motivation to workout

Last Updated on April 16, 2023 by Andrew Pirie

Mental motivation to workout for Athletics Training

Article by Jane Sandwood Motivation to workout 

Being a competitive athlete involves every area of your life, in other words, from your diet to your daily routines.

Also, finding the inner motivation to work out to keep at it is fundamental to success.

At the same time, Olympic athletes will train for up to 6 hours a day in the run-up to significant events.

And motivated by something other than external encouragement is key. So it can be all too easy for athletes to burn themselves out. Or eventually, give up when things get tough.

Suppose motivation for sports is only coming from coaches, friends, and family. Honing your mental triggers for your training is key to maintaining a personal interest in athletics. And this is essential in building a successful sports career.


The Power of Embracing Responsibility Motivation to workout 

motivation to workout

The internal motivation to work out for athletics must begin with accepting personal responsibility for your training, progress, and overall performance. Recognizing that the success of each of these is solely up to you will help you pursue your goals by giving them meaning beyond your happiness.

By its variable and competitive nature. Athletics is not always going to be enjoyable, and you will find yourself at the crucial point where it is tiring and painful rather than fun. Ultimately, you should be participating in athletics for yourself. And yourself alone to be able to push through this. Embracing responsibility begins by taking stock of your day-to-day duties. And examining their importance to you before prioritizing them to establish what means the most to you.

Developing Self-Discipline and Determination: motivation to workout 

motivation to workout
motivation to workout

Even after embracing responsibility, having excellent self-discipline skills is imperative to maintaining motivation. Essentially, self-discipline involves continuously taking small, consistent actions toward achieving clear objectives. Having self-discipline means more than doing the bare minimum.

It means doing the exercises set by your coach to the best of your physical abilities. After that, It means schooling your actions outside of training sessions to support and protect your athletic progress. As Olympian gymnast Arthur Nory puts it, “Have a big goal and train hard, go for it!”. You can begin developing self-discipline by setting small goals to lead to larger goals within a time frame, helping keep you accountable. You could also keep a training diary and a system of effort ratings to track both whether you’re sticking to your regime and whether you’re putting enough work in.


Importance of a Positive Mindset

motivation to workout
motivation to workout

Aside from physical injury or losing personal interest in the sport. And perhaps the biggest threat to building a successful athletic career is experiencing mental burnout. Hence burnout is most likely to occur if you’re putting too much pressure on yourself. And not allowing for inevitable shortcomings and losses.

Maintaining healthy motivation – and good mental health in general. It depends on being able to forgive yourself when you don’t meet goals. And keeping a positive attitude toward yourself at all times. One of the keys to success for world-renowned boxer Manny Pacquiao is maintaining a positive attitude, whether he wins or loses. Rather than becoming disillusioned or angry when failures occur. A positive mindset will allow you to use it as a learning experience and grow stronger from it.

To become the best possible athlete, you can involve intense physical training. And commitment in every area of your life. Yet ultimately, your success will only go as far as your inner motivation will allow it. Developing a strong sense of internal, mental stimulation through embracing personal responsibility, honing self-discipline skills, and maintaining a positive mindset. It Will put you in the best possible position to fulfill your potential as a successful athlete.

A montage of Olympic athletes training accompanied by a talk given by Owen Cook with music by

Clint Mansell’s “Together We Will Live Forever.”

(Oct 17) The talk does not represent the thoughts, feelings, or attitudes of any of the athletes pictured in the video clip. However, the idea of making such a video is to offer motivation to athletes everywhere. This video is a little rawer than most of the videos you’ll find on youtube with that mission in mind. 

This video entails the motivation for discipline ‘over and over and over,’ sacrifice, self-belief consistency, and how several small tasks lead to a dream of becoming a goal. You have to enjoy the journey towards the goal, not just the plan itself, which means understanding how your training leads to your destination.

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Sports Psychology: the role of Emotion Regulation, music, and the Coach-athlete Relationship

How and can utilize 10 years of sports psychology research in your training program

Sports psychology is a relatively young science, but, as Andy Lane and Tracey Devonport explain, the years since the turn of the century have seen some major advances in understanding the mind’s role in sports.

And can read the full article here.


Motivation and Feedback in Coaching

Dawn Hunter explains why motivation is a key aspect for most athletes in enabling them to achieve their goals.

.motivation-shark

(July 29) Motivation and Feedback in Coaching The definition of cause is divided into two main camps.

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1) That of enthusiasm for something; when athletes are highly motivated, they are often really enjoying their training and are keen to do their sessions.

2) The other camp is that of the need or reason for doing something, i.e., the motivation behind what is being done. So, an athlete may not be enthusiastic about getting up at 6 am to do a long bike ride in preparation for an Ironman triathlon. Still, they are motivated as they know that they will be more likely to do better in the race if they do the training.

When planning a season, define SMARTER goals and assess the coach’s motivation to achieve those goals. It will directly impact the amount and intensity of any training set and any training program’s success.

Knowing any barriers to motivation to work out and the athletes’ training likes and dislikes will help future motivation lapses.


