Merritt Cassell
I've been in athletics my whole life. whether it be baskeball, baseball, soccer, football, or recreational activities, I've always found that any type of exercise and movement is positive for so many different aspects of ones physical, mental, and spiritual growth.
I love pushing myself, my mind and body to limits and reaching and breaking through thresholds. Goal attaining since leaving the world of college athletics has been tough. Couple that with age and no reasons to stay in shape I can see how its extremely difficult for many people out there to find that fire, that burst, that zest to want to maintain or reach higher levels in fitnes. This is the reason why I'm starting to write this blog, because I want to provide motivation and actual workouts and activities that help me stay in shape, and to reach goals that I do attain .
I will be providing workouts, tips on working out, and nutrtional information through my blogs. I hope you enjoy.
Merritt Cassell ∙ 38 weeks ago
Today's post is about how to maintain your momentum and drive after races or events that you've trained hard for and achieved a finish.
For me, its incredibly important to have ONE rest day after an event I've trained weeks for. Depending on how grueling or long the event is, sometimes a couple days is needed. Recovery is something needed for muscels to grow, but also mentally giving you downtime by rewarding yourself with a lazy day, a beer or two, a great dessert, or all of these combined in one day. You definitely should not rest for more than two days because complacency and lack of motivation can set in.
The lack of motivation also arises from the fact that a race/event has been achieved, which gives the mind a great sense of accomplishment, but also allows for an "I trained hard, so now I don't have to do anything." mentality. A way to combat this are by doing many individuaized things that you know will motivate you to stay on track. I sometimes suffer from this mentality myself. I combat it with siging up for three to four different races a year. The races are usally spread out throughout the year, mainly Spring to Fall. What this does is it keeps my mind focused on the next task at hand. I finish one race, but know and use that one race as a training day for the next race. This helps keep me motivated and helps combating a complacent and "i've made it." type attitude.
Other factors, variables that help motivate me are health related. Meaning, I have high blood pressure passed on by heredity. So in knowing this I know working out and staying cardiovascular fit helps bringing and keeping my blood pressure low. Also, the key, most important factor for any healthy lifestyle is watching what you eat. This is about 75% of what you should be doing right to get to a healthier you. You can work out for hours and days, and weeks, but if you don't follow up your activities with healthy food choices and healthy lifestyle choices (i.e. smoking hooka while out with friends, socially drinking, little rest from being out all night, etc.) than you might as well not even workout because your not going to see any gains or fee a difference physically.
Find what it is that keeps you motivated and continue to stay focused on those thoughts. Seeing yourself motivated and energized is as important as actually going to do the actual physical activity. I hope this helps those who have had trouble staying focused.
Merritt Cassell