Truth be told, I’ve personally been struggling with motivation to exercise through a combination of other work commitments and a general sense of malaise. Now here I am writing my long overdue third part of this blog series, because I’ve managed to make my motivational predicament worse by rupturing my achilles whilst playing soccer. I’m immobilised for 2 weeks in a boot, and then face 10 weeks of slow and incremental rehab before I can actually return to work. Potentially facing 6 months of rehab before I can run.
Needless to say at 52, I’ve hung up the football boots. As for CrossFit, I feel a deep sense of irony that it was through CrossFit that I felt fitter and more capable than ever to play football. Perhaps the recent inconsistency of my CrossFit training was a factor in the injury, but probably not.
So many of us simply enjoy CrossFit, or any organised exercise program for the physical advantages and health benefits it delivers. Often though, its more importantly for the mental clarity, and natural high we experience. In addition, most of us derive our motivation through participation and socialisation with others that share our experiences. This is where the CrossFit approach excels.
As soon as we find ourselves drifting away from the regularity and structure of our training, for whatever reasons, we can so easily feel that its just too hard to go back. The funk we feel, and the bad choices we start making in our diet again literally feed off each other. It becomes a perfect storm.
The reality is that there are a great many of us that love CrossFit, and believe in what it does for us, but find ourselves in personal situations that complicate our ability, and more importantly our willingness to continue to ‘turn up’.
In general terms these complications or ‘roadblocks’ are common, and if you distill them all down, you are really left with ONE reason we don’t continue. It is because we ALLOW ourselves to stop. If we are honest with ourselves, our motivation to continue to train is something we control. It is influenced by a range of external things, but our intrinsic motivation is something we need to be aware of, and actively manage.
It may mean we just need to get off our back side, and get to the gym precisely when you least feel like you can. It’s about taking control, and not allowing external things to control you.
My personal challenge is now to take advantage of my situation, as challenging as it may be, to become stronger in my upper body and core. It would be a waste for me to not commit to this. The alternative, particularly based on my journey to date, is not somewhere I can accept.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experience, we all struggle and can use help.
Just keep turning up!
Mark Yule