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Alright, let’s be honest, we all have those days where it’s tough to get up and go to the gym. You can think of a thousand reasons not to do it, and of course it’s so easy to rationalize that skipping just one day won’t hurt anything.

Don’t get me wrong, you’re body needs plenty of rest for recovery, but plenty of rest can quickly turn into laziness if you let it go too far.

So let’s talk about the other side of things. There are also a million reasons for you to get into the gym. Everything in your life… literally everything can be improved by your workouts, either directly or indirectly. Yep, it’s all connected.

1. Confidence: Some studies have shown that heavy, compound lifts activate the endocrine system and release anabolic hormones into your body such as testosterone. This makes you feel strong and confident. It takes the fear out of you and makes you feel like a real man… no, actually, it does make you into a real man. We’re talking about natural testosterone and its benefits here… this is very different than the synthetic hormones/steroids and their negative side effects. This is ok for the ladies too, since testosterone will only be released in much smaller amounts.

2. Dating: You can tell yourself all day long that you’re not shallow and looks don’t matter… but the reality is that a good looking body is always a plus when it comes to dating. Always. Going from overweight to lean & muscular can dramatically alter your ability to attract the opposite sex. So, if a girl has rejected you recently… maybe it’s not that she was rude or didn’t like you… maybe you’re just too fat. Do something about it.

3. Sleep Better: Most people with sleeping disorders are leading sedentary lives. Studies have shown that the amount of time required to fall asleep is cut in half when you’re working out. Hitting the hay never felt as good as it does after a workout.

4. School: Your workouts will sharpen your brain’s function by increasing the flow of oxygen it can receive. That translates to better grades in school and better job performance. Besides, too much fat can clog your brain… ok, not really, but it is harder to have the clear mind and focus when you’re really out of shape.

5. Enjoy Food More: All this working out will help you to realize that you don’t like to eat crap food anymore. Your appetite will start to increase as your body recovers from heavy workouts, and all those lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes… they suddenly start to taste a lot better. You body will demand real nourishment.

6. Look Better, Feel Better: This will help you with #2. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve the way you look. It’s not vain… it’s human. More people should try to do this through exercise.

7. Water: It never tasted so good as it does after a heavy set. This will help you to kick the soda/junk food habit.

8. Sex life: Increased strength, speed, endurance, stamina, flexibility… enough said.

9. Happiness: You just plain feel good when your body releases endorphins into your blood stream, so go out and get that natural high. You’re less likely to be moping around, sad about life or getting depressed about all the bad things that happened to you. You’ll become one of those positive people who are successful and driven.

10. Dedication: Speaking about success, the hard work ethic you develop in the gym doesn’t drop dead at the door when you leave. That tough guy that you built in the gym walks out of the gym with you, and he knows how to work hard in life. If you have the willpower to finish a tough set of 20-rep squats, you’ll have the willpower to do anything hard in life.

11. Progressive Overload: This term doesn’t apply to the gym only. Your muscles grow as you gradually increase the stress placed on them, and improvement in life follows the same pattern. You learn step-by-step, and you always improve just a little bit at a time. Instead of running from the tough things in life like most people do, you’ll know that these are what make you stronger. You will embrace the challenges in life.

12. Take the edge off: Those giant, juiced-up guys on steroids give us all a bad name with their attitude and bad temper. The truth is, a heavy weight lifting session will calm you down more than anything, and it’s the perfect outlet. Channel your anger and frustration into the bar, not the people around you.

13. Energy: You’re sleeping better and your workouts are giving you steady energy throughout the day. You won’t have to be cranking down coffee or riding the caffeine roller coaster to get through the morning. You’ll have a steady stream of consistent energy that will give you an advantage over the people around you.

14. Stop being a wuss: Once you toughen up the inner man, you won’t have to whine or complain about hard things in life anymore. In fact, you might even begin to volunteer for doing the tough things in life because you know that the only way to grow is by going heavy, whether it’s in the gym or anywhere else.

And you thought you were only making your muscles bigger…

I’d love to hear how training has improved your life as well.

Your body is 100% unable to do anything that your brain does not tell it to do. Period.

For every movement you make, and for every action you take, the initiation and completion begins and ends with the signals that come from your brain. Since your brain is the central command center for your body, it makes sense that improving the function of your mind also improves your physical capabilities.

