Issue 150

Staying dedicated to your training regime, hitting the gym and pushing yourself is a sure-fire way to succeed and fulfil your goals.

But what happens when you hit a plateau in your lifts or you’re suddenly the gym punching bag? How do you stay motivated to get back to training and recommitted to your fitness cause?

Brad Pickett was one of the most motivated individuals in the sport of MMA. He also has a great team around him extending from head coach at Team Titan, Mickey Papas, to his manager, Matt Walton, a personal development coach and NLP and CBT specialist.

“I’m a very competitive person,” says Brad. “It’s built in to me to succeed in everything I do, and I give 100%. That’s the kind of work ethic you need to make it as a fighter.”

And a lot of people think they are giving their all, but when it comes to being a professional fighter few understand the sacrifices and hardships that come with the glory.

“It’s tougher than most people expect. We’re training hard two, sometimes three times a day,” explains Pickett. With that comes the strict diet, the constant pressure and the daily grind of being a pro fighter.

Clearly, Pickett is an elite athlete and one of the few who has made it to the top in the toughest sport there is. However, there are a number of lessons to learn from the UFC bantamweight’s attitude: work hard and give it your all, mentally as well as physically.

Positive outcomes

As Matt Walton, a cognitive and behavioural therapist, understands it many people project negative outcomes and excuses as they avoid the gym, including feeling embarrassed about their appearance or too tired to go after work.

“The common thread here is that most of the reasons for not going are perceptions people have about things that ‘might happen or might be’. This is a common habit that has to be broken as the focus should always be living in the now and getting real answers to your questions,” Matt says. “In the majority of cases, when someone really makes the effort to try out or experience the benefits of the gym, many initial perceptions are incorrect.

“Many people who find excuses lack a certain level of confidence. This can come out in many different ways. Some people will even turn their back on a situation or opt out of a situation just because they aren’t confident to address it.”

Create goals

For Matt, the key to getting motivated is to find your goal whether it is to master the armbar or to hit a new personal best. Once you understand that goal then you can create a plan that will support it. The hardest part is getting to the gym but, once you’re there, everything changes and you will already be one step closer to reaching your goal.

"Once you get to the gym you realize it’s not what you thought. All the coaches are there to help you improve and the guys training all want to help and share knowledge because by helping you they’re helping the team get better,” says coach Papas.

“The best motivation is to see improvement and the more you improve the more you’ll want to train,” he explains. “If you’re having a tough time at work then having a training partner or being part of a team is a great motivating factor to get you out the door."

Risk and mitigation

However, everyone has off days and it’s important to understand how to get back on track. “Most plans don’t go to plan. So an understanding of how you evaluate risk and what mitigations or remedies you would take to bring yourself back on course is a very useful tool,” coach Walton adds.

“Many people lose heart when something goes wrong, but the correct mental attitude to how you come back from a defeat or a setback is what sets people apart. My view is that this kind of risk/mitigation approach can be taught and understood. The key attitude to have is the end goal never changes.

“However, the route you take has to be flexible and adaptable to change. With this mindset you are much more conditioned to coping and dealing with setbacks.”

It takes mental fortitude to get going and get to the gym, but once you’re there you’ve made the first step to improvement. Success breeds motivation which makes us want to train harder and become even better.

Finally, having a plan, an end goal, is the best way to monitor and evaluate your training regime as well as keeping you on course should you become derailed.

We might not all have Pickett's solid work ethic or mental toughness, but with a bit of planning we can all become a better, stronger, faster version of ourselves.

BRAIN WAVES

• The human brain is triple the size of any other mammal with a similar body size
• Ever wondered how many thoughts you have a day? Reports suggest we have 70,000 thoughts on average per day