Motivation Must Come From Within

At some point, motivation must come from within. I believe that to truly be successful in the sport of powerlifting, and in the rest of your life as well, your motivation to complete hard tasks must come from within you.  Watching your favourite lifter’s most recent YouTube vlog may inspire you up to work harder at the gym. The right song might hype you up for the big top set of the day.  A good coach might push the right buttons to motivate you to track your nutrition, for this week anyway.    Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Eric Thomas:

“When you want money as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”

This type of speech will only work for a short time.  Your reason to breathe needs to be YOUR reason to breathe.  What makes you tick?  What gets you up in the morning?

I know what it is like to not be able to breathe.  I have had exertion and allergy induced asthma my entire life.  Probably compounded by being an overweight youth, heck I am still an overweight adult masquerading as a 105kg powerlifter.  I cannot say that I have ever wanted money or success as badly as I have wanted to breathe during some of the asthma attacks that I have had throughout my life.  Maybe I would be more financially successful if I did.  I digress.

Motivation is Finite

Motivation is a finite resource.  It is going to come and go in waves.  For me this type of motivation has traditionally manifested itself as negative internal thoughts, or self-image problems spurring me forward.  Not only is this unhealthy and less effective, but it is also fleeting and unsustainable.  If you always need to put your angry PR song on just to get through a hard set, how are you going to act when something truly difficult comes up in your life.  Sure, training is difficult, but it is a hobby.  We train because we want to, not because we must. 

Your reason for training cannot be selfish forever. Having demons to slay will only take you so far. Yes, I have been there too. (Note to self: you’re not a teenager anymore smh).  There are some great lifters that have lifted incredible weights using the drive created by negative emotion.  While obviously this has been productive for some individuals at the high level, it is probably unsustainable and unhealthy.  If you need to enter a dark mindset every time you lift you will always be associating negative states to what should be a positive thing.  Don’t you love the gym? Why do you always want to be in a state of intense anger while you are there?  If this association is engrained and built over and over then eventually you will either not enjoy being in the gym, or you will always have to pull up negative thoughts or memories just to get through a set of deadlifts. 

Choose Love

Choose love.  The gym should be a place that you love.  Do training that you enjoy.  If you don’t enjoy training for powerlifting then don’t, train in a way that is fun for you.    Enjoyment = effort.  People who enjoy their training feel better when they walk into the gym.  They are happy to see their gym homies (cue head nod to some gym Bro you’ve seen at the gym for years but couldn’t guess their name). The person that loves the gym and loves their training will get more from it.  They will complete all their training.  Their positive mindset will forge stronger neural pathways and dopamine responses.  When they are done with all their sets, they will be sad, because they love training.  They will probably stick around and socialize, help others, or talk training or nutrition with their fellow gym rats.  Building more positive associations and relationships, also improving adherence through community. 

Cognitive Rest

On a somewhat related tangent…I had a client who had been dealing with what was perceived as high amounts of background stress and anxiety throughout his daily life that seemed to be affecting his ability to focus, subsequently impacting training.  He had just moved away from home to a bigger city for school, and after a few months it was apparent that something in his new lifestyle was keeping him on the edge.  I noticed one time while he was training that he was listening to a band that I also enjoyed.  We were on a check-in call trying to navigate his recent downturn in training, anxiety, and sleep struggles, and we started talking about music.  He went on to explain his love of metal and how much he was listening to in a day. In the morning on the bus, walking to and from school, between classes, while he was doing chores, at the gym. 

“Wait, so you are listening to metal, and/or derivatives of metal all day?”

“Yes, I love it.”

“Do you listen to any other music?”

“Not really, I love metal.”

“So, you have earbuds in all day listening to heavy, blast beats, chugs, squeals, breakdowns, and harsh vocals like all day? On top of adjusting to the hustle and bustle of big city commuting.  Were you doing this before you went away to university?”

“No, I used to only listen to it while I trained. I didn’t have the kind of freedom I have right now.”

“Louis, do you think you might be inadvertently putting yourself into a psychologically agitated state by listening to Chelsea Grin all day?” 

“I never thought about it that way.”

This might be too simple to believe, but getting my client to stop listening to metal all day improved these background anxiety levels and led to lower stress levels, improved sleep patterns, and more positive training outcomes. 

I get that there is a certain catharsis associated with heavy music.  That is why it goes so hand in hand with lifting heavy weights.  At some point you need to let both your brain and body rest.  If you are listening to your PR song while you are walking to school, no wonder you feel like front kicking the person who accidentally cut you off walking down a busy street.  There are already unnatural stressors like traffic, lights, overpopulation, noise pollution, all within the unnatural concrete jungle surrounding you.  Add some Spite into the mix and you have an equation for inducing artificially elevated levels of anxiety. 