This improvement can be accomplished through mental rehearsal and visualization. By using your mind to visualize the actions you will take, dramatic increases in performance are possible. Here is an example:

The free-throw study:

Individuals were divided into 3 groups. Each group was tested to see how many free throws they could successfully shoot with a basketball at the beginning and the end of the study.

Group A: Practiced free throws for 20 minutes
Group B: Did not practice free throws at all
Group C: Practiced mental free throws every night for 20 minutes. No real free throws were done, only a mental rehearsal and visualization of each free throw.

The results were as follows:

Group A: Increased their free-throw percentages by 24%.
Group B: Saw no increase in free-throw averages.
Group C: Increased their free-throw percentages by 23%. Remember, this is only using mental practice and visualization.

Numerous other studies have been conducted with similar results. Also, read about this Vietnam POW who spent years in a prison camp and dramatically improved his golf game by playing an 18-hole course every day in his head.

This technique works in all sports fields. Proper visualization techniques have also been used by many strength and training coaches to help athletes achieve their potential.

When visualization is helpful:

• Technical Lifts: The big lifts that require proper form and coordination of the muscles will especially benefit from visualization (power clean, deadlift, bench press, rows, squats, overhead press, etc). Other lifts will benefit as well.
• Coordination sports: Making a pass in American football, free kick in soccer, handoff in track events, the flip turn in a swim meet, and of course free throws in basketball. These are all examples of conditioning your motor units to perform correctly when the time arrives.
• Perseverance: Conditioning your mind to push yourself when your body doesn’t want to keep pushing. The last lap of a distance race, the end of a wrestling match, or the final squat of your heaviest set… prepare your mind to push yourself to new standards.

When visualization is not helpful:

• Absolute beginners: Visualization can be dangerous for beginners who do not have correct form down. If you haven’t developed good form yet, visualizing your exercises and movements will only help to reinforce those incorrect movements in your mind. Perfect your form first, then use visualization as a method of improvement.
• Avoidance: Do not focus on what you should avoid or correcting problems. Think of how to perform each motion correctly, and avoid all negative thoughts of the problems that can go wrong. Visualization works best with a positive mental focus and seeing how things should function correctly.

How to use visualization:

The key is that your visualization must be vivid and detailed. You must get into the frame of mind where your senses go through the movement you are trying to improve. For improving your squat, think of the sights, sounds, and feeling that go along with the movement.

Start by taking the weight of the bar on your back and getting into position. Feel where your hands grip the bar and where it rests on your shoulders. Hear the sound of the plates rattling as you lower down to the bottom of the movement.

Feel your legs press as you move back upward, driving through the hips. Condition your mind to focus on the things you will do correctly, such as keeping your back straight, your knees out, glutes active, and your abs tight as you complete the movement. Go through the entire set until you rack the bar. Visualize other exercises in a similar manner.

Go through these exercises when you have a relaxing moment or before you go to bed at night. These mental exercises can be done as often as you have time for them. You will gain more by doing them often often and in short sessions of 20 minutes instead of doing one long session every now and then.

The mind’s eye:

Of course, you will not see long-term increases in your strength or body type by simply using your mind every day. Mental visualization is only a tool to help you improve your efficiency when you put these thoughts into real action.

That’s why visualization is such a powerful technique. You learn that the strength and shape of your body is directly tied to your mind. The mind-body connection requires that you condition your mind first, and then your mind will send the correct signals to help you lift properly and strengthen your muscles.

Build your mental strength, and your mind will then push your body to follow closely behind it. Remember, it’s not about relying on your mind instead of what really matters. It is about using your mind over the matter.

How will I ever find time to workout with my busy schedule?

It’s a question that anybody who exercises regularly has had to deal with. Finding time to workout is not easy, it’s unlikely, and quite frankly, you shouldn’t even try to find time to workout.

What kind of advice is that for a workout site?

It’s good advice. Because the truth is, if you are looking to “find” time to workout, you’ll probably be looking for a very long time. You have a job, you have to study, maybe you have kids… you’re a busy person, and I seriously doubt that you’re going to “find” the time laying around. No, the only way you will ever have time to workout is if you stop trying to “find” the time and start making the time.

And if you’re not struggling with time for your workouts now, you will some day. Get into the mindset right now that it will be tough to keep the exercise habit at some point in your life (if it isn’t already). Mentally preparing those times of life in advance will help you to deal with them when they finally arrive.

