How to get motivated again

[DarthTrashcan]

I was once like many other people brainwashed by the fitness community. I trained religiously for 3 years, I missed very few workouts, I burned out and overtrained more than once, I suffered joint pain, fatigue, sleeping problems, I dieted and got pretty lean in various occassions, but the hunger defeated me every time after some weeks or some months. All in all, though, I loved every moment. I felt alive whenever I was training. I felt like a hero, sometimes. I felt like I was on a sacred quest to save the world. Every time I lifted or learned a new skill, I felt like the world was saved, at least until my next workout. Even when I was frustrated, I loved working out. It was a passion, it was an obsession. 

Now, all that is lost. 

It happened after I had to stop training and, due to a medication (that I should have never taken) gained pounds and got fat and ugly. I hated it. After a while I lost the fat and looked reasonably lean (yet nothing breathtaking). The thing is, I started thinking for the first time in my life about taking steroids. My thought process was like: "if a medication (drug) can make me so weak and fat, then another drug (steroids) can make me strong and lean." I began to understand the power of pharmaceutical products.

In the end, though, I decided I would not take steroids. Not worthy, at least for me. 

Then, gradually, I lost all my motivation. Where once was love, now there is boredom, annoyance, even hatred. Sometimes, I hate training. I cannot train. My mind gives up. My body gives up. My soul gives up. 

So... I want to ask you what should I do to get motivated again. I don't pretend to be a zealot of training as I used to be (once you lose your faith, you never get it back as strong as it was before), I just wanna enjoy my workouts, and get the benefits of exercise (improved health, better cognition, more energy and less stiffness). 

I know many of you are more enlightened than I in regards to training, for you're capable of working out even though you know you'll never look like you want, but you still find a way to do it, maybe to enjoy it. What can I do? How do I get motivated again?

Thank you, and sorry for the long post. I tend to wander and digress a lot when writing these type of things.

[DarthTrashcan]

I was once like many other people brainwashed by the fitness community. I trained religiously for 3 years, I missed very few workouts, I burned out and overtrained more than once, I suffered joint pain, fatigue, sleeping problems, I dieted and got pretty lean in various occassions, but the hunger defeated me every time after some weeks or some months. All in all, though, I loved every moment. I felt alive whenever I was training. I felt like a hero, sometimes. I felt like I was on a sacred quest to save the world. Every time I lifted or learned a new skill, I felt like the world was saved, at least until my next workout. Even when I was frustrated, I loved working out. It was a passion, it was an obsession. 

Now, all that is lost. 

It happened after I had to stop training and, due to a medication (that I should have never taken) gained pounds and got fat and ugly. I hated it. After a while I lost the fat and looked reasonably lean (yet nothing breathtaking). The thing is, I started thinking for the first time in my life about taking steroids. My thought process was like: "if a medication (drug) can make me so weak and fat, then another drug (steroids) can make me strong and lean." I began to understand the power of pharmaceutical products.

In the end, though, I decided I would not take steroids. Not worthy, at least for me. 

Then, gradually, I lost all my motivation. Where once was love, now there is boredom, annoyance, even hatred. Sometimes, I hate training. I cannot train. My mind gives up. My body gives up. My soul gives up. 

So... I want to ask you what should I do to get motivated again. I don't pretend to be a zealot of training as I used to be (once you lose your faith, you never get it back as strong as it was before), I just wanna enjoy my workouts, and get the benefits of exercise (improved health, better cognition, more energy and less stiffness). 

I know many of you are more enlightened than I in regards to training, for you're capable of working out even though you know you'll never look like you want, but you still find a way to do it, maybe to enjoy it. What can I do? How do I get motivated again?

Thank you, and sorry for the long post. I tend to wander and digress a lot when writing these type of things.

We not that enlightenend, we just stubborn as shit

For me I just get the motivation from this: (now I'm being honest here), I'm insecure about looking weak. So I drag myself into my garage to train so that I atleast look natty strong. I dont see it as a burden, because I do enjoy it. It makes me feel like im seperating myself from others. But at the same time its like brushing my teeth. I've been doing it so long, I just can't stop. Its now my identity, its what I do, no matter where I am on the planet, I will train either with my bodyweight or with weights if I have access to them.

