[ar2010]

Hey guys!

Sometimes I have workouts that go smoothly and then I have workouts where I just lack the motivation to finish (but I grudgingly do). I know there are probably a lot of factors involved, but I was just wondering if I'm the only one this happens to? I work out with my roommate, and she always seems ready to go! Do you guys have any tips to ensure you're always motivated or at 100%?

[seagirl]

I've had "bad" workouts. If it's once in a while I don't mind it. If it seemed to be a pattern I'd check a few things - have I eaten enough? had enough water? slept enough? Is something else in my life off? do I actually enjoy the activity that I'm doing? am I too hot? too cold?

[stacygee]

I love my IPOD. I reward myself with new music and I mix different workout playlists. I always look forward to a new playlist. On the elliptical I try to keep up with the fast song cadence. It works me harder. I almost can't do cardio without it.

Someimes I feel a little drained and it is sometimes dehydration or I need a little snack for a pick me up. I keep Power Crunch protein bars in my gym bag in case I need a little something. Quite often I'll just eat 1/2 or even a quarter during or before and finish it off after.

[ShanIAm]

You know, I work out at the same time every day with the same amount of water & food in my system. Most workout days are great but I'll have a few bad one's sprinkled in. And I could be in a fine mood and got decent sleep the night before; it doesn't matter. I usually tell myself that my body is saying, "Take tomorrow off". Or if I am losing steam 30 minutes into my 60 minute ellipical session, I'll jump onto the treadmill for the last 30 minutes.

But yeah....it happens to me too.

[djs06]

I have them every so often as well. I will usually skip the next day and get some extra rest, and then it won't happen again for awhile.

[HeyPhatty]

I always have a hard time getting back into exercise. I'll do great for a week then I take a day off that seems to turn into a week, 2 weeks off. When I realize how long it's been since I last exercised, I feel just horrible, because I lost precious time. My biggest motivation is my weigh day. If I lost, it motativates me to try more intensive workouts to lose more. If I've gained, I know I need to start back up again and keep with it. Life happens and I always seem to lose track, but many many props to all those who have the dedication to their weight loss. We'll all get there!!!

[MariaMaria]

I'm a runner, not a gym-goer. That said, I expect one run of every ten to totally suck, one to be totally great, and the rest to be somewhere in the middle. As long as I'm mostly seeing Bs or better I'm okay-- when I'm seeing strings of C+s or Cs, something's wrong or going wrong.

Getting an over-time-this-is-how-it-is-for-me overview of this kind of thing is one big benefit of keeping a workout/run journal.

[MindiV]

For sure, there are times I get up in the morning and just feel motivated. I go hard, work up a sweat, feel my heartbeat rising and just kill it during the entire workout. Then every couple of weeks there are the days where I get up and feel myself halfway doing it. I try to make myself go harder, but end up with 3/4 effort instead of 100 percent.

It's weird...I'll sit at night and get all motivated about my morning workout, how I'm going to go run or whatever. I'll be pumped up and excited. Then morning comes and on the bad days, I'm just "blah" about the whole thing.

[niafabo]

I've noticed my bad work outs are usually around my time of the month and my good work outs are usually in the week or two after. I believe hormones have a lot to do with it.

[Eliana]

I'm one of those people, like your roommate, who always seems ready to go. But even I have my off days. Today happened to be one of them!!

Great workouts for me are always entirely mental. If I can fix the mental aspect, the workout generally follows.

Case in point, I was doing pull ups today and a guy I have a touch of a crush on was on a machine facing me! Facing me! That should have got my adrenaline going, but no....instead my pull ups were pathetic. That set me up for a bad mood which made my spin class suffer. I just went through the motions today. But I'll be back in gear tomorrow.

It's ok and quiet normal to an off day now and then.

[fatferretfanatic]

I have off days, but I try to psyche myself up with my 'get psyched mix'. I try to fix my mental state. My problem is feeling too anxious about a workout before hand. Then, I almost scare myself out of doing it! I try not to do that, but it happens sometimes. But, I try to do it anyway

[lucyford]

On my college campus, to be able to use the gym you must be enrolled in a gym class. To graduate, we must have at least one fitness class. So I enrolled in the basic open gym class--cardio, weights, you name it they've got it. The class is pass/fail and requires 4 hours in the gym each week.

When I have off days--it doesn't really matter because I still have to go. (The gym is M-F and I can't usually make it Friday's due to scheduling issues.) So it's really been helpful in teaching me to power through my desire to slack and get my butt in the gym. I like it because I feel like I'm developing really healthy habits for when the semester is over and I have to join an off campus gym and it will be up to ME to get to the gym.
One thing that helps though...an ever changing playlist on my ipod. My gym has no music or tv's so when I forget my ipod it's torture. I realized when I'm working out, I am paying attention to what I'm doing but I'm actually more excited to hear the next song.