Here’s an incomplete list of ways to make the time:

1. Choose your time wisely: Each time of the day has it’s benefits, but be open to other times, such as the morning. You might not have the same schedule for the rest of your life, and since you’ve already decided to keep in shape for life, you’ll need to keep an open mind.

2. Increase the intensity: Take slightly less rest between sets over time. Also, try supersetting 2 smaller exercises together. For example, go directly from doing a set on your abs to a set of calf raises without resting between. This can help cut the time down.

3. Do some workouts at home: Ab crunches, standing calf raises…. You don’t need a safety rack or setup to do these effectively. Also, abs and calves tend to recover more quickly than other muscle groups, and they will benefit from the greater frequency you can give them by working them at home on the days you don’t plan to go to the gym.

4. Get a home gym: This is a better time saver than just doing a few workouts at home. Not everyone has a place for a home gym, and going beyond the intermediate stage will push you toward a full gym. But basic lifts with a barbell and a rack will be plenty good to get into great shape.

5. Combine weights and cardio: If weight training and a good diet aren’t enough to help you keep your fat levels down, then combining weights and cardio on the same day will save time over working out on separate days. Do your weights first, get a protein shake to hold you over until your next meal, and then do your cardio.

6. Child care: If you’ve got kids, child care can be a real godsend. Some gyms offer it in the evenings as a free service, and it can make all the difference in finding a time to workout. If you have kids or might have them soon, keep this in the back of your mind when you choose a gym.

7. Use TV and phone time: These are great times to do your static stretches. Do them after your workout while you’re still warm to help get your muscles lengthened back out and ready for your next workout. Don’t stretch immediately before a workout, as this can lead to injuries.

8. Involve family & friends: If your significant other complains that they have to compete with your workouts for your time, try to bring them with you. It’s a good time to be together in a low stress (at least emotionally) environment, you help each other out by spotting, learn to work together… All that mushy stuff.

9. Schedule it: Just like anything else in your life that’s important. Make the time, write it in your schedule, let people know…. Do what you have to do.

10. Make it a priority: We tend to focus on things that are urgent in life. Working out is important, but you won’t die immediately if you don’t exercise, so you think it’s not urgent… but you will be slowly dying over the years. Your health is important, and you have to realize that it is also urgent. It affects all the other aspects of your life and your ability to do other urgent things, such as getting good rest, feeling energized, having confidence, getting things done at work… I could go on and on.

You may have noticed above that I said that this is an incomplete list. That’s because you also have great experiences with making the time when life gets busy. Add your items to the list in the comments section below.

Think you’re too wimpy or too small to be seen in a gym? Better think again.

His name is Aditya, but his friends call him Romeo. He is 2’9” tall, weighs in at less than 20 pounds, and feels no shame whatsoever as throngs of people come to see him as the smallest bodybuilder ever.

And why should he feel any shame whatsoever?

What is wrong with being born with a frame that’s smaller or larger than usual?

Yeah, I know that it’s easy for a beginner to feel out of place in a gym. You’re struggling to press an empty bar while some beast of a man is pressing 500 pounds next to you. You might feel too embarrassed to be seen in public with all the other fit people.

“Look at the fat guy jiggling on the treadmill!”

“What’s that little wimp doing near my bench!”

But these are only voices in your head. Voices that are helping you to rationalize and not take control of your life. It is the fear of ridicule from your peers… And while this self-consciousness can be a powerful motivator, it can also be an overpowering inhibitor.

Take the words of Romeo:

“I’ve been training as a bodybuilder for the last two years, and by now I think I must be the strongest dwarf in the world.”

“I have always been fit, but since I started working out, I have become famous for my strength.”

May the best dwarf win

Weight training can build your confidence, but confidence is also required just to get started with any pursuit in life. Whether you’re learning to lift, learning a new language, learning to sing… the fear of doing poorly is often the greatest factor that holds you back from what you could become.

There’s nothing wrong with being naturally larger or smaller (less witty, less handsome, etc.) than other people. What matters the most is how you deal with what you’ve been given in life. And if you happen to feel abnormal or like you’re a dwarf in life, don’t let it get in the way of your goals or your dreams.

What matters most is not what you’ve been given in life, but what you give, so give it your best so that you can live without any regrets. Whether it’s your workout, your career, or your social life… Just get out there and be the best dwarf in the world.

I saw this in the news today and couldn’t help but write a post about this guy. Check out the news article on him.