Lots of noobs burn out relatively fast and then either hop on steroids or quit. They forget that the CNS is a real thing and becomes stronger only through years of training not 6 months. 

The way I train would probably burn a noob out, even though I'm not so much bigger than him, my CNS is just better developed. 

A nice exercise that doesn't even feel like training is pullups and you don't have to go to a gym to do them, just find a tree and a bar and do 6 sets to max once a week. Take it from there if you want to get back into it. Otherwise don't because training is nothing special.

If you accept yourself for who you are, just a lean, fit guy with natural muscle, then you more of a 'man' than any self obsessed roided bodybuilder/fitness model because you confident in yourself which is the most attractive quality a person can have.

Thank you for your words, brother. I want to train only because I know "it's good for me" like, you know, eating apples or getting enough sleep. The thing is, man, I have such a hard time training. I feel so mentally drained and I don't know why. It's like I conditioned myself in a pavlovian way to dislike training (and that's after loving it, it's like withdrawal or something). But I'll try to do as you say, pullups once a week for six sets. 

That's another thing: I have a hard time accepting myself. Training was very important for me and it actually helped me during a period of depression. It seems like ages ago. Now that I don't see myself training, it's like if my self-image was broken. It's like a sense of purpose being lost. Maybe it's only a matter of time for me to digest it and then come back stronger.

Then again, I'd like to make training part of my identity, as you have done. Thank you again, man, appreciate your advise.

[jimjohnson]

I was once like many other people brainwashed by the fitness community. I trained religiously for 3 years, I missed very few workouts, I burned out and overtrained more than once, I suffered joint pain, fatigue, sleeping problems, I dieted and got pretty lean in various occassions, but the hunger defeated me every time after some weeks or some months. All in all, though, I loved every moment. I felt alive whenever I was training. I felt like a hero, sometimes. I felt like I was on a sacred quest to save the world. Every time I lifted or learned a new skill, I felt like the world was saved, at least until my next workout. Even when I was frustrated, I loved working out. It was a passion, it was an obsession. 

Now, all that is lost. 

It happened after I had to stop training and, due to a medication (that I should have never taken) gained pounds and got fat and ugly. I hated it. After a while I lost the fat and looked reasonably lean (yet nothing breathtaking). The thing is, I started thinking for the first time in my life about taking steroids. My thought process was like: "if a medication (drug) can make me so weak and fat, then another drug (steroids) can make me strong and lean." I began to understand the power of pharmaceutical products.

In the end, though, I decided I would not take steroids. Not worthy, at least for me. 

Then, gradually, I lost all my motivation. Where once was love, now there is boredom, annoyance, even hatred. Sometimes, I hate training. I cannot train. My mind gives up. My body gives up. My soul gives up. 

So... I want to ask you what should I do to get motivated again. I don't pretend to be a zealot of training as I used to be (once you lose your faith, you never get it back as strong as it was before), I just wanna enjoy my workouts, and get the benefits of exercise (improved health, better cognition, more energy and less stiffness). 

I know many of you are more enlightened than I in regards to training, for you're capable of working out even though you know you'll never look like you want, but you still find a way to do it, maybe to enjoy it. What can I do? How do I get motivated again?

Thank you, and sorry for the long post. I tend to wander and digress a lot when writing these type of things.

2x week 20 min's or so. Write down what you have to do...do it. get out. Forget about. Like showering or brushing your teeth. Just do it, quick ,get it done, forget about it.

---

if you HATE it that much.....don't do it. No one is forcing you. Walk away. Go fishing or play sports...you only live once.

[Plato]

I been training for 8 years now I am bored but you know what. I am training my mind today. Today I locked my computer away. no more being control by a computer. ?

