You have been working at your fat loss or fitness program for months now. Day in and day out, you make it to the gym, put your time in, and reap the benefits. You are starting to see progress, and things are going really well for you right now.
You are reaching your goals, you are looking good and feeling great…then how come you are losing motivation? Why don’t you just feel like making it to the gym, or doing your program? Why do you dread working out or training now?
Chances are, if this has ever happened to you, that you are experiencing burnout. Burnout is a real and can happen to anyone; even the most motivated and disciplined people.
Just like going to work each day, working out can get old fast.
Dealing With Burnout
How do we combat burnout so we don’t just stop exercising and lose all of our motivation?
When you start to feel like you are experiencing burnout, follow these steps and get your motivation back for good.
- Change your program! You don’t have to stop training, but instead, change things up. If you are following a program and have been strict about it, great…but that does not mean you cannot veer away from the program for a while to re-fuel your fire. If you are doing a program that calls for 4 days a week, change it to 2 or 3 days a week. If you have been doing full body routines…change to a body part split routine. No matter what it is, change something up. This will help make things fresh.
- Take some time off. Yes, I said it…take time off. There is no harm in taking a few days off, getting away from the gym and resetting yourself. If the alternative is losing interest and stopping your training all together, it is better to take a few days and get yourself right. Besides, in many cases your body might need the break and signs of burnout may be telling you something.
- Find a new form of training for a couple of weeks. If you are doing weights or resistance training, do a week or two of cardio instead. If you are doing mostly cardio (i.e. machines) do some body weight circuits for a while. I have done this a lot. When things get stale and I start to get burnt, I switch things up. I have done a few weeks of high rep, body weight routines just to change it up and when I get back to the weights, I have returned refreshed and better than ever. Some people join a boot camp or a class, but whatever it is, make it way different than what you have been doing.
- Find a new place to train for a while. If you have been going to the gym, train at home and vice versa. New locations can help a lot with burn out. With that said, try training at a brand new time. Just seeing fresh faces in the gym can help a lot.
- If you train a lone, get a partner. Even if it isn’t someone you will continue to work with, having someone that you can count on to push you will help minimize the boredom and burnout.
- Change your play list. Sounds simple, but I know many people that listen to the same exact music for months. Go download a brand new playlist and train to something entirely new. I do this routinely. I will train to rap for a few weeks and then change to hard rock or something different.
No matter what you do, make sure you change things up. There is nothing worse than continuing down the road of burnout without changing things. If you don’t, you may just get burnt for good.
