Strength Training – Is the Effort Worth the Results?

So is it? I think that by now you know that building muscles and doing strength training requires effort and is not as easy as it looks in TV. I’m often astonished by how the newbies are surprised by the difficulty of building muscles.

What is your belief about building muscles? Do you think it’s easy?

Well, if that is the case you should know that everything that is worth something in life takes effort. It is in our nature to search for easy solutions, but don’t be blind, effort is one of the key elements of success.

It doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice your life to build a great looking body, quite the opposite. However, you need to be persistent, especially at the beginning of your journey.

You will get tempted to eat more food than you should, you will be tempted not to go training today or cut the workout and go home earlier. You might wake up and not feel like doing some strength training today. Everybody gets tempted, even the most successful people you know.

So, you need to develop some kind of motivation that will help you overcome these weak states and keep you going when you need it most. This is exactly what we are going to work on today.

1. We will get clear on your goals
2. We will go more in depth and search for the reason why you want these goals
3. Then we will look in the future and help you understand what you will have to do to achieve them

Let’s dive in.

Step 1: What is Your Goal?

What is your goal? What is it?

• Is it to look good?
• Gain confidence and be confident in your own skin?
• Gain social dominance in every social venue and situation?
• Get respect from other guys?
• Have women complimenting you on your look?
• Have better social life?
• Be bigger?
• Compete on national level in bodybuilding?
• Become a fitness model?
• Let go of the stupid nickname based on your skinny or fat look?
• Become a power-lifter?
• Get visible six-pack?
• Improve your bench press?

What is it? What is your goal?

There are dozens of goal ideas you might have, but if you don’t have a specific goal (that is achievable) then you cannot achieve anything, because you don’t know where to go. Nothing will change, ever! Unless you finally sit down, take a pen, a blank piece of paper and start writing down what you want. Yes, I actually mean a real paper, not a new Word document. It will be more absorbable for your brain if you let go of the keyboard and write it down with your hand.

This is not write it down and it will magically happen on its own crap. The reason why I want you to write it down is, because you are probably on a stage where you want to look better and have more women. However, you might be missing the specifics like body shape, overall look of your body you want to build, the kind of women you want to attract, the way you think your confidence will be presented, the reactions you want to evoke etc. By doing this exercise you will get into creative mode where you will just spill out the things you want, you will get specific and finally know what you want, which is crucial for success.

So, what exactly is it do you want?

• If your goal is to get better looking body, what do you mean by that?
• Do you want to be the biggest guy in the gym or do you want to be in ideal shape that is the most attractive – lean and masculine at the same time?
• Do you know how it looks?
• Do you know what muscles have to be bigger, which are more important?
• Do you know which muscles you should be focusing on more in your strength training routine?

Don’t be shy; you don’t have to show it to anybody else. You can rewrite it to do computer later and password protect it if you like.

Step 2: Why Are You Doing It?

If you know why you want to achieve your goal, it will be actually possible for you to achieve that goal. It will help you find the opportunities you are looking for. It will help you stay on track when you will feel exhausted, tempted and wanna end it.

You need to understand that when you are not feeling like doing strength training today, it’s not a physical issue, but rather an emotional issue. This means that your reason (why do you want to achieve your goal) must be emotionally very strong.

When I’m in a bad mood and not interested in going to a gym, but I have a strength training scheduled I close my eyes visualize my goal of the ultimate body shape I want to achieve, the path I need to take (training hard and often) and then the benefits of this great body or in other words what effect will it have on my confidence, social life and my income.

If your goal is to build a body that attracts hot women, get specific on how that body looks like and what do you have to do to build it. Then visualize the effect it is going to have on your life, what will you have that is currently missing?

After this five minute exercise of simple visualizations I open my eyes and suddenly I’m ready to hit the gym hard and I’m even looking forward to lifting the weights. Keep your goal and your “why” always in front of your eyes, never allow yourself to fall off the track. And if you do fall off, get back IMMEDIATELLY.

As you will progress it will be easier for you to stay on track, because you will start getting results thus create a momentum that will keep you motivated. However, there will always be times when you will not want to train or do what you have to do, so this simple technique I described above will help you to keep going.

Step 3: Do You Understand What It Takes to Get There?

Sometimes we get all pumped up and excited about doing new stuff like starting new job, learning new language, trying new strength training routine or whatever, but then we realize how hard it’s to get the results we are after. Building great looking body is no different. When I speak to people who do not work out they think that it’s easy to build muscles and that you just need do few exercises on some weird, fancy machines. And this is why lot of beginners thinks exactly this way as well.

Well, guess what it is not like that. Not really. I understand why you may have this false belief, I have been there and I understand that if you didn’t went through the process of building muscles you just have no idea what it takes.

Why is important to understand what it takes to build muscles? Well, not only you will be ready for every challenge you will face on your journey and you will know what to do, but you will also not be so easily manipulated into buying some useless supplements that promise insane gains in short period of time.

This doesn’t mean you can’t get results in few months; it’s just that if you want to look like a fitness model, it will take time. Face the truth; prepare yourself for a long-term journey. Ask different guys in the gym how long they are training etc.

Step 4: Are You Willing to Commit to Do Whatever It Takes?

And finally as the headline says is it the goal worth the effort? We went through three very important steps of goal setting.

First we got clear on what is it you want, then we found out why you want that, what it will bring to your live that is currently missing and third we realized what it really takes to get results. Now, here comes the final step.

One you know what you want, why and what you have to do, are you actually willing to do it? Are you really willing to commit to do whatever it takes to get there? To face the challenges, to do the hard work and be consistent with the strength training? Is the outcome worth the effort to you? Will you train hard like nobody else? This decision will determine the amount of success you will create for yourself. In other words, more determined you will be better results you will get.

I will be more than pleased if you share your goals and notes on each of the steps written above in the comment section below the article. Btw I will personally respond to each comment and give you my feedback on your goals, so you will get laser clear on what you want.