[DarthTrashcan]

I think I've found what to do. I decided to do chin-ups and dips on different days. I just did the first workout yesterday, so I don't know if I'll stick with it, but it seems (so far) effective and practical. It goes like this: I put a tabata timer on 20secs on : 40secs off x 3 sets, and on those sets I'll do as many reps as possible (controlled, proper form) so I will accumulate 1min under tension. I'll do three or four rounds and call it a day. So I'll accumulate 3-4 minutes under tension, and some nice reps. It will not make me gain muscle or lose fat, but man, it gives a decent pump that lasts up to an hour, and it only takes like 10 to 20 minutes to complete the workout.

[Jonesy]

Like you say, 'the hunger always wins in the end.' For me that is the biggest problem in staying lean. As natural that's all we really can do, but it just takes so much effort and willpower. Living in a society where MacDonalds, Pringles and beer are being peddled to us with the highest forms of marketing sorcery, it is almost impossible to stay unnaturally lean for long.

I'm still looking for a way too, but, as you say, the hunger always wins.

[khrazz]

So... I want to ask you what should I do to get motivated again. I don't pretend to be a zealot of training as I used to be (once you lose your faith, you never get it back as strong as it was before), I just wanna enjoy my workouts, and get the benefits of exercise (improved health, better cognition, more energy and less stiffness). 

Thats the answer to your question. Focus on yourself, and how strong/muscular you can get. Focus on the benefits you get out of working out (and there is a ton of them, trust me).

If you want more motivation, you can always play the comparisson game. Say "i need to work out, so that i will look fantastic on the beach, compared to dudes who drink 5 beers every night" Now thats not the best way to get motivated, but it sure as hell works.

You could also start playing a sport, for example, Martial arts combine very well with strength training because they use the same type of muscle fibers. Find a sport you like, and use the gym as a way to train for that sport.
There are a lot of reasons one needs to train for strength. I may get some backlash for saying that, but as Mark Rippetoe once said, "strong people are harder to kill"
and i agree on that. If you have ever gotten yourself into a situation where size/strength matters you will 100% understand how being strong can help you in dangerous situations.

[khrazz]

How does being very strong at a deadlift and being 25% bf (which is what a natural will need to be if he is to look 'bulky') make you harder to kill? So your joints are more accustomed to lifting heavy objects and your CNS is strong. How are you harder to kill? Can your fat gut stop a knife or a bullet? What about your CNS?

I would rather get into a life or death knife fight with a fat powerlifter over a French foreign legion soldier any day.

You are bulkier, because you weight more. You are more difficult to overpower by an attacker, and you using your whole body as 1 unit, which is something you learn to do when you do heavy compound movements properly, can make you stronger or at least difficult to fight (i am talking about a potential attacker here ,say a street thief, not some martial artist). Your potential attacker wont be as strong, and even if he is, if he meets a lot of resistance he will run away. Obviously there are a lot of factors to consider in such a senario, but if you can raise your chances of survival in such situations you better do whatever it takes my friend

Also your CNS is stronger like you said, and can "fire up" faster than average. Stronger CNS = stronger muscles/anger

Could extra muscle/fat stop a knife/bullet? Well i dont know for sure. By logic yes (at least the knife) because it adds inches to your frame before the knife can hit a nerve/vital organ. As for bullet, i am skeptical. Some people say it raises your survival chance against a gunshot wound, but i dont think so. Obviously they are talking about a pistol bullet, and not an ak-47

[DarthTrashcan]

To all the people who replied this post, thanks for the answers, they've been quite helpful. Right now, I'm training again. I've been consistent for a few months, and there are days in which I enjoy my training sessions as I used to enjoy them in the past.

[locutus24]

Agree with Brett when he used the analogy fo brushing your teeth. Make it a habit rather than a motivation type activity. Treat it like working a part-time job (as in a few hours a week) and you earn a small wage (natural strength gains say 10 (maybe 5) lbs of increase on lift/2-3 months) with tips here and there (a 10 lb increase in bench within a shorter period of time, a quarter lb of muscle in a couple months, a woman wants to fuck your natural physique, etc.) 

Everyone seems to have some decent advice so just adding a little extra help my friend.