Let’s be honest with ourselves here – going to the gym on a regular basis is harder than it sounds. Back when I first started working out, I would go in spurts over the course of a month or two, get frustrated (or bored) and simply stop going for months at a time. I found it hard to stay motivated for the gym for longer periods of time.

Other times, I’d find myself going to the gym sporadically throughout the week with no real goal in mind.

At the end of the day, seemingly no matter how hard I tried, it used to be so hard to stay motivated for the gym. While I’m not saying I’m perfect by any means now, I’ve implemented methods and tactics into my daily routine that help me to stay motivated for the gym on a regular basis – and it’s paying off.

If you’re struggling to work out on a regular basis, this article is for you. To me, these are the 3 best ways to stay motivated for the gym.

Track Your Progress

The truth is, we all go to the gym for different reasons. For a lot of us, we want to build muscle and impress the girls. Especially if you’re in college, you probably want to be looking your best to try and turn heads of the hot girls on campus.

For others, the simple goal here may be to lose weight. Building muscle isn’t always a concern right off the bat. But for those who are a bit overweight, simply losing body fat is the point of going to the gym.

Regardless of why you want to go to the gym, tracking your progress is a great way to stay motivated for the gym. What’s so great about this is that there are a number of ways to do it.

For starters, you can begin by stepping on the scale and weighing yourself every day.

Now I know – some people are going to say that’s unhealthy and builds bad habits of being obsessed with your weights, and you’re right. But only sometimes.

Let me explain myself a bit here:

You should never base your progress solely on the scale, even if your main goal is to lose weight.

The reason for this is because the human body naturally fluctuates in weight all the time. So, one day, you may weigh yourself in at 185, and then the next day you check the scale and it says 189.

“How the hell did I gain 4 pounds in one day” so many people would ask themselves.

Well, especially for us youngsters, our body has a lot of factors that impact it, some of which we can change, and some of which we just have to deal with.

Back to my point about weighing yourself every day, though.

By checking and recording the number on the scale every day, you’ll learn to accept those fluctuations in weight over time but will still be able to see the larger-scale picture, because again, you will have been tracking and recording your progress every day.

Being able to look at the long term picture by checking the differences in weight every day will show that not every day or week will be great, but in a month or two, you might just be under where you started from (with enough work and dedication).

Another great way to track your progress is through weekly progress pictures.

I think it’s great to have progress pictures of your journey because it shows you how the small changes can add up. From week to week, you’re not going to see massive differences right away.

However, in 3 months when you have pictures from the first few weeks to compare against, you’re going to be shocked at how much you’ve changed.

These results in themselves are motivating if you stick with it! But again – just remember – don’t get obsessed with the number on the scale every time you get on; use it as a general guide to see how your long-term progress is going.

Develop Goals To Stay Motivated for the Gym

Notice how I didn’t say to develop a goal, I said to develop goals (plural).

Developing goals is one of the greatest ways, in my opinion, to keep yourself motivated to go to the gym.

When it comes to developing goals, I like to keep it simple. Have a daily goal, a weekly goal, and a monthly goal. This way, you keep yourself accountable every day, which leads to helping to work towards your weekly goal, which in turn, should keep you on track for your monthly goals.

These goals can be anything from “lose 3 pounds per month” to “be able to bench ‘x’ pounds by the end of the month.” It really doesn’t matter – but make it something you can quantify (measure). This is really only true for the longer-term goals, especially those in the “month or longer” goal range.

For your short-term goals, mainly the daily and weekly goals, keep them a bit simpler. Maybe your daily goal is to eat 2,500 calories per day, while your weekly goal is to go to the gym 5 times per week. You’re not going to hit every goal every time, especially on the shorter-term ones, but by using the tip mentioned above (tracking your progress), you’ll be able to keep yourself accountable.

That brings up something else I want to mention – track the progress of your goals as well. Something as simple as a calendar can help you to check off the days you hit your goals, as well as the weeks and months you hit them.

The whole idea here is consistency. By tracking your goals and your progress, you’ll be able to get a better understanding of whether or not you’re being consistent in your efforts.

My Goal Breakdown:

To give you an idea of spark your thinking a little bit, here’s a list of my goals:

Daily:

• Wake up at 5 am M-F
• Gym at 5:30 am MWF
  • Gym at noon T/Th
• Eat 3500 calories per day
  • *Adhere to macro count

Weekly:

• 5 hours of cardio per week
• No more than 3 cheat meals
• 5 days at the gym per week

Monthly:

• Stay above 210 pounds
• Stay under 220 pounds

These are all goals that I can hold myself accountable to

but also change on the go as I see fit. I can promise you right now that there are some days that I don’t make it up by 5 am, but because I have my list, it does help to motivate me on days that are hard.

Also, when looking over my goal example, remember that we are all different! For me, I’m not too concerned about weight at the moment – right now I’m focusing on just cutting up a little bit.

Once I hit my goal of muscle mass/body fat ratio, I’ll change my monthly goals as I see fit.

Make sure that you’re doing the same. If your goal is to lose weight, get ready to change your goal as you get close to hitting it. Never allow yourself to hit your goal and then keep it – we should always be trying to be a better version of ourselves.

Nonetheless, writing out goals should help you to keep yourself accountable and be a way to keep you motivated for the gym.

Get in a Routine

When I say to get into a routine, I’m sure the first thing that comes to mind is a good workout routine. However, there is a lot more that goes into it when it comes to staying motivated to going to the gym.

Sure, a great workout routine is good to have for when you work out but having routines in other areas of your life will absolutely help you to stay motivated for the gym.

For me, that motivation comes through waking up early on a consistent basis. When I’m up and finally roll out of bed, I know the first thing I need to do is make it to the gym. What else am I going to do with myself at 5 in the morning?

For you, the routine may be stretching before going to the gym. In my opinion, what this helps to do is to prepare yourself for the gym every time you perform this routine.

As soon as you start your stretching, or whatever your routine may be, your brain is getting ready and preparing you to go to the gym.

Regardless of what your routine is, have something that you do every time before you go to the gym to help get in the right mindset.

There are Other Types of Routines to Stay Motivated for the Gym

I also think that getting in a routine of eating healthy and clean (most of the time) can help you stay motivated for the gym. Not only does it help expedite the process of getting into the shape you’re looking for, but it makes you feel better about yourself.

Studies show that eating healthy improves your overall mindset and gives you more energy throughout the day. This energy and improved mindset may be all you need to stay motivated to go to the gym on a regular basis.

Plus, to me anyway, it makes all the work feel worth it.

As I mentioned earlier, too, have a routine for the gym itself. Knowing what you want to do every time you walk through the gym doors helps you from feeling helpless when in the gym. That in itself can be motivating because you’ll begin to see progress every single time you work out.

Remember, They’re All Important

At the end of the day, guys, all of these three factors to stay motivated for the gym are just as important as the other. Better yet, notice what they all have in common; creating a plan.

Without a plan in anything you want to attack in life, you’re not going to make it too far (I hate to break it to you). The gym is no different.

We’re going to be going over mindset more in the future because it’s extremely important when it comes to the gym. To stay motivated to go to the gym on a regular basis and get in great shape, you have to learn how to battle the ups and downs.

But for now, remember these 3 ways to stay motivated for the gym. Develop a plan that works for you and use this as a guideline. I promise you’ll see results if you stick to it.

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