Sometimes the only way to continue to make physical gains in your strength training or cardiovascular work is to push your perceived limits. And, sometimes that also means pushing yourself mentally and physically.
You may have grown up believing that you can achieve only so much physically. Maybe you think that you’ll never have those washboard abs, be able to break a 6 minute mile or run more than 6 miles. Whatever your perceived limits are it’s time to take a hammer to them and break them!
The factors that limit you are time, desire, nutrition, sleep, genetics and motivation. With enough motivation you can break through your previously held limits and push the boundaries when you take care to get enough sleep, eat the right foods and take the time to perform the activities required.
There are a few tricks and few pitfalls that you should be aware of before starting to break those barriers and move to another level of fitness you only ever dreamt about.
- Start out small. You might want to run that marathon but you should start first with a 5K and work up from there. Yes, you can push your limits but you want to break barriers, not break your body!
- Announce your goals and be social. Do you want to increase your bench press or deadlift by a specific amount or percentage? Let your gym partner know and stay accountable to the movement forward.
- Get a gym partner! If you don’t have someone you train with – get someone! Teaming up will help you stay accountable to pushing forward. It will also give you an extra pair of eyes when you are pushing too hard and need to give your body a rest.
- Remember to rest. Your body thrives on being pushed and rested. It’s a bit like interval training for a runner. They improve their times by going all out for short bursts and then running recovery for about 1.5 times the amount of time they went all out. Your body needs rest (sleep) and recovery time (out of the gym) to build muscle and gain strength.
- Your body runs and develops on fuel. If you feed it junk, expect to get junk back in return.
- Try something new for a couple of days to mix it up for your muscles and your mind. You know that you’ll burn more calories, gain more muscle and better gains in strength when you mix up the fitness program and keep your body guessing what you’ll do next. The same is true for your motivation to achieve the goals. Feeling a bit burned out? Try laying off for 2 or 3 days and going for a walk or bike ride with the family.
7. Pay attention to the times when you are most motivated and times when you aren’t. Find out what triggers how pumped up you feel to push your limits and try to recreate those experiences to feed your motivation.
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