You have probably heard that consistency is the most important factor when it comes to achieving anything in life. Well, guess what it is parroted over and over again because it is true.
Rules for success
1 – Show up
2 – Put in the work
3 – etc etc
I have been lifting weights now I think for 16 years (in some form or another since I was 17 and I’m not 33, quick math). Since that time I have been training specifically to get better at the three powerlifts (squat, bench and deadlift) since I was 19 and that was the primary goal in my training. My training is always focused around these three lifts and increasing my performance in these. I have tried sometimes to vary my lifting or to focus on another goal and even to train for health…. lol.
Every time I get into one of these little flights of fancy I find myself back lifting to get better at these three lifts within maximum about 3 weeks because I get bored as fuck not working obsessively towards one goal. The variety and lack of purpose make me want to quit because to me it seems completely fucking pointless.
I’ve been through nearly 2 decades of waining motivations and had my share of long term injuries but I don’t question what or why I am doing what I am doing. My only real concern is when I can get back to training with sufficient intensity and volume so I can start to improve upon my performance. I am well past motivation it’s simply part of who I am as a person the monthly, weekly and daily challenge provided by trying to get as good as I can at lifting a barbel in three different exercises with as much weight as I can provide struggle, purpose and challenge that I quite frankly need in my life.
I am not the most gifted or talented lifter
The one thing I am probably pretty above average at is the bench press. When I talk to people about what I have achieved in squat and deadlift (300kg and 310kg respectively) to some it seems like a massive achievement and to others, they probably represent a respectable lift in both. To me, they are badges of how fucking shit I actually am as a lifter. It has taken me 16 years of specialisation and numerous injuries to achieve lifts that are elite for a lifter who is about 30-40% less body weight than me.
It took me nearly a decade to squat 200kg a lift that I would consider run of the mill for any male lifter who trains seriously and consistently for 3 years and weights 80kg or above. It took me nearly the same again to pull 300kg a lift I finally put to bed in 2016. Which for a talented middleweight or above deadlifter is again a lift they probably hit with poor technique and little or no guidance in programming in 3 or 4 years of just fucking about in the gym.
I have changed program and technique more times than I can care to count but one thing I haven’t changed is my ability to show up to the gym to do some kind of training at the very minimum 1-2x per week. I have had weeks where I can barely be arsed to get out of bed when I can’t be fucked to work and I can barely be fucked to get out of the house yet I manage to guilt or force myself to get along to training at least once or twice in a week.
Lifters or athletes who I have worked with or coached who have achieved notoriety are consistent over everything else
Centurion Scotland Players, the first name on the team sheet for the team every weekend, medal winners at international competition, Record holders and people who achieve their weights loss or fitness goals. Everyone showed up to training, everyone did was what was required, some people even do more than was required. Some people complained every session, some people love the grind more than competition and some people are somewhere in between.
None of them where ever an attendance concern
None of them sandbagged a workout when effort was required
Even when warming up they couldn’t be fucked eventually they got into the session and what was required.
Motivation is for losers, winners just show up.