How to Spice Up Your Workouts and Stay Motivated in the Gym

[Music] [Applause] our next caller is James from Illinois what's up James what up James what's going on what's happening what's going on um obviously want to say thank you guys for having me on appreciate all that you do and I'll go uh right into my question I sort of wrote down so the gist of uh my question says how does someone who has consistently been working out since the age of 12 or 13 keep Variety in their training with without sacrificing consistency a little bit of background of my training I I got into working out uh because my dad sort of made me growing up uh in a in a good way but truthfully he's always been jacked and I sort of wanted to be like him um and really he did lay a good foundation for me um and probably I'd say since the age about 14 freshman year in high school um my main influences of training had been for Mike Bole Joda Franco Jay fuia and Charles Paquin um and most of my train has been centered around full body training except maybe like a short stint in college um f like a bro spit maybe for like two months at most but that that was very shortlived and really I've met I'd say 99% of my strength goals I'm happy with my physique um my performance but lately just seems a little monotonous to go into the gym stay motivated when my whole day is centered around Fitness and for reference on I'm 26 I'm High School weightlifting teacher and then I'm a personal trainer when I get off from teaching with about 20 sessions per week there um I did play college football actually was in the same conference that Justin is it played in and my wife and I have a seven awes awes I love this question yeah let me let me just let me uh um kind of go back to some of the stuff you said so you've been working out consistently for about 13 years you're a weightlifting teacher in high school it says up here and a personal trainer when you're done happy with his physique and strength yeah you're already consistent I mean you don't there is no issue with consistency just go do something you enjoy like if you came to me if you were my friend I would have no fears that you're going to stop working out I would just say and I and I think what you're asking is how do I stay motivated but follow good programming and stay consistent with the kind of programming it doesn't matter at this point like you're you've been working out so long just find something active that you like stim and there is no there is nowhere you could go wrong the only way you can go wrong is if you stop uh if you stop being active but at this point at your level with your how long you've been training with your understanding you mentioned a bunch of giants in the strength training space these are people that we look up to that we learn from as well and again with your background I would just pick something active that you think is interesting and go for it and have fun doing it there's really no there's no there would be no challenge like I said I don't I wouldn't fear you would stop now if you told me hey I just started working out six months ago and I'm kind of getting bored what do I do can I just switch it up all the time I'd have different advice but someone like you it's like just pick something you like that's active go for it and you'll be fine I would I wouldn't worry about I might challenge you a little bit differently um you know I think because of your background your experience your knowledge you're happy with physique happy with strength I might stretch you a bit and say why don't we do something that you probably wouldn't do so maybe it's not something you necessarily love but maybe something you know you maybe need like maybe you've never been like the mobility guy and you go really deep down that rabbit hole or maybe you've never got into uh kettle bells or or M or Pilates I don't know about that but doat I would I would I would pick something and and because you know better than anybody because how long you've been doing this and you also have been trained by by great the great minds in our space um you know what is it you don't do enough of or what is it that you would could complement your overall health and fitness journey since you are happy with strength physique and those things like what are you missing or you need and maybe challenge yourself in that direction of hey I've never really put a lot of effort into trying whatever X is and maybe do that and I think that being just a novel stimulus and being challenged that way I think you'll enjoy some of the gains and the challenges you have that this is something that and I like this question because I feel like we fall in this category ourselves a lot like I'm constantly having to give myself new goals or new things to focus on because I've kind of done the whole get as strong as I can or look as cool as I I can possibly look can proven that to myself that I can do that it's like what's going to keep me doing this into my late 40s and 50s and forever it's like I have to find new ways to challenge my fitness and so I I would probably challenge you in that direction you know it's really the answer is going to be whichever one of those uh resonates with you whichever because like you know you coming from Adam the reason why Adam likes saying that that's what excites him right so whichever one of those resonate is fine there's really no wrong answer here the only wrong answer would be to stop yeah I mean just personally this is where I I tend to lean more towards the unconventional side of things just as like something too that was like a little bit on The Fray uh looked a little bit more dangerous but you started to figure out like oh wow this actually applies well uh to to address some some strength uh needs that then I could kind of bring back and then it actually reinvigorated me uh to to pursue more uh strength training uh afterwards so like our unconventional program uh old old time strength was you know kind of the that that was that was built off of that idea is like what can we do to challenge people in a totally new way that um you know fills a lot of those gaps of of angles and and certain rotational movements and um stability that isn't being addressed you know here's a third option James you an athlete uh so another option is to find a competition and train for it that almost always if somebody's an athlete they have an athletic mind and you're young you're in your 20s uh they you're too young for pickle ball so don't do that yeah don't do that yet but that's for all guys but yeah you you tried getting fat that's a possibility yeah it's fun I guess I've never I've never really looked into I've never done a a strong R competition I've never done a power in competition oh yeah things along those lines um so I guess yeah that that would be an idea oldtime strength would be a great one I like I like that advice old time strength is great out on it and if you want to do powerlifting we have a powerlifting program we can send you that you could kind of look through although I have a feeling you you understand strength training programming pretty well yeah um but compet look for athlet when I look athletes like like easy it's an easy button I'm not saying this is always the answer but an easy button with an ex athlete is find a competition and that tends