760 Days of Gymming — 7 Lessons I Have Learned
#7. You need to be your own motivator
It has been more than two years that I have been training in the gym. Even though my focused resistance training began in 2019, I started working out when I was in 11th grade.
Back then, before even starting the gym, I had no idea about training or diet, which made me make a lot of mistakes and errors. Because of that, the progress I saw was delayed by a big margin.
Now, for those who are going to start weight training or even train for a long time, I have some lessons from all these years of training that I want to share with you guys so that you do not make the same mistake.
So, without futile delay, let's dive into it.
1. Frequently Jumping from One Training Plan to Another Does Not Worth It
Despite the fact that I have been training every day for the past four years, I only joined the gym in 2019 for eight months. At that time, I had zero knowledge about training. As a result, I was hopping from one training plan to the next.
What used to happen was that whenever I used to find out about a new style of training, the next day I would switch to that. In most cases, YouTube videos from different creators were my main inspiration for picking up a new training regimen.
As a result, the progress I made was negligible. I even failed to maximize my so-called newbie gains.
But in 2021, when I decided to take the gym seriously, I educated myself about training and chose to stick to a particular training plan. From then on, I stuck to the upper-lower style of training and recently switched to push-pull legs.
2. Real Challenge Is Food Not Workout
When you start your working out journey, it is common to feel that working out is the toughest to follow as it takes so much energy to perform those activities. But as you get more used to the training, you realize that you were completely wrong—it is not the training that is hard; the diet is the hardest part of the process.
When I started training, I also had a similar kind of thought. But soon I started to fail to hit my protein intake. I realized I can push myself to move my a$$ to the gym, but when it comes to following a healthy diet and hitting my daily protein goal, I was struggling the most.
Now, those who can afford protein powders are fortunate enough, but sadly, I am not in that group.
In case you are wondering, this is the diet I used to follow.
3. Cardio Is as Important as Strength Training
If you scroll through enough gym- or workout-related content, you might come across one fact: lifters hate cardio. But trust me, that is not the right way to approach a healthy body.
You just do not want to look healthy from the outside, right?
In my initial days, I used to hate doing cardio too. Because I was too exhausted from weight training, finding enough energy to do cardio was tough for me.
But after educating myself about health and workouts, I learned cardio is as important as strength training. So, while weights work on the muscles, cardio works on keeping the heart healthy.
According to the Harvard Medical School, "the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity—think of it as 30 minutes, five days a week.”
4. Form Is More Important than Weight
Can you believe I injured myself more than 4–5 times in the span of 8 months?
Every time that happened, it was because of my ego going up above the roof. I mean, whenever I lifted heavy things out of ego, I got hurt.
I even wanted to try power lifting. So at that time, I used to increase the weights every week. And that's probably when I hurt myself the most. I changed my mind about lifting when I hurt my lower back badly and had to take a week off from the gym.
I switched from lifting more plates per week to focusing on the form and slowly increasing the weights by growing my actual strength.
5. Do Not Let Gymming Become an Addiction
Being in love with gym is one thing; being obsessed with it is another. Sometimes that obsession may look like love, which is an absolutely different thing.
Wait, let me simplify it with an example.
When I started going to the gym in 2021, I slowly started falling in love with weight training. Initially, it was pure love to me, but as time went on, it started becoming an obsession.
I used to miss going out with family, skip college, and avoid tuition classes just to not mess up with my gym timing. All that used to go in my mind is training.
It may seem like nothing, but at some point, it can affect your mental health. One small change in your training schedule might affect your whole day's activities.
So, always remember to not let your whole day revolve around the gym. Make it a part of the day and give other tasks priority too.
In my case, whenever I feel like I am getting too consumed by training, I take a week's break from it.
6. How You Smell and Look in the Gym Matters
Do you ever want to enter a gym that smells like sh*t?
Or better yet, take a scenario where it is morning, and you went to the gym, excited to have a great workout, and saw a bunch of smelly dudes roaming around, making the gym stinky.
How will it feel? Bad, right?
That is why it is your duty to smell good in the gym and not become a part of that smelly dude’s group.
Along with how you smell, your looks matter too. By looks, I meant how you dress. Do not wear a t-shirt that you used to wear five years ago.
Looking good directly affects your training.
If you look good, you will feel good. And if you feel good, you will have a good session.
If you do not trust me, go to the gym one day wearing that dress, which exposes most of your arms and makes them look big. I can guarantee you that you will have a great workout that day.
7. You Need to Be Your Own Motivator.
I was introduced to the gym with one of my friends back in 2019. We used to train together, and we even followed the same workout routine.
But soon after three months, he stopped working out, and all I had left was my own company.
And I have a strong belief that this is the scenario in most cases—that you start out with some friends, and after a few months most of them leave.
So, at the end of the day, if you are starting with training, start with the mentality that you are going to be left alone.
You have to be your own motivator if you really want it that bad.
Final thoughts
Let’s recap the lessons I have learned,
- Stick to one training plan.
- Diet is the hardest one to follow in building a healthy body.
- Do not skip cardio.
- Focus on the form before increasing weight.
- Make sure you are not controlled by training.
- Wear right clothes and make sure to smell good in the gym.
- You need to motivate yourself to stick to it.
So, these are the lessons I hope you will apply from the beginning of your journey to not repeat the same mistakes. And, I have many more lessons to share from working out, which I will share in my next articles.
Until then, stay consistent and train hard.
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