Does this happen to you? Every day you try to workout, every day you don’t feel like it. So, either you don’t workout for days on end, or you workout daily but the intensity is so minute that even after months you don’t see any results.
Assuming you have a fitness goal and you have created a workout routine to reach your goal. Moreover, You know if you are consistent with the workout, you will reach your goal.
However, you are not consistent and the days you manage to show up, the amount of effort you put in results in nothing, and now you are wondering, How do I solve this problem?
One possible solution is if your brain craves working out. Wouldn’t it be great? You are waiting for the clock to hit 6:00 pm so that you can go to the gym and reach your fitness goal. Every day you go to the gym, every day you come back one step closer to your goal.
However, there is a fact that prevents this from happening that cannot be ignored:
Your brain doesn’t like working out. Your brain perceives working out as a threat and there is no way to change it. The truth is anything that requires effort to complete will be perceived as a threat by your brain.
Since your brain perceives working out as a threat, you will never feel like doing it. The only time you will feel like doing it is when you are facing immediate consequences if you don’t.
And in the case of working out, you will never face immediate consequences. So, in a way, you will never feel like working out. Then how do you make your brain crave working out?
Your brain doesn’t like doing hard things, that’s a fact. However, You can do things your brain doesn’t like, that’s also a fact. That’s how all your life you have been completing your homework and important tasks. But this is not something that can be considered as a craving.
This is how you make yourself crave working out:
Realize why working out is so important, combine it with the knowledge of the human psyche of how your brain will try to stop you from reaching your goal. Go through dopamine detox. Combine it with the dopamine you get from working out.
When you do this, working out will become your ultimate recreation.
Here are six simple changes to make your brain crave working out:
6 Changes to Make Your Brain Crave Working Out!
This is simpler than you think. All you need to do is make these seven changes and before you know it, your overall consistency will significantly increase (Make sure to make these changes as soon as possible, the more you wait, the more energy and time you will waste):
1. Human Psyche & Importance of Your Goal
These lessons are linked to the human psyche and hence won’t change, but knowing them will help you in defeating resistance created by your brain:
- If you are going to do something hard, something that requires energy and effort, you will not feel like doing it ever unless there are immediate consequences. With fitness, there are no immediate consequences, so you will probably spend a whole year without even a day where you feel like working out.
- If you have a workout planned in the morning and you shift it to the evening because of a reason that is not out of your control, you will not train in the evening too. The reason behind this is simple. If you quit in the morning, your probability of quitting in the evening increases. As the resistance created by your brain defeated you once, also with a pointless excuse. It will defeat you again and this time, it will be much easier.
- You have to do things because they are important to you, not because you feel like doing them.
- The person you are today is the person you are tomorrow. For instance, you are not working out because you don’t feel like it, and you present yourself a rational excuse. You will do the same thing tomorrow since you are the same person tomorrow, nothing has changed. However, if you do a workout even though it’s madness, tomorrow you are a person who sticks to the plan even if the odds are against you. You have finally changed, not because of motivation, brain, or your situation but because of you, the conscious one.
- Fighting and defeating the resistance created by your brain is a battle you need to fight every single day of your life and you don’t have a choice here. Fight and win or surrender and lose your goal.
Write these lessons on a piece of paper and stick it somewhere you can see them daily. This will help you in defeating procrastination every day.
Now, it’s time for you to crystalize your gaol.
You need to think about your goal and realize its importance. You have to think this through. Do you really want to reach your fitness goal? If yes, write down the reasons.
And if your goal is important to you, then working out is no longer a hobby. It’s a job where you desire results. If your goal is not as important as you thought, just stop here.
There is no point in going forward or wasting time. Life is too short to waste time. Just do something that is important for you.
If your goal is important, then right now, stand up, clench your fist and with a bold voice, say your fitness goal out loud and promise yourself that you are going to reach it.
2. Pre and Post Workout Ritual
You need a pre and post workout ritual.
This ritual is your way of asking the universe to help you in reaching your goal.