This is the time of year that many people already start to give up on their New Year’s Resolutions. In response, I’ve written this post:

Not getting to your destination? Having trouble achieving your goals? You may have a problem that you haven’t considered.

When you are doing everything you possibly can to achieve your goals, but just can’t quite seem to reach them, the problem might be that you are setting the wrong type of goal. Here’s a real-world example that you might see in business:

My goal is to increase department sales by 10% this year.

What’s wrong with this goal?

• You don’t control sales. Customers must buy something for sales to increase, and you can’t control the customers. You can only take actions that will influence their decision to purchase.
• The focus is outward only. This goal looks only at the outcome instead of the actions you will take.

Since you are the only person that you have complete control over, you are the only person that your goals should ever focus on. You will only set yourself up for disappointment if you create a goal that you can try your hardest to achieve and still fail at it.

Your workout goals: You don’t have direct control over your body either. If you did, you would just add 10 pounds of muscle or lose fat whenever you want.

Instead, you have to take the specific actions that influence your body to look the way you want. You don’t just lose fat… you run hard and eat clean food, and then your body may or may not lose 10 pounds of fat.

The solution to these problems is to set performance-based goals. This type of goal focuses first on the actions you will take instead of the outcome you will try to get. These goals start with action in mind and end with the outcome, instead of the other way around like most other goals. For example:

Outcome-based goal: I want to gain 10 pounds of solid muscle in the next 2 months.

Performance based goal: My goal is to do 3 sets of the bench press with a target pressing weight of 180 pounds twice a week, and I’ll add 5 pounds weekly. I’ll measure my goal by recording it in my training log at the end of each workout.

Notice that the second goal doesn’t focus on the outcome, but on the actions you will take to influence that outcome. If you keep taking the correct actions, the outcome you desire will eventually be yours.

This doesn’t mean that getting results isn’t important. Getting results from your goals will always be important, but in the end, goals are only a type of mental conditioning to help your mind commit to taking real action that leads to results.

It’s not enough to just throw a goal up in the air and just try to work really hard to make it happen. The actions that you will take must be a part of your goal.

The point is, if you are taking the correct actions and you stay committed, you will achieve the results you’re looking for. If the results don’t come immediately, you shouldn’t feel like a failure for giving your best effort to the plan you have made.

When results don’t come: This will happen at some point. Some people follow their performance-based goals to a tee, but stop seeing results after a period of time. This is especially common in muscle building when you hit a plateau or a sticking point.

If you are performing well and giving your full effort, but the results don’t come, you’ll have to refer back to the 5 steps to creating effective goals and create a new method for getting the outcome you want.

Again, don’t beat yourself up because the results say you’re failing to achieve your goal. If you giving a 100% effort, you are not failing at your goal. You just need to rethink your goal and tailor it for new actions that will give you the results you want.

Separating goals from targets: You may have noticed that I wrote a goal earlier that used a target pressing weight of 180 pounds. Isn’t the amount of weight you press an outcome?

Yes and no. You should always set a target to shoot for when you go into the gym. You might have a target running speed, a target weight to press, and you might have a target number for sales at work.

Hitting your target each day will depend on many factors, such as your energy reserves and how early you do an exercise in your workout. Set your targets high and aim to achieve them. Even if you don’t hit your target one day, you can still achieve your goals 100% of the time.

Proper mental framing: The difference between performance and outcome goals is subtle. Instead of setting a goal on the outcome, you set a goal to take the actions that lead to the outcome.

Isn’t this just a mental thing?

Yes, this is all mental. Again, that’s what goals are. They are a type of mental conditioning designed to help you commit to taking action. With performance based goals, you are able to separate actions from outcomes.

If you don’t achieve the outcome you desire, you won’t have to feel like a loser because you didn’t achieve your goal. You will recognize that you did everything you could and did achieve your goal, but you just set the wrong goal. Don’t quit. Study what was wrong with your first goal, learn, and set a better one.

With this in mind, you’ll still have the confidence to set a new performance goal for new actions that lead to the real outcome you desire.

Image Credit: neloqua

With the new year a few weeks behind us, now is a great time to look at our New Year’s resolutions and evaluate how we will achieve them. It’s sad, but many people set goals that they will never achieve.

But being lazy is not the only reason that people don’t achieve their goals. There’s another reason why you you’re not getting what you want: You haven’t set the right goals.

