If your friends think you’re being overly ambitious and won’t make it then that’s even better – you can make a bet with them that you will and then you have money at steak too and the prospect of a reward and the chance to gloat if you succeed. On the other hand you might find that close family are supportive of your self improvement plan and try and help you get to the gym day in and out. If you live with a partner or your parents you can ask them to help you even – maybe hiding the television box until you’ve done your workout. You may hate them at the time but in the long run they’ll be doing you a favour. You have to be cruel to be kind!

The more obvious way to get motivation from an outside party though is to start going to the gym with a training buddy. This can be helpful in a myriad of ways. The first and most obvious is that now if you don’t go to the gym you won’t just be affecting yourself – you’ll be letting down your friend and stifling his progress too. If you drop out of a training session now you know you’re going to have to make that sheepish and embarrassing phone call where you explain your reasons and you know you’re going to get a lot of abuse from their end. It might seem easier just to go to the damn gym! Another way that a training buddy is great for motivation is in that they can provide competition – one of the best ways to motivate yourself that I know. Just think, every time you don’t go to the gym and they do they’re getting slightly bigger while you sit and whither. They’re showing themselves to be made of sterner stuff and be more determined and they’ll be perfectly within their rights to rub this in every time you go to the pub. Could you live with yourself? Once you’re in the gym too you’ll be motivated by having someone around who’s constantly lifting more than you – it might be just the incentive you need to go up one more weight on the pec dec. Furthermore, by having a gym partner around you can more safely go up a weight on things like the bench press knowing that you’re not going to drop it on your face and decapitate yourself. If they’re a good gym buddy you should find that they motivate you too. Get them to enthuse in your ear and refuse to take the weights until you’ve done your full set – even if they’re doing most of the heavy lifting by the end. You’ll be surprised what the egging on of a friend can accomplish when you think you’re spent.

Mack LeMouse

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