Rituals are important and they can make a massive difference. Moreover, you don’t have to do something flashy. Simply sit for 5-minutes, address the gods, repeat your fitness goal, and finally ask the gods to help you is enough.
If you are an atheist, sit and meditate for 5-minutes, repeat your goal and remember how your mind is trying to stop you is enough.
Do it before the workout, do it after the workout.
3. Planning
IIt’s much easier to stick to your workout if you have scheduled it beforehand.
Think about it. Missing something you never scheduled is understandable, however, if you have something scheduled, it takes more negligence on your part to miss it since you are aware of the task you need to do.
Don’t give your brain a loophole by neglecting planning. Schedule your workout for the whole month, even before you start. If you haven’t trained today, start by scheduling workouts for this month.
Moreover, plan your workouts too. Don’t wing it.
If you don’t know what you are going to do on the leg day, you are 3X more likely to skip it and this goes for every single workout day.
Have a proper workout routine for every gym day.
4. Less is More
There are two things you need to do. First, you need to do only a specific number of exercises for each muscle group. Second, you need to do only 6-8 exercises at most every single day.
You don’t need to perform every single exercise you can find for every single muscle of your body. Stick to 4-5 best exercises for a muscle group and if you find a better exercise, replace it with an inferior exercise.
Moreover, you should perform no more than 6-8 exercises every single day and this includes machine moves. There are four reasons for this:
- It will be harder for you to stick to the workout routine.
- You will rarely complete your workout routine if you perform more than 8 exercises daily.
- Your workout intensity will decrease.
- You will not improve much.
If you are a beginner, you should avoid performing more than five exercises daily.
Here’s a beginners weight loss workout you can use:
- Jogging: 30-minutes
- Bicep curls: 3 sets of 20 reps
- Shoulder press: 3 sets of 20 reps
- Crunches: 3 sets of 1-minute
- Squats: 3 sets of 20 reps
Use light-weight dumbells to perform bicep curls and shoulder press. If you are thinking of following a diet, try the keto diet. Here’s a custom keto diet plan you can try.
5. Reward
Your brain perceives a task either as a reward or a threat. Unfortunately, working out is a threat. It’s natural for you to not feel like working out. There is also no way of tricking your brain to make it feel like a reward, a pleasurable experience.
You are going to feel anxious in your car as you are going to the gym. Your mind will consistently tell you to do it another day. However, there are a few things you can do to make it less threatening and more palatable for your brain:
- Workout Buddy: Get yourself a workout buddy. Not only he will hold you accountable your whole workout experience will be 10X better. You will improve faster, learn faster, have more fun, have someone to share your progress and defeats, and someone to compete with.
- Meditation: You need to meditate twice a day for at least 10-minutes. Meditation will help strengthen the thinking part of your brain. Hence, reducing procrastination and strengthening your will as time goes on.
- Celebrate: Set sub-goals and celebrate them every time you reach them. This will make your whole fitness journey the most important part of your life.
6. Types of Exercises You Should Do
There is a notion that to make your workout fun, you need to stick with easier exercises.
This strategy makes sense, however, there is one big loophole. Most exercises that are easy produce negligible results and no results = no interest in working out, as you need results for dopamine and consistency in the long run.
For instance, walking, it’s great if you are overweight and you have been advised by a physician to do so to lose weight before shifting to intense exercises. However, if you are healthy and close to your ideal body weight, fit enough to jog, then you should jog.
You are not going to feel good about the workout unless you achieve something, do something out of your comfort zone. Showing up every day will get old after a month, however, if you have nothing to show for after a month in the gym, you will quit.
So, train hard. Do exercises that help you grow faster. This way, every month, you will have something to show and something to strive.
Conclusion
If you have made it this far, there is no going back. You have a fitness goal and promise to reach that goal. Now all you need to do is be alert and don’t let your brain deceive you.
Keep in mind, you are still going to make mistakes and somedays, you will face situations so intense and complicated that working out will be impossible. On those days, remind yourself of your goal, grit yourself for the next day, and strategize so that the same situation doesn’t repeat itself.
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Rudra
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