Lacking in Motivation?

Hey everyone,

When we returned from our vacation to Fort Lauderdale, we found our motivation to workout suffered. With the nights getting dark earlier and the cold weather upon us, all we really wanted to do was come home from work and curl up on the couch!  Based on a recent comment from one of our readers, it sounds like we're not the only ones who have struggled with motivation...

"I'm having a really hard time with motivation. I wasn't feeling well for a week or so and as a result I didn't go to the gym. Since then I've had a really hard time getting back on track. Any 'words to the wise' on those of us having trouble getting and staying motivated? By the way, didn't anyone ever tell you that vacations are supposed to include martinis and beaches, not workout gear and beaches!!"

To get inspired to exercise again, we decided to change things up and get our days going with early morning workouts.  This has given us a fresh outlook and the motivation to get back on track.


During our holiday, we revisited a chapter in the Dan John's book 'Never Let Go'.  This reminded us of a great countdown workout that he introduced in the book.  This workout can be made as long or as short as required, thus it is easily adaptable if you are tight on time in the morning. 
For our first workout back from vacation, we completed a lower body morning workout consisting of four exercises.  We completed the exercises consecutively, doing 10 reps of each, then 9 reps, 8 reps, 7 reps, etc. until you reach 1 rep.  If you do a countdown from 10 reps to 1 rep, you will complete 55 reps for that exercise.

Here is what we did:

1. Kettlebell goblet squats

2. Kettlebell deadlifts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Burpees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Bench jumps

 

 

This workout can easily be completed in about 20-25 minutes, assuming you take a few short rest periods.  We felt this to be a great workout to ease back into things. 

If you are feeling low on motivation, make a small change to your workout to freshen things up.  We tried a different workout style, but there are countless other things you could try, such as a different activities/exercises, or working out with a new workout partner.  We enjoyed the 10-9-8 countdown workout so much that we plan to use it for a few more workouts.

-Tannys & Alex