Workout Mentality: It's all in the mind

[ChrisS]

Anyone else when their on a workout day super excited for the next workout day to come, feeling pumped!..but...when it's a rest day the thing you dread most is when its a workout day, and it feels insanely hard to start the workout the day after a rest day? That's how it is for me anyways.

I wonder if that is the mentality of the average American? (I'm American too, hey it could just be a lazy person's mentality ) or overweight person in general. If they were working out they would be super happy to get to each workout and would be in the 'workout mentality zone' but since the average American is sedentary he/she is always in the 'rest day mentality' zone. I could be talking complete crap xD But just thought I'd ask and see what you guys think of that observation?

Thanks,

Chris.

[Cecilia]

ChrisS this is what is happening to me right now. I'm in the week between YAYOG levels, taking a week off before my test into the 1st class and I'm finding it a bit hard to get motivated to workout. I'm still doing something everyday - swimming, jump rope, biking etc... but I find that without YAYOG, I'm feeling a bit lost.

rest days are a bit odd for me now. It's hard to just stop...I think I much prefer my YAYOG days...

[Melky6]

Yup, all in the mind like everything else. I have had my moments on rest days where I feel like I could work out and kinda be ahead of schedule or something. It happens the same on days I dread working out because my bed is so cozy in the morning but I feel worse later about myself and hate that. It usually takes 5 minutes or so to have the thought pass and replace it with a positive thought and I'm good. I play mind tricks on myself, crazy what our inner dialogue does to us.

[bark50]

I think I have a variation of this syndrome. It happens to me when I go on vacation. During this time I'll do a hard workout -- but not too hard -- maybe every 3 or 4 days. For the other days I might do some hiking or swimming or some other non-strenuous activity whenever I feel like it. When vacation is over, I ask myself why I routinely bust my butt 4-6 times a week when I felt great on moderate intensity workouts just twice a week at the most. But in my case, I think you nailed why I go through this post-vacation self-talk, Chris: I'm at heart a lazy person, and I'll try to talk myself out of regular, challenging exercise. I'm thankful the only time anymore I go through this kind of thing is after my twice-a-year vacations. I used to be able to talk myself out of a workout just because there was a TV program I wanted to watch!

[kovrec]

I read there are 2 kinds of persons (google nlp motivation). One have move towards (reward) motivation the other move away (from pain) motivation.

I am in the second camp. I just associate a lot of pain with not doing the exercise. If I don't do it, I will have less energy, if I have less energy it will take me longer to do things and I will make more mistakes. If I don't exercise I will have medical problems. I don't want to visit the doctor finding out I have problems with my heart. Etc. I associate so much "pain" to not doing the exercise I can "feel" it.

So when I feel like not doing the exercise I just think about all the pain not doing the exercise will get me. Works like a charm but the association is super strong.

One day it was super busy day, just didn't had the time, so I've done the exercise at 1 AM. It was the only time available.

Find out what motivates you and use that to your advantage.

[NatNat180]

I definitely get where you're coming from... Some days I'll look forward to, and others not so much (looking at you, legs). Though I will say that with YAYOG, working out has become so much more natural for me, which I think is the way working out should be. I feel like being active should be as natural to us as breathing, eating and sleeping; it shouldn't merely be a fad to get you at a certain desirable look and then you're done. It should be a habit for the rest of your life, something you just do. At least that's the mentality I'm trying to get into Now, no matter how lazy I can be at times or how much I dread a certain workout, it would just feel wrong if I skipped a day that I planned to exercise, as if I starved myself or something...

[senorchupacabra]

For me it's after the 10-week cycle. I take a week off and it's hard to get that motivation back to begin. I believe Mark actually suggests two weeks off, but I fear I'd never exercise again if I took two weeks. Even during my week off I have to keep working on my statics at the very least, otherwise that week might be too long as well.

Sometimes I also feel unmotivated during the two weeks of ladders. The exercises I choose to do on these days are not as easy as Mark suggests in the book (I do this because I hate workouts where I feel like I didn't really push myself). So doing 7.5 minutes of a fairly intense exercise is hard to get in the proper mood for. It's essentially 7.5 minutes of pain--something I generally try to avoid.

With all that said, I find it best to just get that first rep, then the first set. No matter how unmotivated I may feel, I force that first rep. After that, I have a tendency to realize that it's "all in my mind" and that my mind makes things worse than they really are. After that first rep, it's all cake....

[DannyQ]

Chris, im from an eastern country, and i feel the EXACT same way!