It happens all the time. Some people set a goal like: I want to lose 25 pounds in the next three months. Is this really the goal though? Maybe it is, but my guess is that most people with these kinds of goals need to dig a little bit deeper inside of themselves.

Why do you want to lose 25 pounds or increase your bench press by 30 pounds? For many people, the answer might be that they want to look better. So the true goal is to look and feel better, and increasing your bench press or losing 25 pounds is what you believe you need to do to get there, whether that’s actually the truth or not.

So, you need a goal to get you from point A [where you are right now] to point B [where you want to be]. Knowing point A is easy because you’re already there, but clearly envisioning point B will require a little more effort. Think about what you really want to achieve as your goal.

Finally, you’ll have to mentally create the road that connects point A and point B. You’ll need to have a plan that will get you where you want to go. This is a lot like looking at a map before you start driving.

Some people might say ‘Hey, I don’t have time to look at a map because I’m in a huge hurry’. The truth is, you don’t have time to drive around without looking at a map first. You could drive around all day before you find the place you’re looking for. The same is true for your goals.

So here are 5 essential tips that can help you to set your goals more effectively.

1. Simple and measurable: Your goal should be simple enough that you can easily remember it throughout the day. Simplicity and specificity can sometimes be opposites, so you will need to strike a healthy balance between saying too much and saying too little.

At the very least, your goal should say what you are trying to accomplish and how. The “how” of your goal should be something that you can easily measure. For example:

“My goal is to do 3 sets of the bench press with a target pressing weight of 150 pounds twice a week. I’ll measure I’ll goal by recording it in my training log at the end of each workout.”

2. Write them down and share with others: Once you have a goal that is specific and measurable, write it down. Tell other people about it and just get it out there. Post your written goals somewhere where you are likely to see them again. Maybe your bathroom mirror is a good place. This will remind you at a regular interval to rededicate to your plan.

Telling other people is the first step in moving your goal beyond something that exists in your mind only. Move them outside of your mind by sharing them. Have your friends and family members follow up with you from time to time. Just knowing that they will ask about your goal will help you to keep the motivation you need.

3. Think about your goals throughout the day: Think about your goals whenever you can. When you keep your goals at the forefront of your mind, inspiration and meaning will flow through you. Certain events that happen throughout your day will bring new meaning and new direction to your goals. Ideas will spring forth from your mind that you never expected. The parts of your day that are usually boring will become opportunities to plan and strategize.

Even the busiest of people will have the time to do this. This is because the simple act of thinking is something that we can do literally anywhere. Some of the best times to think will be in the restroom or the shower, on your way to work in the car, waiting in line at lunch time, or as you fall asleep at night. With time, you will even begin to think about your goals in your sleep!

4. Set goals that you can achieve: If you achieve your goals 100% of the time, then you are not setting your goals high enough… right? Wrong. Your goal should be something that you can certainly achieve if you follow through. The reason we often miss the mark for our goals is that we set the wrong kind of goal. We set a goal to have a certain outcome. Try setting a performance-based goal instead of a goal that focuses on a certain outcome… the outcome is still very important, but this shifts the focus to the actions that you should be taking. More on performance-based goals in part 2.

5. Create a plan to achieve your goals: Without a plan, you are lost. Back to our example of building a muscular body- to achieve this goal, you will need to asses the weak points of your body and make a plan to bring them up to speed. You will need to decide which exercises will help you to meet your goals and how you will do them.

Your plan might include things like your eating habits, your workout frequency, finding a gym partner, deciding on how you will do your cardio, etc. Just recognize ahead of time that your plan will probably have to change at some point. You won’t be able to get the same results from doing the same things forever. Always stay one step ahead of yourself by constantly reevaluating your methods.

Image Credit: Gio Foto

I hate the basics.

It doesn’t matter what it is, we simply don’t want basic things in life. Nobody wants to go out and buy a basic car if they could afford something nicer. We don’t like to have basic computers or basic cameras either… we want the fast computers or the cameras will all the hi-tech features.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting more than the basics. We don’t want to live basic lives, we don’t want to buy things that are the bare-bones basics, and we naturally want something more than a basic workout that gives basic results.

In addition, no matter how important it can be to learn the basics rules about whatever you are doing, learning the basics can be a real pain.

I remember taking a basic golf course in college. The teacher made us learn the basics of each golf swing by having us practice every day without a golf club in our hands. I became so frustrated by pretending to play golf each day that I wish I had a real club just so I could smash something with it.

