If you have been taking your sweat sessions to the next level and really pushing yourself, chances are you have been at it a while and it may be tough to overcome some of the final tough workouts. First of all, you need to give yourself a pat on the back for all the hard work you’ve been doing. Celebrate your progress at every level of your workout journey, whether your goal is to lose weight, run farther, bench press more weight, or jump higher. You should always have a goal in mind. It helps to organize your goals into smaller, more attainable goals, each with a direct purpose of accomplishing the final fitness goal. If you are making the decision now to take amp up your workouts and try to push yourself harder, you need to do a little planning so that it’s not so difficult to overcome the new, tough workouts. Say, for instance, you wanted to lose 60 pounds. You didn’t gain that weight overnight, and it’s not going to melt away overnight. It’s awesome to have a goal and to decide to take your sweat sessions to the next level.
Nobody is going to lose 60 pounds in a month. Don’t let that discourage you, though! Too often, exercisers set goals and begin working out. Results may come more quickly at first, or results may come too slowly to notice due to bad form or improper teaching. This is where a plan comes in handy. Let a personal trainer set up a program for you with pre-set goals. It’s perfectly fine to say to yourself, “I’m going to lose 60 pounds!”, or “I’m going to take my bench press from 205 to 225.” You know that continual effort is going to be the key to reaching these fitness mountaintops, but if you are only focused on the end goal, you may find it tough to overcome the tough workouts, because the results seem so far away.
You have to trick your mind in a sense. Setting smaller goals does just that. It allows you to accomplish a feat after one or two weeks. So, back to the 60 pound example, if you tell yourself you will lose 10 pounds a month for 6 months, that’s great. It seems a little more reachable than wondering when you will ever get to the “60-pound mark”. Break it down even further and tell yourself you will lose 5 pounds every two weeks. Seems doable doesn’t it? The same is true of getting stronger or running farther.
The great thing about setting goals this way, too, is that you may have spent the last 5 months losing weight and find yourself so close to your goal. If you can’t quite get there by the 6 month mark, it’s OK! What’s one more week when you’ve been at it this long? You are already there. Nobody can take away the work and goals you’ve accomplished so far. When you have a great plan and find yourself knocking on the door of your fitness goals, that’s the time to overcome the tough workouts. It’s always easier to lose weight at first, because you always have more to lose. It’s the last few pounds that seem stubborn. Muscles plateau and you may have a hard time adding those last 10 pounds to the bench press. This is where mental toughness comes in to play. Find what motivates you and focus on it. If you need a trainer to push you, you can’t make a better investment. If you can push yourself, find the inner strength to overcome those last few tough workouts. Power through and you will reach the summit of all you set out to dominate.
