When it comes to fitness, even the most motivated and experienced people find themselves going through rough patches. Whether you find yourself hitting a plateau or struggling to stay consistent, this is simply a part of the process. However, when you start feeling like you don’t want to go on, your mindset can be a powerful tool to help you carry on. Below are a few things to consider when your fitness journey gets tough.
1. It’s an investment in your health
There is no doubt that a lot of people who start a fitness journey have specific goals in mind. While having performance or even physique goals is an important moving force for staying motivated, it can also sometimes backfire. One of the examples is having unrealistic goals or underestimating the amount of time progress takes. This can affect your motivation and consistency.
However, while achieving a certain physique might feel important now, being healthy and having a high quality of life along the line is what truly matters. This should be an ultimate motivation to keep in mind. Even when you might not feel like you are getting what you want from training, your body is still benefiting from physical activity.
2. If something isn’t working you can change it
Figuring out what works for your body is a process of trial and error. Hardly any person who just joined the gym got everything right from the beginning. It’s ok not to know everything about fitness. It’s ok to fall for fitness myths and perhaps follow inefficient training protocols. What’s more important is being able to acknowledge when things don’t work and change your approach.
One of the best ways to figure out what works for you is to learn about exercise and your own body. Without a doubt, following a ready-made programme is an easy solution. However, doing even a bit of research about exercises, technique, intensity, and various training approaches will help you to understand better whether a certain programme is actually an effective one for you.
3. You don’t need to be the best at everything
I have accepted a long time ago that running or endurance training altogether is not my strongest part. Depending on your body and genetics you will be better at some things than others. Few people are blessed with incredible athleticism and can show decent performance across the disciplines.
Without a doubt, it can be frustrating if you are a competitive person. However, accepting your natural abilities and being proud of your work in the areas of fitness that don’t come easily to you will make your training more enjoyable.
4. Accept tough times – you’ll come out stronger
No matter what fitness goals you have, it’s not always going to be smooth sailing. You might have an injury that prevents you from training or your programme is no longer a good fit for you. It’s easy to stay motivated when things are going your way. When things get tough, however, it takes discipline and dedication to stay consistent.
You might not get the best physical results when you are facing a rough patch on your fitness journey. However, you can certainly build resilience and mental toughness if you keep going to the best of your ability.
5. You are in control
It can be easy to get frustrated with your own fitness efforts when all you see on social media are people achieving amazing results. Even seeing experienced people in the gym can make us wonder if maybe we are not working hard enough or looking good enough. While we can always improve our exercise selection or technique, the external factors and expectations shouldn’t define the success of our own fitness journey.
Just because someone is stronger, has more muscles or does advanced exercises doesn’t mean that the work you put in is inferior. You are in control of how you feel about your fitness journey. Sometimes when you are facing tough times all you need to do is change your attitude and things are likely to improve.
6. Simply showing up is a win
When things get tough, the best thing you can do is keep trying. Getting into a habit of going to a gym or doing other forms of exercise when you don’t want to is a major factor that defines whether you succeed in the long term or not.
Don’t beat yourself up for a bad workout or getting off the track. Instead, give yourself credit for simply making it to the gym/fitness class/going for a walk when this was the last thing you wanted to do.
Everybody’s fitness journey is unique and we all will face various challenges along the way. However, you can always turn things around by changing your attitude, learning new things, working on self-discipline and giving yourself credit for what you’ve already achieved.