I’ve always admire how those fitness influencers are so muscular and buffed on Instagram. They have muscle mass that sometimes it seems that they don’t even have an ounce of fat but just pure muscle. It is my aspiration that one day I could just be like them.

Unfortunately, I realized that it is easier to say than actually doing it after several years of going to gym. I found out that there are several things that most of the professionals have that I don’t have. Namely they have the time and energy to spend hours on end at the gym.

I go to the local community gym that is owned by my town. The best thing of the gym is that it is not crowded and sometimes I get to have the gym mostly to myself. It is not because that it doesn’t have the necessary equipment but because I noticed that majority of the people who went to weight room were looking for miracles. When they realized that the efforts they invested did not yield any results – losing fat and gaining any muscles – they just stopped going to gym.

Exercise is hard work. In fact spending an hour exercising is sometimes much more difficult than to work 8 hours shift in a day. Everyone goes to work and it becomes a second nature to tune our body to the work clock. Exercise is no longer “natural” body response; since earlier in the 19th century we no longer need to have the “fight or flight” response so our bodies become complacent. Instead of using the food we consume in the survival mode we start to store all the food for resting.

Getting fit requires commitment and a lots of it. Not only physically but mentally. To get the results not only you have to go and do it, you have to always mentally prepare. In fact that is the first thing I do before I go out to the gym. Usually this won’t take more than 2 minutes of my time. To prepare I will tell myself why I am doing it, whom I am doing for and what exercise I plan to do for the day. Failing to do so not only I won’t achieve the results but I may have wasted the time. As an example, there is this gentleman who goes to the same gym that I attend. I see him quite often, but not exercising. He is there wasting his time walking around the gym with his hands in the pockets.

After spending over 4 years working out I realized that I am not getting the results I was hoping for. At times I feel dejected and have thought of given up a few times. But every time I sit on the sofa and watching TV I feel unproductive and could sense I am wasting my life away. That usually spurn me to jump up and pack myself to go to gym. I’ve committed to get fit and backing down is not an option.

Here are some of the ways I find effective in continuing the commitment. Some of these I’ve already mentioned in my previous post.

You owe it to yourself. We need to ensure that not only we are eating right, we also need to ensure that our bodies are strong to continue with our day to day challenges.

You owe it to your loved ones. Eating right and exercise are known to be the best preventive measures to life diseases. Ask yourself will you be around in 20 years for your loved ones if you continue with the unhealthy lifestyle.

Avoid modern temptation and remove all interruptions. One of the worst thing you could bring to the gym is your phones. If you use your phones for playing music that’s fine. But I’ve seen so many gym-goers have their eyes stick to the screens that they hardly did anything.

Use the mirrors as a gauge of your progress. I was always self-conscious when I was really skinny. Looking at the mirror never boost my confidence. Now I feel that the mirror actually helps me target the muscle groups that I need to work on.

Exercise breathing is extremely important. Our bodies are well oiled machines – every parts of our bodies must work in unison. Our muscles rely on air to produce enough energy to continue. Not learning to properly breathing will cause our muscles to be lethargic and tire easily. I find that if I focus on my breathing in between sets of workout helps boost my routines.

There are many other ways to increase your performance and get better workouts. But before you get there you need to commit yourself and stick with the goals. Hey, if the fitness influencers can do it all of us can achieve the same.