This goes for commuting as well.  People get road rage because highway traffic essentially simulates a stampede.  No wonder everyone driving faster than you is a maniac and everyone going slower is an idiot purposely putting your life at risk by driving the speed limit.  Inject some Arf! Arf! a la Knocked Loose and the urge to cuss someone out behind the steering wheel might just elevate.  I know I am getting off topic, but this is the kind of stress reduction and fatigue management that might be overlooked in your day-to-day life.  The more time that you can spend in rest and digest, the better your training will be.  If you can reduce background levels of stress in your day-to-day life, even things like noise pollution created by your favourite breakdown band, may lead to better training outcomes over the long term. 

On that note, one of the best strategies for mitigating daily stress is the classic power nap.  Turn your phone off, shut the world out, recline, close your eyes, start a timer, and just let your brain rest for 20-30 minutes.  It doesn’t even matter if you fall asleep.  20-30 minutes of cognitive rest goes a long way in managing stress and fatigue. 

What is your Why?

Well, what is your why? Are you training for health?  Trying to get in shape you’re your wedding? Setting an example for your family? Are you using the gym for self-improvement?  Do you just love the way it makes you feel when you hit a new PR?  I know that I still do, albeit less frequent than it used to be.  At this point I think I just love how a hard set or training session makes me feel.  I am addicted to the dopamine created by exerting my body.  I am not sure that I even need to PR anymore, I always love going.  Whatever your why is, anchor on it.  Make it something positive.  Something that brings you joy.  If you need to, make it visible in your environment.  Write your goals and your reason for achieving them down and put them on your fridge.  Do something to give yourself a constant reminder as to why you are training and what you love about training.

It is important that we try to systemize our habits to carry you through when motivation seems to be waning.  Habits can carry you forward through the times when life is life-ing hard, or you are simply just exhausted from training.  Habits have an amazing ability to build on other habits, spurring on new ones.  The classic example of this is the person that starts going to the gym, who then starts paying more attention to their calories, nutrition quality, protein intake, timing, attempting to get more out of their time they spend in the gym, time they already enjoy.  From there one might become obsessed with trying to improve their sleep, learning about circadian rhythms, sleep cycles, set wake/sleep times, bedtime routines, paying attention to sleep hygiene, caffeine intake, and so on.  From there, perhaps working to manage their life stressors more effectively, adjusting screen time, planning periods of daily rest and relaxation, maybe mobility, stretching, or yoga.  Elite powerlifters and bodybuilders take the gym with them everywhere they go, allowing that positive habit to impact many other positive habits.  Already engrained, these habits will be easier to maintain when times are tough, and fatigue is high. Once something becomes a real habit, I am not sure that one needs to be motivated to carry on with it.  Habits build momentum, they don’t use up motivation.  You will still need discipline to get through tougher sections of life, but it is far easier to be disciplined if you have systems in place already.  Overcoming friction builds motivation, it doesn’t use it up.  Decreasing the friction between accomplishing tasks will also help over the long term. 

Belief

I am vs. I want to be

I have said it before, and I will say it again.  Belief in yourself is the most powerful tool you have.  I used to talk about a former client  that simply willed himself to a bigger total.  He told me how strong he was going to be, he believed it, and it came true.  He would say things like “I know when I sit down to eat after a hard squat session, all the carbs I am eating are going straight to my legs.”  While not entirely accurate, his belief in the success he was going to have in the gym himself spanned into the rest of his life.  There are studies that have shown that your psychological state before you eat food has an impact on digestion and how your body responds to the food intake.  Practicing gratitude before you eat, leaving your work desk, being intentional (phone away, no distractions), and making sure you are in a restful calm state will impact how you digest your food.  My client did not know it, but he was bio/psycho/social hacking his way to better squat gainz. 

Rather than thinking about the type of person or athlete that you want to be.  Start by writing down and believing that you are that type of person or athlete.   If you truly believe in something you will work harder at it.  If you believe that you will be a world champion, you will do everything that a world champion would do.  If you believe in the programming you are doing, you will put more effort into completing and logging your training.  If you believe in your coach, their confidence in you will spur on greater gainz.  If you truly believe you will reach your goals, you will do everything within your power to reach them. 

I am a great powerlifter

I am a healthy eater

I am a macro-nator

I am a good sleeper

Belief in yourself and your processes is what will carry you forward.