Often times, I hear people say they are bored or burnt out with their workouts. "How do you do this for more than a couple years without getting burnt?" they will say.



It is just like everything else. Everything has the potential to get stale. Everything. And there is a reason for that.

We are goal oriented or I like to say growth oriented beings. We were made that way. You know, "God created the universe and it was good"......or something like that. Sorry if I offended anyone. But the whole point of that last comment was just to drive home the fact that we were created. We are creations of something or someone. So, we are here to do what we are made of. Anotherwords, we NEED to create, to grow, to expand. That is why we are here. Unless you can come up with anything else (I'm game) that is why we need to keep growing and that is why we can get sooooo burnt out if we do not.

How do we grow in fitness? We have to continually make it expand. We need to continually grow with it. Eventually, we need to do it for different reasons than why we started. If you started to workout because the doc told you that you will kick the bucket if you don't, and you end up getting healthier, you now need a different goal or workout to stay focused. You are getting ready for a race and you set a PR in that race, you now need a new reason or goal to keep going.

So, I would like to talk about expanding in fitness.

With me personally for instance, it was a matter of getting outside of purely doing workouts for the physical and aestetic value. I now have to include meditation with every workout I do. I don't feel that everyone should or are at that point in their fitness life. I simply feel that for me, there is no point to doing a workout if it can't enhance my mind/body/spirit. Therefore I am in a place now that I get in shape as a by product of practicing fitness and yoga. I just found that I am a very kinestetic athlete. I do it purely for the value of how it makes me feel. I love to feel good. Some love the discipline and order most, some like looking great the most, etc...

The point is though that everyone has a reason that works for them. It is really important that you find out what that reason is for you in order for you to expand and stay fresh.

It's as easy as 123 to find out what makes you tick in this way. You just need to ask yourself why you like something and after you answer yourself without giving it a second thought ( think about the first thing that comes to your mind and don't overthink ). Then ask yourself why you came up with that answer quickly without overthinking.

You keep going until it makes sense to you.

For instance with me I will ask: "Why do I like to workout?" Answer: Because it makes me feel good Then: "Why does it make me feel good?" Answer: Because it makes me calmer with a sense of peace and wakes my body up. Then: "How does it make me calm and give me a sense of peace?" Answer: It makes me calmer by releasing endorphines and releasing pent up energy.I feel peaceful as it also releases chemicals in my body that make me feel clear.

Notice after asking myself these questions, I keep going back to the way my body feels. Someone else might go at it this way:

"Why do I want to workout?" Answer: I want to workout because I want a rockin body. "Why do I want a rockin body?" Answer: I want a rockin body because I want to attract the opposite sex. "Why do I want to attract the opposite sex?" Answer: I want to workout to attract the opposite sex right now because I like the way attracting the opposite sex makes me feel energized and new.

Those are both great answers because both answers refer back to satisfying the person who asks the question and not someone else. The minute you refer back to someone else and not yourself you are off track. For instance: "Why do I like to workout?" Answer: Because I want to impress Mr. Hand and school mascot. Yeah, that would not be a good reason. You might as well workout to play the kazoo and that's it. It just would not give you the stickiness and motivation you would need to continue your growth on or off the weight room floor. So go ahead with that little exercise the sooner the better if you have any incling of burning out. Don't wait until it gets so bad that you end up throwing your dumbell at Mr. Flex in the mirror because I am too sexy for anyone else. Because often, it happens without any warning. One minute you are riding high on the endorphine train and the next your caboos derails and you never want to see another pair of bike shorts.

Until next time, have a great workout.

Copyright (c) 2008 Gina Cool