to spark all those feelings you're looking for I do want to comment though on something that s said about me and being excited about that I don't that's not true at all uh when I Let Go of uh looking badass and being strong to be this Mobility guys it was very challenging I was not excited about it you get excited about the challenge well what was exciting was when I started to reap the benefits of the discipline and the hard work like what I what what it got exciting was when I started to see you know my low back pain go away when I saw the increased mobility and range emotion that I had the the ability to be comfortable in a s that SED excitement but that wasn't until months and months later of consistency that of like committing to something that I knew would be mentally challenging for myself to let go of this you know idea I need to be this buff guy or I need to be so strong so I you know that and I think there there's a a lot of value in that for people that have committed to being in this Fitness thing for the rest of your life is it it's not always going to be exciting and fun sometimes it's what you probably need and what's best for you and what's on the other side of that is exciting but getting through it isn't always you know exciting so I I don't want you to be fooled into thinking that I just love to challenge myself in these like no it was it it sucked for a while it definitely sucked but I like that it sucks very very reward very rewarding did you guys find it I guess when you were training full-time did you find it difficult for to find motivation for your own workouts because I I sort of feel that I'm in year four now of teaching and training um and it's like man some days I'm just like H I don't know if I can get this in or want to get it in when I just spent my whole day telling other about everyone else how to do this have you followed our Mass 15 program yet too I have not I have not I have followed I have a decent amount of your programs actually a lot of our class surround is surrounded by going through your programs um but I don't have no I don't have so I like old timey as a suggestion I also like Mass 15 potentially for you because mhm you also might be at a place in your journey which this was an interesting place for me too is realizing like oh [ __ ] I don't need to nearly train as much and as intense as all the benefits without all the work yeah I you know you've put so much this is what's so great about when you've put the years of consistency in like you have and reached strength goals and physique goals that you already have the amount of volume intensity and training that's required to actually still maintain all that is a lot less than you than you probably realize and that might be a valuable part of your journey right now is to maybe just reduce that especially considering you're having these feelings of like oh man I'm training all I'm working all these hours and I'm training these clients the last thing I want to do is go spend another hour hour and a half in the gym myself taxing it's like you know what does that look like if I just did two effective exercises and been done it and done on it in 15 20 minutes and I walk away like and then that becomes exciting because you realize oh [ __ ] I'm doing way less volume yet I'm maintaining a lot of my strength I'm maintaining a lot of the look I have so you might also be there so maybe dabble in one of the one or two of those or or follow one and then follow the other uh for the next like six months that might or you even just change the environment I mean it's your work environment so you're working in there you know I used to work out at a different gym half the time because of the ones I that's what I've been doing um I don't I can't work out where I where I train and I so I go somewhere else yeah or you go or you go outside do outside workouts like literally there's no wrong answer except that you stop I know so you just gota yeah you just got to think to yourself we all get through this at a certain point you know like in in our careers it's just like okay how do we restimulate reignite this passion that you know you came in guns blazing it's like where is it but you can find it it's just you got to figure out like what stimulus is going to resonate cool well thank you guys what are we sending overd are we sending 15 or we sending old timeing both he's a teacher and it'll be good stuff for him to show the kids too so let's you get two programs James totally yeah wow thank you guys very much you got it man you want to shout out your high school or what yeah uh Limestone High School in por Illinois there you go right on all right man all right James cool thanks guys good did you think I was saying it's easy for you no no no I think you I think you like it's part of your character part of your charact I'm giving you a compliment relax it's not part of your character is you choose hard [ __ ] and then afterwards you enjoy you enjoy the being able to do that well okay yeah afterwards but there's no like you made it sound like it's like I enjoy to go do this shitty thing that I don't like doing like no I don't no what I meant was it excites you did you agree with what he said I mean both of you are shut up Justin arguing but you're arguing over nothing yeah ah he's right well I the only reason why I comment because I didn't wasn't going to come I know what you mean you think I'm saying to him like you you know you do something you hate you're going to love it right away right right and I just want him to know that like cuz I do think this is important for those that are listening that uh have made this thing forever or that going toally for longevity yeah and and we we and we are all guilty of this ourselves right you get in a place where you feel just like he does and you know sometimes you've exhausted all the stuff you're excited about and that's fun you know getting hella good at my deadlift was a lot of fun getting hella good at my squad that was really fun what was not fun you're just trying to express that it's a discipline that you do that not not that you're like Yay I'm going to go [ __ ] do this yes cuz I you know I also think too that like so for example the mobility one I always go back to that because that one was not only physically challenging it was also very mentally challenging for me because I had to let go of a lot of old insecurities course around being very buff and very strong and like that's something that I wanted so bad and I do think that we all reach this place that's my insecurity right somebody else's might be something else it might be strength related or or or performance related whatever but I do think it's important in our journey uh that you you find a time where challenge those insecurities and pursue another goal that maybe you never would and that was kind of what you know what I do when I get bored is add another peptide I mean that's a move right there when I run out of peptide then I'll do something else not feeling it good stuff look if you like the show head over to mind pump free.com we have a guide that teaches you how to squat like a pro you can find it again at mind pump free.com you can also find us on Instagram Justin is at mind pump Justin I'm at mind pump to Stephano and Adam is at mine pump Adam [Music] [Applause] [Music]