7 Ways I Hack My Dumb Thoughts To Keep Progressing In The Gym
Just because I’m over 40 doesn’t mean I’m sensible — here’s how to keep motivation high and stay consistent in your workouts.
There are a few gym mindset hacks we can employ, to get out of our own damn way when it comes to consistently exercising, and actually having a ‘good’ workout.
If you ever find yourself:
- chopping and changing your workout goals and programs
- half-assing workouts even when you DO stick to the plan, or
- struggling to consistently turn up and work out often enough to see and feel any progress,
then you’re going to get a lot out of this article.
You see I’ve spent over 30 years wrestling with my own Inner Asshole, who encourages me to give up or avoid hard work in the gym, plus I’ve helped hundreds of clients learn to stay focused and consistent in their training too.
Sadly We Are Dumber Than We’d Like To Believe
Maybe you’re like me, feeling older and wiser, basically like a better-dressed Yoda, and you scoff at things like ‘mindset hacks’ and ways of tricking your brain to do the right things, because you think:
“Listen mate, I’m a grown adult, I don’t need tricks, I’m sensible, smart and can stick to the plan no problem”.
But… yeah you won’t.
Because you’re human, and you can no doubt remember dozens of times you let your Inner Asshole convince you to not work out at all on a certain day, or take a break from exercising completely, or half-ass workouts, change plans mid-workout, and avoid hard work all the time, right?
As much as I’m sure you’re truly wise in many other ways in life, we all need work-arounds when it comes to exercise.
So here are 7 hacks and tricks to keep doing the things you know you should, but often would just rather not ;-)
3 Hacks Before You Even Go To The Gym
When it comes to figuring out what to do when you exercise, and how to split up your weekly workouts, the key is to not trust Future You as far as you can throw them.
#1 Order Your Exercises So You Do The Hard Stuff
Program your workouts knowing that you WILL try to half-ass or skip the hard-but-necessary and horrible stuff. For this exact reason, do this hateful stuff first, so it’s done and dusted and you can’t leave it until the end when you’re coincidentally too tired.
I do squats or lunges first in every workout for a reason y’know…
#2 Split Your Workouts So You Don’t Skip Leg Day
I recommend you do multiple Full Body Routines 2–4 times each week if you are doing resistance or strength training of any kind, instead of a split routine where you work specific parts on specific days.
That way you can’t skip Leg Day because every day is Some Legs Day. Weird how nobody ever skips Arms & Shoulders Day…
This approach stops you cherry-picking the exercises you love and ignoring the ones you hate (see #1) but should be doing. On the plus side every day is Biceps Day too!
#3 But Still… Focus on What’s Important To You
Have a think about whether cardio or weights is your priority right now, and do what’s most important to you first in your workouts.
If cardio is more important then don’t go doing squats and lunges beforehand and then having jelly legs on the treadmill, and vice versa if building muscle and strength is your priority.
Personally, I’ve learned to only plan for 5–10 minutes of higher intensity cardio after weights anyway. There were so many times I planned to do 20–30 minutes after weights and just thought Screw That and went home, so I figured:
5 minutes of cardio you actually do is better than the fictional 30 minutes you just keep planning to do.
3 Hacks When You’re Ready To Rock IN The Gym
So your plan is all set up for overcoming the dumb stuff your brain tries to convince you to do once you’re in the gym — we’re not done yet though, as your brain will try and convince you of all sorts of nonsense IN the gym:
#4 Knowing How Hard To Push Things
The important thing to remember when it comes to weight training is that your muscles have no idea what weight you’re lifting or how many reps you’re doing.
They just know when they are getting messed up.
So any rep range between 6 and 20 is great, whatever floats your boat. But with that in mind, it’s still important to track what got you to that “Oof, this is getting tough” point last time you did that workout.
Knowing that means you can just aim to beat your last highest score this time.
