbs in the next 2-3 weeks. I would keep building upon that until I’ve lost the 30lbs. I personally do this with weight lifting. My goal for this year is to hit a 400lb deadlift. I’m going to try reaching small PRs(personal records) throughout the year until I meet my goal. Using this technique also helps because it guides you from getting discouraged and allows you to stay focused and on track.

Logging Your Days

It’s easy to be bombarded with tasks to do throughout the day. You may not get a chance to be as productive as you want to be. Maybe you forgot to complete tasks that you were supposed to do simply because you were too busy or it wasn’t on your mind. To fix this, you should start logging your days.

What I mean by logging, is keeping track of everything did for the day as well as seeing what still needs to be done. This is a bit different from just making a task list of things you wish to get done throughout the day. The reason being is that when you log everything you do throughout the day you can start to see where you have or don’t have free time. You can also see if you’re giving yourself too many tasks. This is extremely beneficial because you will know just how busy you are, where you have free time to get certain tasks done, and you can see if you need to scale yourself back and give yourself more free time.

In terms of fitness, you can use this technique more in-depth. In addition to just logging your days, you can also be logging your food intake and your weight lifting/cardio progress. You’ll be able to see if you’re eating too much or too little. You’ll get a gauge of how strong you’re getting or if you’re plateauing. I track my workouts and my food intake daily and it’s helped me progress in tremendous ways.

Ask Yourself One Question

I like to ask myself this one question every day, and that is “Am I one step closer to reaching my goals?” It’s a question to see if I’m headed in the right direction or am I falling behind. It’s a way for me to summarize my day and say to myself “Great, keep doing what you’re doing” or, “Alright, I gotta get myself back on track tomorrow.” I like this question because it puts things into perspective. If things aren’t going right, I’ll check my logs and do some time management rearrangement to see where I’m able to fit in extra tasks.

Get Disciplined

If this isn’t already on your list of goals, I would add “get disciplined”. Being more disciplined in your own life will help you take better control of yourself and your goals. You’ll notice that you’ll get more done and you’ll be completing more goals. To read more, check out this article I wrote Forget Motivation, Get Disciplined. I also recommend, checking out Discipline Equals Freedom by Jocko Willink.

Final Thoughts

New Year’s resolutions are great to set. It’s a great way to set new goals and challenges for yourself for the upcoming year. The problem usually lies within following up with these goals. All the tips I’ve mentioned above have helped me to achieve my goals at exceptional rates of time. These tips don’t have to be applied to just fitness goals either, you can use them for pretty much anything. Keep track of your goals, keep yourself inline, and be honest with yourself on where you might be slacking and where you need to fix it. Go crush your goals!

FORGET GETTING MOTIVATED, GET DISCIPLINED.

You want to start a new workout program. You buy new gym clothes, get new supplements, and you’re reading all of these motivational tips to get you hyped up to go get your workout in. You’ve got your favorite tunes on blast and you’re amped up! You’re motivated to get that workout in! You go get some, and you’re feeling on top of the world! A few weeks pass by and you’re sore and decide to take it a bit easy. You start easing up on the pedal. Eventually you kind of stop all together. Then the infamous “I don’t have any motivation to workout” comes into play. You do all the same stuff you used to get yourself motivated but nothing is really helping. It takes you a while, but then you find that motivation again… but the same loop falls into place once more. It’s time to forget about getting motivated, and it’s time to get disciplined.

MOTIVATION AND WHY IT DOESN’T WORK

Motivation is a good tool whenever you’re starting a new venture. Usually most new ventures start with motivation and a goal. You feel that flame inside of you burning and you’re ready to take this venture on full force. The problem is though, that motivation slowly fades away. You’re going to have days you just aren’t feeling motivated to do something and that’s completely normal.

When motivation starts to go away, no matter what we are trying to accomplish we may just not want to do it anymore. Then we stop whatever it was and we wait for motivation to come back. It’s literally a loop that constantly happens over and over again and leads us into the spiral of “needing to get motivated”. It’s normal to lose motivation though! When motivation is lost, that’s when you need to get disciplined.

WHY DISCIPLINE CONQUERS MOTIVATION

You see people all the time devoted to certain things and you wonder “Wow, how do they manage to keep up with that task all of the time?” It’s because they’re disciplined. Where motivation fails is where discipline takes over. Discipline is what will get you through ANY task at hand. Not just in fitness, but in any goal you wish to achieve. Discipline will get you the results you want and discipline will help you achieve your goals.

There are many days I don’t feel like going to work out. I’m tired. I don’t feel like getting up early. I’m sore and my body is killing me. I think of how nice it’ll be to just get some rest and take a nice day off. I know I don’t have any motivation to get my workout done. When all these excuses start settling in and I know I can easily just not do anything. I make the more difficult choice and do it anyway. I go do the task at hand even with no motivation whatsoever. It’s easy to just say “I’m not feeling motivated to do this. I’m going to take a break”. That’s not the right answer though. You get up and do it anyway. It may suck, but you’ll finish the task at hand and you’ll be glad you did. You’ll be one step closer to reaching your new goal. You will not have any regrets about getting that task done vs if you just decided not to do it. Discipline breaks you out of the motivational loop and keeps you moving toward your goal.

HOW TO GET DISCIPLINED

You know discipline will break you free and get you to achieve your goals. However, you may be wondering, just how do you get disciplined? Honestly, my most simple tip is just doing whatever it is you don’t want to do. Don’t take the easy way out and just not do it. Now I know… that’s not very practical advice, and may be extremely obvious, but in the end, this is what it comes down to. However, there are things you can do in your everyday life to get you become more disciplined.

GET UP EARLY/MAKE YOUR BED

Getting up early has been one of the most beneficial things I’ve done to get more disciplined. Not only do you have more time throughout the day to get more done, but you will feel that much more productive. You’re starting your day off right. Personally, when my day starts at 4:30 am it’s hard to be less productive throughout the day. You already got that “one win”.

Another great thing to do is to make your bed when you wake up. It’s a great way to start your day by completing a task and getting your day started by being organized. Doing these 2 things when you first wake up will keep you more productive throughout the day. Making this a routine and sticking with it is building discipline. You’ll notice the positive effects of reaping into your other activities throughout the day as well.

TAKE A COLD SHOWER

Taking a cold shower every day is brutal. It’s uncomfortable, difficult, and well… cold. It’s not an ideal situation, but that’s the whole point. Taking a cold shower takes you out of your comfort zone. Just like discipline. Discipline isn’t meant to keep you in your comfort zone, it’s meant to break you out of it! Taking a cold shower is a mental and physical challenge, but once you build a routine around it, you’ll feel like you can take on any challenge.

BREAK A SMALL HABIT/BUILD A NEW HABIT

If you follow some of the routines above, you’ll build a routine around them and will instill discipline. However, the same goes for breaking a bad habit. Maybe you smoke? Or bite your nails? Whatever the habit may be, go about giving it up for 90 days. For me, I usually go cold turkey when it comes to trying to break a bad habit. Some people have an easier time of letting it go gradually. For example, stop smoking for 2 days, then 5 days, then 1 week, then 2 weeks etc. I find stopping all together works better for me but pick whichever method works best for you to break the habit.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Motivation is a great tool to have. It usually is what starts the journey to a more productive and fulfilling life. The main problem is that motivation will only last so long and discipline needs to take over. With discipline, you will accomplish your goals and push yourself further than ever before. Discipline will be in your everyday life and you will know that you can take on any challenge that comes forth.