Ten Ways To Achieve Your Fitness Goals

So I’ve been lifting for quite some time now almost a decade and until these last 4-5 years there has been many times when i felt stuck and plateau’ed almost to the point of quitting. But there were valuable things I learned along the way from some very important and influential figures in my life that got me to the point I am today. Also I fixed many of my problems and peaks myself without counting on anything but myself to get through it because really in this sport who else do you have.

1. Rest your injuries. You are way more likely to get demotivated by reinjuring yourself than you are by taking some time off to heal.

2. There are always other things you can do during a rest period to prepare your body for healthy workouts. Like enforcing a healthy diet and finding ways to exercise around your injury. See what hurts and what agitates the injury and dont repeat this motion. I had to take 4 months off bench press for a shoulder injury right when i was hitting the highest amount of weight I ever had. In short I re injured my shoulder about three times before I gave it the time to heal and now im nearly back to where I was.

3. Fitness is a path and quick results can be deceiving. Realize that your in this for the long haul and its a lifestyle change for a healthier, stronger, more energetic, and better feeling you. It takes a while to notice but when you eat healthy you will feel a ton better and your results in the gym will increase more than any supplement you take can cause.

4. Work everything equally but your weak points more. I saw a special on ESPN one day with Kiana Tom and she was talking about priority training which is training your weak points harder than anything else. Being a guy with gigantic arms and not much else I took thin to heart and started working out those muscles I hated to workout the most. Needless to say its helped me break so many of the tough barriers I still face.

5. Squat, Press, Deadlift, Lunge, Curl, Row, Pullups, crunches, sit ups, extensions… do em.

6. Practice your form before every exercise. I know it may look funny doing air squats but practice for sure makes perfect. Perfect form will increase your strength, burns, and pumps.

7. Be creative. Everyone pretty much knows a few exercises. Take those exercises and manipulate them in different ways to hit different parts of your muscle. If you know how to curl.. theres about 10 bicep exercises right there. Switch grips, change stance, change angles of motion, stall, change equipment, slow down, speed up… so many ways one exercise can be made into entire workouts.

8. Research & self discovery. Find the physique of a person you feel has obtained your goal. Learn their exercises and what they focus on and how they train. But remember everyone is different so dont be afraid to feel the muscle you want on your body while looking in the mirror and find what motions flex that muscle go to the gym and make that motion into a workout.. Be careful though new exercises have increased chance to cause injury so start light.

9. Many people today just lack the will power to change their life for the better. Self discipline is hard for anyone. I imagine the unhealthy habits and bad choices I make as that fat which holds us down and doesn’t let us reach our potential. Losing these bad habits and unhealthy choices are like peeling that fat off you by means of self discipline. You want results.. talk the talk and walk the walk. Flip those mental feelings of fatigue and laziness into a drive to reach your goals. Turn on that afterburner. Ive almost passed out many times at the gym almost have thrown up too because I drive myself past any mental breaking point.

10. Be unrelenting. Whats the point of obtaining your goals if your not going to continue with them after. Set backs are set backs and there’s always ways around them. A few years ago I had issues with my posture and I fixed it myself. I had an imbalance in my legs. I fixed that myself. No one helped me on these things that could of ended my fitness pursuit, I saw the problem and found answers.