We all know that the gym is good for us. But actually sticking to a decent gym program can be tricky. According to data from Fitcraft, up to 63 percent of new gym members quit within their first three months. Meanwhile, fewer than four percent of gym-goers were still working out a year later.
Shocking statistics, especially considering—as a paper in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports pointed out—“The vast majority of Americans do not engage in adequate regular physical activity despite its well-known health benefits.”
Look, we get it. You’re busy. Priorities change. We get tired. We get injured. And, crucially, we get bored with having to repeat the same workouts X times per week.
Overcoming all of this requires a mental shift. Because while all of the above is true, the gym-goers who really get the long-term results they want are thinking about things in an entirely different way.
To help you learn from their successes, and perhaps reinvigorate your own dedication, we asked an expert PT and an expert life coach to share their insights into the mental habits of the most successful people.
Take notes, then hit the gym.
8 Mental Rules for Beating Gym Burnout and Sticking to Your Goals
1. Stop Waiting to Feel Ready
Re-engaging with fitness goals after time away can feel daunting. Often, we like to delay the process of, say, rejoining the gym by telling ourselves we need some new trainers, we need to work on our flexibility, or we need to build up a new base level of strength by working out at home first. The thing is, all of this just delays the process. The most successful people know that the best time to start a new project is…now.
“Certainty shows up after you’ve started, not before,” says Kirana Sidin, an author and strategic life coach. Don’t wait for confidence to arrive; go out and build it by doing the work. “Pick a first step small enough that it doesn’t require certainty at all, and let that be the whole plan for day one,” advises Sidin. Build from there, and the rest will follow.
2. Master the “Boring” Basics
Sorry to say this, but the gym can be boring. Yes, you can search for crazy TikTok workouts to try and keep it fresh, but real progress comes from repeating the same exercises time and time again, adding weight and resistance as you slowly get stronger. Having a tolerance for this repetitive work is where the most successful athletes and gym-goers excel.
“The most successful gym-goers are generally the best at sticking to the basics and doing them relentlessly well,” says Ollie Weguelin, a personal trainer and expert in recovery and founder of Sustain Performance. “They do the boring, simple tasks consistently over a long period of time: good nutrition, sleep quality, recovery between sessions, and knowing when to push in their training and when to take the foot off the gas.”
It’s a mindset shift: instead of the gym being somewhere you go to have fun, think of it as somewhere you go to work. Of course, no one is saying work can’t be fun, too.
3. Get Comfortable Saying No
Really sticking to a gym routine means putting fitness first. Which isn’t to say that you can’t miss the occasional session for an important social event. Only that you can’t ditch every weekend session in favour of the bar, or a boozy cookout, for example. Naturally this means getting used to disappointing people. Gym obsessive or not, it’s something we could all get better at.
“We don’t like being the reason someone feels disappointed,” Sidin points out. “Someone says no to a friend’s invitation because they need a quiet weekend, and then spends the entire evening feeling guilty about it anyway.”
Sidin adds that sometimes, every yes to what someone else expects of you is a no to something of your own, and that really, it’s impossible not to disappoint everyone in your life. Try to switch your focus to not disappointing yourself, and your gym regimen will thank you.
4. Train Less to Gain More
Following on from the last point, the most successful gym-goers know that while having a good regimen is important, so is time away from the gym. “The gym-goers who get the best results, and who have longevity with their training and health, know how to balance their training with the rest of their life,” says Weguelin.
Work, kids, and social life are what really matter. Taking time off to attend to them not only recharges your soul, but it also allows a vital window for your body to recover from injury and fatigue. Getting the balance right is crucial. “Most of the clients I work with weren’t doing too little when they first came to me; they were doing too much,” says Weguelin.
In other words, less can be more.
5. Never Use the Gym to “Burn Off” Bad Food
The narrative around the gym is a funny one. You’ll notice it particularly after a holiday period like Christmas or summer. It’s always a variation of “time to get back to it”, the subtext being, “You’ve indulged, now it’s time to beat yourself at the squat rack.”
Pros like Weguelin know this is a recipe for burnout. “The best gym-goers don’t use training as a punishment,” he says. “A session isn’t there to burn off a big weekend, or to make up for a bad week of eating.”
Rather than seeing the gym as a way to punish yourself after actually going out and living your life, Weguelin says you should stick to the same workouts you always do, even after a heavy night or week of indulgence.
“You should train because of what it gives you, which is more energy, a clearer head and better sleep,” he says. And not because you think you “should” be balancing the scales in some way.
6. Track Attendance, Not the Scale
Consistency is king. This doesn’t mean consistently running for longer, or consistently lifting heavier and heavier weights, but consistently showing up and putting in the time.
“The best gym-goers are less worried about the number on the scales or a certain weight on the bar, and more interested in whether they got their sessions in that month,” says Weguelin.
It isn’t about one good session, but building the habit long term. If you can turn up every week, train at a seven or eight out of ten effort, eat whole, nutritious foods that give you energy, sleep well, and manage your stress, you’ll see results.
“Turning up is the part you can control, and the results tend to follow from that,” says Weguelin.
7. Kill the “All-or-Nothing” Mindset
We’ve touched on balancing workouts with life. The best gym-goers have a strategy for this. “People who do well over the long term accept that interruptions are going to happen and plan their time around it, rather than seeing a disrupted week as a failure,” says Weguelin.
A lot of it comes down to deciding in advance. They train on the same days at the same times each week, get their kit ready the night before, and have a back-up plan for when things change. For example, if they miss Tuesday evening, they’ll train Wednesday morning instead. It means they’re not relying on motivation at the end of a long day.
“The other thing is they don’t have an all-or-nothing mindset,” says Weguelin. “A missed session doesn’t mean the week is ruined, and they don’t try to make up for it by doing double the next day. They just get on with the next session as planned.”
8. Redefine What Success Means
“A man I know spent a decade chasing a promotion he didn’t even want anymore because getting off the track felt too much like quitting,” says Sidin.
That’s most of us, aiming towards someone else’s idea of success. That might be being able to deadlift X amount, being able to run 5K in a given time, or proudly showing off a six-pack. The thing is, we’re all individuals, so it makes much more sense to define what success means for ourselves, instead of copying someone else.
“It starts with being honest about what you’re actually chasing and why, instead of focusing on the version you inherited,” says Sidin. Don’t just go to the gym because you feel you should. Ask yourself if you really enjoy it and, if so, what you really want to get out of it.
Once you have your ‘why’ down, it can become your north star to guide you when times get tough and motivation flags. And if your goal doesn’t quite feel like you after a while, there’s no harm in redefining it as many times as you like. You make your own rules, after all.
Related: Trying To Hit More Reps At The Gym? Scientists Say Just Smelling This Could Help
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