Going to the Gym (When You Really Don't Want To)

I am a personal trainer by trade. I spent four years going to school with the intent of doing this for the rest of my life.

I read articles and books on strength and conditioning for at least half an hour every day.

I have, more often than I like to admit, been that jerk who chastises people who find excuses not to work out.

And damn it, I did not want to work out last week.

The first week of April was a rough one for me. I decided to leave my old job at LIFT Fitness and was lucky enough to find work at Wildcat Fitness within two days, but as anyone who has gone through transitioning to another phase in their professional career can tell you, it's one of the most stressful things you can put yourself through. There was a lot of uncertainty, a lot of work put in for little tangible gain. And while I'm not exactly starting over, I know that the next few months will be spent building up a new client base, and there is a lot more stress to come.

Working out seemed like the least important thing I could have been doing.

A friend of mine has a pretty nice home gym setup, complete with a squat rack and adjustable dumbbells, and he was gracious enough to let me use his equipment while I was between gyms. Even with his generosity, it took just about all the willpower I had left over from my job search to put on a pair of shorts and squat. I did six sets with a weight I thought was kind of heavy, and quit.

Sometimes that's good enough.

Even for someone who more or less does it for a living, I know that working out should not be the most important thing in your life. That does not, however, mean it's not worth doing even during the most stressful times of your life. Here are some tips to get you to the gym when it's the last thing you want to do.

1. Get in and do something.

Not every workout needs to leave you drenched in sweat with jelly legs that can barely get you back to the car. Sometimes just getting to the gym and moving around is enough to keep you from losing the progress you have made with such workouts in the past. Do a set or two of goblet squats, some pullups, your favorite machine and ab exercise, and go home. Don't think ten minutes in the gym is a waste of time.

2. Have someone else write your workout.

I've mentioned it before, but this can do wonders for your work ethic. I was surprised at just how much willpower it took for me to write an honest workout for myself, until I bought Dan Trink's arm program and, more recently, started following the Olympic lifting workouts on Central Kentucky Weightlifting's blog. There's no more, "should I do another exercise for my shoulders?". Instead, you look at what's written, and do it.

3. Work out with someone who needs it.

There is no shame in getting out of shape. Life happens. But sometimes it gets to the point where it puts you at risk for losing your quality of life, and going to the gym becomes a literal life-saving endeavor. Maybe you have a coworker who has constant back and neck pain from her office job, maybe your mother is becoming at risk for type II diabetes, maybe your friend is clinically obese. Work out with them. Hold them accountable for making this important change. If you miss a workout, they might miss a workout. When it's someone else's health at risk, getting to the gym makes a big jump on your priority list. And hey- they might end up being your inspiration instead. 

These are just some ideas to get you through a rough patch. My goal is to make everyone I train love the gym as much as I do, and to make those patches as short as possible. As for me, all it took was a new facility and a new pair of Olympic lifting shoes to get me back on track.

Despite matching absolutely nothing I own

Go forth, fight through it, and pick up heavy things.