Everybody in my golf class felt that way. We all wanted to learn how to play golf, and just sitting around all day looking at the most basic movements was a real frustration. It’s the same thing with anything we pursue; we naturally want to move beyond the basic level as quickly as possible.

Going to the gym isn’t much different either. You don’t want to have a basic body — you want an amazing body, right? So why would you do the basic exercises if having a basic body isn’t what you want?

That’s why I don’t like using the word “basic” to describe the most useful exercises… it’s very misleading.

The Accelerated Course

It’s just too easy to get caught up in all the details of what we’re trying to do in life. We often waste our time doing all the little things when there’s something big that needs to be done first.

It’s like trying to sweep the floor in your house when there’s a big elephant in the living room that won’t stop crapping on the floor. Take care of the big things first, and then the small details will be easy.

I get the feeling that a lot of us are doing the same thing in the gym. We’re trying to focus on the little details of our workouts like putting some little line on our biceps or a little “cut” in our shoulders. These types of exercises do have their place, but focusing on the details doesn’t get you very far in the beginning.

So why not take the accelerated course when you’re in the gym? You’ll get where you’re trying to go much faster, and you’ll even pick up a lot of the details along the way.

The strange thing is, everybody is calling the best exercises the “basics”. They are the exercises that work the most muscle groups together, and they are usually the most difficult to do. Don’t be fooled though, because these exercises also are the most rewarding.

But maybe we really need to get away from calling these the basics, since nobody wants to have a basic body. Some people will call these exercise “compound movements”, which actually sounds better to me (click here to see which exercises are “basic” or compound movements).

After all, compound interest is a really good thing when you make an investment, but then again, you can get a compound headache and compound stress in your life.

So I thought long and hard about a better name for these movements. I’m looking for a name that truly expresses how important these compound movements are in our workouts – so at length I finally decided that I will now call them Your-Workouts-Will-Always-Suck-Without-These (YWWASWT) exercises.

Sure, there might be some situations where you can get a decent workout without the YWWASWT exercises, but this name helps people to understand the importance of these types of exercises.

And so going forward, I’ll refer to these exercises in this way. It helps beginners to understand how important they are instead of just calling them the “basics”. YWWASWT exercises will work many muscle groups together, and by doing these exercises that are so tough to do, you’re actually taking the accelerated path to obtaining your goals. Besides, if it isn’t difficult at first, it’s probably not that great for you anyways.

So stop trying to sweep up little bits of elephant crap — take the accelerated course and get yourself a better workout. And remember: YWWASWT!

This post is part 2 of a 2 part series. In part 1, Starvation is Not the Answer, we talked about how under eating can slow down your metabolism and make you fatter.

Here’s a piece of information that some of you will be glad to hear – Eating enough food each day will help you to keep fat off of your body. You are going to have to forget the idea that cutting fat comes from just eating less food; it’s simply not the truth.

This is the part that is hard for many people to accept when you are trying to cut some fat. Switching to smaller and more frequent meals throughout the day will actually cause your metabolism to stabilize.

You might be eating more food overall throughout the day, but eating even amounts of food throughout the day will help you to keep your metabolism higher. The key will be to make the following things happen:

1. Feed your body: Like we discussed before, the amount of food you give your body will affect your metabolism. If you don’t want your body to go into survival mode and save all the fat on your body, don’t starve it.

Keep that metabolism burning like a roaring fire. This doesn’t mean that you should overeat, but you will need to eat the right kinds of foods in the right amounts. Keep it within the healthy range – not too full and never too hungry either.

2. Don’t trust the weight scale: Unless you are measuring your body fat percentages and know how much weight you are losing is fat, the scale can’t be trusted. Just because the needle on the scale went down by 10 pounds doesn’t mean that you lost 10 pounds of fat.

All the scale tells you is that you lost something. Losing something can be a bad thing or a good thing depending on what you lost. If you lost fat, it’s probably a good thing (within reason). If you’re losing lean body mass, you’re going to be hurting yourself in the long run by slowing down your metabolism.

3. Lose fat through exercise: Doing a combination of weights and cardio is simply the most effective way to keep the fat off of your body. Running at a high intensity and lifting weights will also help you to burn more fat when you are at rest. The key word here is intensity.

4. Keep the muscle: It’s the same for men and women. Having more muscle on your body increases your metabolic rate. You’ll have to avoid starving yourself so that you can keep the muscle on your body and keep burning more.

