Tag: training

Forget Motivation And Develop Discipline

by Christian Boyles, posted in Motivation

Motivation – (noun) the general desire or willingness of someone to do something.

While motivation is great, it can often be fleeting.  You may be willing to do something one day, and not want to on another day.  Motivation is simply wanting to do it!  For a little while you’re driven, and if you have no discipline you crash and burn.

Discipline – (noun) the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

Discipline is doing something whether you want to or not.  It’s sticking to a set plan, or something you said you’d do, whether you’re still motivated or not.  This is self-discipline.  You don’t have to punish yourself if you don’t finish things, but you know that self-discipline is important if you want to have the habit of getting things done.

In the video above, Elliott Hulse talks about his timeline for success.  He explains how he worked fruitlessly for five years on creating his youtube channel before he ever got the viewership he has now.  It goes to show how you have to stay dedicated, even when things don’t seem like they’re paying off.  Even when you have doubts.  Even when you don’t know if you really feel like it.

Often times, I think to myself

“What would I gain if I quit working out right now?”

“What would I gain if I quit working on Maxed Out Muscles?”

The answer is nothing.  There is nothing to gain from quitting.  If I continue working hard I can assume that maybe someday I’ll be successful.  I can also assume that I’ll become a different person as I’m working hard to become the person I need to be in order to succeed.

My questions today are 

Have you personally felt like giving up?

Whether it be on your fitness regime or something you’re passionate about?

Have you ever been highly motivated to do something and then wavered?

What do you think of today’s post?  Do you agree that discipline is extremely important?

Please let me know in the comments down below.   I want read your opinions.

Weight Lifting Journal 8-3-2015

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness

This is a log that I will do consistently to monitor my results publicly.  I recommend you do the same, but it’s up to you.  The reason I recommend it is because it can show you how consistent training works and will give you more incentive to not quit.  This is my log, or you could say it’s my weight lifting journal.

So Far..

I started lifting weights three months ago when my girlfriend at the time dumped me.  I was 205 lbs at the time and I had been extremely sick with a Crohn’s Disease flare-up.  The best way I could describe my physique at the time was ‘fat-skinny’.  I wasn’t really fat, but I had no muscle.  Hovering around 18% body fat and very low amounts of muscle was a bad combo.  It’s to be expected though, because I was recovering a lot from being in the hospital.  Due to being in that horrible state and thinking I was heart broken, I decided to start working out and gain some control over my life.

As I stated before I was 18% body fat and 205 lbs.

My beginning lifts in some of my favorite workouts were this:

Squat – Non Existent

Deadlift – Didn’t try it

Bench press – 135 x 5 reps

Dumbbell chest press – 40 x 5 reps

Bent Over Rows – 95 x 5 reps

I couldn’t do a single pull up or dip with good form.

Now, it has been three months since everything felt like it went wrong in my life and my results are this..

I am now at 16% body fat and I weigh 230 lbs.

My lifts today are as follows:

Squat – 225 x 5 reps

Deadlift – 275 x 5 reps

Bench Press – 185 x 5 reps

Dumbbell Chest Press – 75 x 5 reps

Bent Over Rows – 175 x 5 reps

I can do about 5 pull ups and 5 dips with good form at this point.

As you can see, if you work hard and stay consistent you can achieve amazing results.  I will continue to post these weight lifting journals about once a month along with a new photo.  Eventually, I’ll start adding montage videos of the progress I made.  Thanks for reading.