- An extra rep,
- An almost imperceptibly faster pace on the treadmill,
- An extra couple of pounds on the bar with your barbell exercises.
Honestly my absolute favorite things in any gym are the 1kg/2.5lb plates. Adding 5lbs to your squat or bench press for example every couple of weeks helps you get as strong as an ox without ever feeling that the weight is getting too heavy. It’s like sneaky ninja-style strength building.
#5 Counting Your Reps Right
This one shouldn’t work but it does. If you start counting from 1 for a planned set of 12 reps, a funny thing happens as you start getting tired:
You start negotiating with yourself. “Hey maybe 10 is OK today. Or how about 8?”.
Anything over 6 reps suddenly feels like Enough.
BUT, and this is super weird, when you start counting DOWN from 12, you want closure, you want your 3,2,1, it feels wrong to stop at 3 having done 9 reps. Who TF stops a countdown at 3?!
Our wonderfully-dumb, competitive brains will drive us to get to our 3,2,1 and then we’ve done more work and pushed ourselves harder than if we had started counting up from 1. Like I said, it shouldn’t work but does.
#6 You’re Probably Not Too Tight For Squats
I’ve had days when I had squats or deadlifts planned, but I decided my glutes and lower back felt too tight, so I skipped them.
In the moment that feels like the sensible, logical decision, you’re staying safe and don’t want to pull a muscle, right?
But often it’s just a smart way to avoid straining to lift a big heavy thing, which we all find to be Zero Fun.
So if you feel tight, then of course you’re not ready to lift the heaviest weight you can do in any exercise. But by doing things like:
- bodyweight squats
- mobility work
- shoulder circles
- rotator cuff work with resistance bands, or
- light warm up sets with 50% of your working weight
that can often be enough to grease the grooves and get you ready, able and willing to lift the big heavy thing!
And yes of course if you do all that and still feel tight, then live to fight another day and leave whatever’s tight the hell alone!
Final Mindset Hack — A Wee Notepad & Pencil
I want to look at one little hack to do after you have worked out, to keep you consistent and on track…
#7 The Power Of Scribbles
In the gym you’re constantly learning things about YOU:
- how to do the exercise right
- how to feel it in the right places
- what’s the best grip for you
- what depth or range of motion works best
- what weight you can maybe manage next time
- things you can improve on
- or simple cues like pulling shoulder blades into the bench on Bench Press or your preferred foot placement for lunges, etc
These things that occur to you in the moment will escape from your memory very quickly as soon as you stop working out because your life will throw a dozen more things at you to remember.
Write these things down as you go along or right after your workout, because notes and scribbles are absolute gold when it comes to making progress.
** Quick Sidebar: With my coaching clients I must have tried half a dozen snazzy phone apps for workout tracking, and I could never find one that was simple to use AND tracked things the way I wanted.
I persevered with using appps with clients, as I felt it looked more professional to have an app for workouts. BUT so many guys yapped about the apps being a pain in the ass to use in the middle of a workout, and it was too hard to make notes.
So now I just send coaching clients a PDF of the plan we’ve agreed, then they buy a wee notebook and pencil for tracking each workout, and we catch up each week on how the workouts have gone! **
The Common Thread in All Those Gym Mindset Hacks
Every one of those 7 little tricks help us overcome what the emotional part of our brains, the Inner Asshole to give it it’s official medical name, will try and convince us to do in the moment, as we’re thinking about whether to work out, what to do when we’re in the gym, or how hard to push ourselves.
The more you can learn to overcome the temptation to half-ass your workouts and avoid the hard stuff, the more progress you’ll make and the greater the likelihood that you’ll build the consistency you need to stay in shape as you get older.
Let me know in the Comments if you have any of your own hacks or wee mental tricks to share, or if any of those 7 above ring true for you!
Over 40, fed up and out of shape — get free access to my Programs Vault (40+ friendly programs for diet, workouts and healthy lifestyle) and you’ll be subscribed to my weekly newsletter too!