Lifting weights for thirty minutes three times a week at minimum will help to keep the muscle on your body as you lose fat. Focus on the YWWASWT exercises.

5. Use a positive mental focus: Think about what you can do to get in shape, not what you need to avoid. This is why all the diets and calorie cutting programs are so popular. They all ask you to do less.

They tell you to just eat less food and avoid certain foods. Even though we like to eat, most people would prefer to avoid something enjoyable than do something that they don’t enjoy doing.

Don’t get caught in this trap. Instead of just avoiding the negatives, begin to seek out the positives.

Don’t think in terms of all the negative things that you need to avoid, but instead think of the positive things that you should start doing. You need to start exercising, lifting weights, becoming more social, preparing the right foods, actively seeking to make your life better.

That’s what makes all of this so difficult to do. It requires us to be actively doing and thinking instead of just avoiding. Even though we might be losing fat, this process requires us to make ourselves into something more instead of something less. It requires us to be active in pursuing our goals and dreams.

So instead of just trying to avoid all of the bad things life, make the decision that you will begin to actively seek out and embrace the positive things in the world. Getting into this frame of mind will do more than just change the way you look.

It will change you.

Image Credit: Zepfanman

What would you think if I were to tell you that there was a way for you to love working out?

I know what you might be thinking. You might be remembering how terrible it feels when you try to run while you are gasping for breath, or how tough it can be to keep pushing when your muscles are screaming for mercy.

Who in their right mind would ever love this???

Everybody who gets into the right frame of mind can learn to love their workouts.

It’s only a matter of time, but you can get there. The secret to loving your workouts is to realize first and foremost that love is a verb. It is something that you do. As you do the actions of loving something, the feeling of love will eventually follow.

Let me share with you an excerpt from Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

At one seminar where I was speaking on the concept of proactivity, a man came up and said, “Stephen, I like what you are saying. But every situation is so different. Look at my marriage. I’m really worried. My wife and I just don’t have the same feelings for each other we used to have. I guess I just don’t love her anymore and she doesn’t love me. What can I do?”

“The feeling isn’t there anymore?” I asked.

“That’s right.” he reaffirmed. “And we have three children we’re really concerned about. What do you suggest?”

“Love her,” I replied.

“I told you, the feeling just isn’t there anymore.”

“Love her.”

“You don’t understand. The feeling of love just isn’t there.”

“Then love her. If the feeling isn’t there, that’s a good reason to love her.”

“But how do you love when you don’t love?”

“My friend, love is a verb. Love — the feeling — is a fruit of love, the verb. So love her. Serve her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her. Are you willing to do that?”

I’m sure you’ve met people just like this in your life. I remember knowing just such a person once before.

He had been dating an amazing girl who was way out of his league in terms of looks and personality. Really, she was an amazing girl. They had talked about marriage, but I was shocked to hear him say one day that he was going to break up with her because he couldn’t feel love for her.

I knew he would never have a shot like this again in his lifetime, and he ended up settling with someone much more average later on… At the time, I felt like yelling, “Just love her, dammit!”

Just Love It

I’m sure you’ve seen people at the other end of the spectrum as well. People who somehow manage to love something that seems terrible. Maybe it’s someone who loves running marathons, or a person who loves math.

For me, it was the people I met in college who fell in love with chemistry — who in the world would ever love chemistry? But I noticed as some people learned more, they started to feel fascinated by watching some purple bubbles come out of the top of a test tube.

While it might sound like these kinds of people have a love for pain, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that people who love tough exercises are masochistic. No, the people who truly love to hurt themselves are the people who will never be found in a gym.

Just because they don’t feel immediate pain from another hour of TV or the junk they eat doesn’t mean that they aren’t hurting themselves in the end. They enjoy hurting their bodies with every bite of junk food they eat and every soda they drink.

And while it might seem strange, the fact is that you can love difficult things just by getting out and doing the act of loving them. It’s the action of getting into the gym and really pushing yourself hard — the simple act working out that really makes you love your workout.

What initially seems like a terrible pain can eventually become a source of strength and enjoyment. Every time you get into the gym and do one more rep, you are one rep closer to a workout you will love.

The feelings will follow the action. This feeling of love for exercise comes as your body naturally produces endorphins during your workout, and you get a natural high as a reward for your hard work.

So if you want to feel like you love working out, you only have one option: get out there and start loving it.