Proper motivation for weight training is a vital factor when considering what leads to weight training success. In contrast, improper motivation contributes to suboptimum results. Improper motivation can be boiled down to three categories:
Category #1: Undermotivated
Undermotivated lifters never train hard enough
Category #2: Over-Motivated
Over-motivated lifters generally train too hard.
Category #3: Emotionally Motivated
Emotionally motivated lifters tend to be over-motivated when they feel like training and may indulge in binge training. At other times, they don’t train hard, or they don’t train at all because they don’t feel like it and give into their feelings of undermotivation. These lifters are primarily motivated by feelings and constantly yo-yo between undertraining and overtraining.
Proper Motivation
A smaller percentage of lifters fit into the category of having proper motivation. These lifters are willing to put their feelings and egos aside and train hard enough to gain, but not so hard that it results in overtraining. You must learn how to train with the right amount of intensity, volume, and frequency if you want to gain over the long term. Half-hearted workouts don’t work. At the other end of the spectrum, gut busting high intensity workouts work for a while, but they usually stop working. If you want your workouts to keep working, challenge yourself, but don’t kill yourself with extreme intensity. This takes proper motivation.
Gradually Add Weight
If you are new to training, you may be able to add 5 to 10 pounds to your lifts every seven to twenty-one days. On the other hand, if you have been training a couple of years or more, you must be patient. You cannot simply push yourself to keep adding weight from week to week. If you are not a beginner, gaining strength is going to take time. Anything that takes time requires proper motivation. My suggestion is that you always train with enough reps in reserve so that you can add weight or reps every eight to twelve weeks. When adding weight, just add five to ten pounds. Stick with it for a few years and watch it add up.
Allow The Same Workouts to Grow Easier
Most lifters think the only way to improve is to add more weight or reps to their lifts. This type of thinking is partially correct, but I would challenge you to think with a more comprehensive viewpoint. While it is true that you will eventually need to add weight or reps in order to keep improving, I believe the primary focus should be on allowing the same workouts to become easier. Consider giving yourself eight to twelve weeks of simply allowing the same weight and reps to become easier to lift. This takes patience and proper motivation, but eventually the same weight and reps will become easy enough to add five to ten pounds. When you add five to ten pounds at the right time, the added weight should not be any more difficult to lift than the last time you added five to ten pounds.
When the time comes to add weight, it shouldn’t force you to push a set to failure, rather it should cause you to push to the point where the last rep of a set feels difficult, but not so difficult that it requires an all-out effort. Even after weight is added, you should still have one to three reps left in the tank at the end of a set. The exact number of reps that you leave in the tank should be based on what works best in your own experience.
The number of reps that you leave in the tank at the end of a set should increase by at least one as you gain strength from repeating the same workouts. For example, if you add weight and still have two reps left in the tank, keep repeating workouts with the same weight and reps until you gain enough strength to leave at least three reps in the tank. Many people believe that this training strategy doesn’t work. They believe that the moment your workouts start to become easier, you stop gaining strength. They also believe that the moment a workout gets easier, you must instantly increase the weights or reps in order to gain more strength. I myself believed this for many years, but experience eventually taught me that you can get stronger by simply repeating workouts with the same amount of weight and reps, and you will keep getting stronger for six to twelve weeks. Then add five to ten pounds and repeat the process. This strategy allows you to train hard enough to gain, but not so hard that you end up overtraining, however, the willingness to do this is dependent on proper motivation.
Most people won’t take the advice outlined in this article because it would cause progress to be too slow. The only thing that is slower is to not gain at all, which is what happens when you always try to gain fast. The point here is that over motivation kills success, but proper motivation enables success. I also understand that repeating workouts with the same weight and reps is very boring; but this is only true if you keep telling yourself that it is boring. The way to fix this is through proper motivation. Proper motivation can be attained by refusing to tell yourself that repeating the same workouts is boring, and to focus on the fact that you are getting stronger because the workouts are getting easier. In my opinion, progress is never boring, and when I feel the workouts becoming easier, I am not bored because I know I am making progress. You can do the same and make progress by applying the concepts discussed in this article. Best of training to you.