Posts Tagged ‘fitness philosophy’

Why do some weight train for life & others give up ?

gareth thomas

Currently I have been weight lifting and keeping fit for 25 years. I have never, ever used steroids and gave up alcohol and smoking 25 years ago.

When I made the commitment to lift weights it was a permanent one.

The gym became my place of hope and solace. My health and fitness keep me happy and positive when everything else can be going wrong sometimes. If you are well – thats what matters.

So why do most people who undertake fitness give up after 6 months ?

Why do millions of people who know how much better fitness makes their lives still just give up ?

I cant say why straight out of my head – I don’t know.

Is it because they are dumb, lazy, disorganized ? Well not keeping in shape is all of those things but of course plenty of clever & hard working people die an early death because they are not in shape.

The answer must be psychological in nature, it must be related to motivation. We are talking a lifetime commitment here – a major life change.

I believe the answer is the in initial psychological imprint this change has upon your mind. For me the change to a healthy lifestyle and body building was phenomenal.

I was a skinny picked on drug addict and street kid. I weighed like 6 stone and was a dope smoker and drunkard truant. I was a very bad kid, the guys I hung out with were 10 yrs older than me. We are talking a convicted rapist, drug dealers, violent people.

The terrible thing is I became as bad as them myself. I was nearly murdered as a kid and my family busted up so I really didn’t have any role models that made me feel safe or welcome except for a bunch of small town thugs.

Those were tough times – at 6 stone I was nearly at deaths door.

Body building turned it around for me. Just like if a person saved your life you would owe them right.
Well body building saved my life. I doubled my weight, kicked the drugs & booze and lost the bad company.

I studied psychology and motivation and went back to school (from which I had been expelled for drugs). So after that there was no turning back.

I think that the reason some people train for life and others do not is quite simple. Those that never give up have a genuine appreciation for the benefits of fitness and the seriousness of those benefits.

Those that give up do so out of ignorance.

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