Source of motivation to workout

Not an athlete’s extrinsic motivation. Self-governed goals help athletes stay motivated. Because friends and relatives are watching, an athlete may desire to do well in a race.

When the going gets rough, the athlete may decide they don’t care what others think and give up on their goal.
An overly motivated athlete may not take enough rest days because they want to train all the time. Rest is just as vital as training and helps the body adjust.

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Your athletes’ feedback is likely to come in 3 main types – visual, verbal, and written.

sources_of_motivation

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Visual Feedback

Visual feedback—does the athlete look happy or dejected? They might have gone harder or paced themselves better. Verbal feedback—athletes should hype themselves up and their performances.

Positive thinking will help them perform well, but they may still think they could have done better. Listen to the athlete and find out what they didn’t say. ‘The session went nicely’. I did my best today. Chris did well today.

The athlete doesn’t explain why today wasn’t better or why it went well. Despite their obstacles? Did the session go well but could have gone better on a less windy day? Chris improved? Is the athlete worried that Chris is speeding up?


Verbal Feedback

Consider phone feedback. No coach or athlete feedback makes it hard to receive honest answers. Athletes and coaches must be phone-friendly to get feedback. Recording visual and verbal input is tough. Visual feedback is easy to write: “The athlete looked pleased with him/herself at the end of the session.”

Verbal feedback is harder since you write down the topic rather than how it was said.


Written Feedback

Written feedback – when an athlete trains alone and provides comments via email or text. Email can conceal an athlete’s performance.

Written feedback might range from a list of actions with heart rates and times to a lengthy narrative. Email feedback seems to rely on whether the athlete considers email as written or vocal communication.

The former will often have a one-sided chat that can last several hundred words, while the latter will send a more official, data-filled email. The more verbose athlete can help the coach by noticing things they haven’t observed.


Motivation

Strong and weak motivation might produce lots or little feedback. However, highly motivated athletes who are just starting their training program often don’t think to give unprompted comments. If nothing goes wrong, they will proceed. Identifying these athletes weekly is worthwhile.

Demotivated athletes shun criticism because they see their absence from workouts as a failure. Recalling these athletes’ goals is crucial. and hit the switches you know would please them.

For some athletes. Knowing their biggest opponent is trying to reclaim their motive is enough. Others may be preoccupied with moving, getting married, starting a new job, etc. To accommodate these challenges, they may need to reassess their goals.

Elite, age-group, and recreational athletes have different approaches to unmotivated athletes. Some people don’t mind leaving races or seasons. Get to know your athletes and understand why they play to motivate them.

Some motivated athletes will provide lots of feedback since they love training and want to share it. Regardless of the motivation, greater athlete involvement will undoubtedly strengthen the coach-athlete connection.

 

The athlete and coach should agree on the training rather than the coach “setting”

The coach-athlete relationship is optimal since the athlete’s training. Highly driven athletes read about their sport, even if it doesn’t work. Based on their training, they can offer advice on what will work best for them.

Unmotivated athletes might also provide valuable insight. The problem is often found here. Emails are useful for “baring the soul” because they give the recipient a sense of anonymity even when they know where the email is going. Sportspeople can start emails without realizing why they’re unmotivated. They’ll figure it out themselves by the end.

Texts are too brief for feedback. It may be valuable for race results and session statistics, especially for athletes competing or training abroad. Texting is better than nothing. It’s also a player communication channel.

Coaches motivate some athletes. Whom they “report” too often convinces hesitant athletes to participate. Unfortunately, athletes hate workouts that target their weaknesses. After eliminating that shortcoming, those sessions may become popular.

Give athletes the freedom to express their ideas. Choosing the media and method makes athletes more chatty. I had pages of messenger chats with one athlete who seemed to converse well. Recording feedback is essential.

This aids in training plan creation. Support that athlete. It may help you coach other athletes in the future.

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Article Reference

This article first appeared in:

  • HUNTER, D.  (2006) Motivation and Feedback in Coaching. Brian Mackenzie’s Successful Coaching, (ISSN 1745-7513/ 34/ July-August), p. 1-3

Page Reference

The reference for this page is:

  • HUNTER, D. (2006) Motivation and Feedback in Coaching [WWW] Available from http://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/scni34a1.htm [Accessed

About the Author

Dawn Hunter, a British Triathlon Association Club Coach. Has been coaching individual triathletes and a triathlon club for over 3 years. She also competes in triathlons up to half ironman distance.


Sporting Body Sporting Mind – Book Review

motivation to workout
Motivation to workout

One of my athletes loved Sporting Mind, which I loaned her. When it returned with notes and bookmarks (shown). However, a smart young intellect. Thankfully, no writing or highlighting.

Everyone is aware of the changing body-mind links in their daily lives. Athletes enjoy this connection. This book teaches athletic competition mental training.

Unfortunately, physical training dominates mental and emotional preparation. The best performances happen when all elements work together. This book provides a complete mental training program for top performance.

to improve a well-regarded approach. Christopher Connolly and John Syer synthesized their vast experience. Earned through Sporting Endymion consulting.

 

BOOK DETAILS

The book is available on Amazon for USD 7.95

Paperback – July 26, 1984

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