Do You Hate Your Training?

You may be in a position where you used to love working out, but you're now starting to hate almost every second of it. Or maybe you're in a situation where you never even liked to train.

Don't fool yourself and think that you just weren't born to be physically active. The genes in your DNA wouldn't be there if your ancestors weren't bad MF'ers hunting and doing farm work all day long.

Exercise should be a vital part of our lives. There are so many benefits to working out that it would be a shame not to reap them.

In this article, I will talk about how social norms and moulds make you hate the gym.

Shouldn't I Hate Training?

"I hated every minute of training, but I said, "Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."

People frequently think of this famous quote by Muhammad Ali when they try to find an answer to whether or not they should hate training.

While this quote is motivational in that you should give up your everyday comforts to achieve something great, it also doesn't apply to you in the way you think it does. Like everything else in life, if you want to achieve something truly remarkable, you need to sacrifice time, effort, and nerves.

In Ali's case, this meant blood, sweat, time, and massive amounts of effort. Professional athletes need to push their bodies to the very extreme, and they are most frequently the ones that show us that our minds mostly dictate our physical barriers.

On the other hand, you most likely aren't a professional athlete.

Although your training should be hard, you should be happy you did it at the end of the day. Of course, it's okay to have days when you don't feel like training and the training goes poorly, but your workouts should be making you happier on average, not miserable.

Stuck In a Mold

A big part of hating your training is that you're stuck in a mould created by arbitrary social norms and expectations.

If you're bodybuilding, you should be exclusively bodybuilding. If you're doing MMA, you must stick to only MMA. If you're doing strongman, you should only do strongman training. This couldn't be further from the truth, even though people naturally think that stuff is black or white.

Who can tell you that you can't be swimming, ballet dancing, martial artist strongman? That's right, no one.

Some people may fit into one training modality perfectly, but others mix many training modalities to fit their needs and passions.

Do whatever you like the most. It doesn't matter if that's Zumba or parkour.

Finding The Right Fit

Hopefully, I've managed to convince you that you should love your workouts by now. I maybe even made you realize why you started hating them in the first place.

Your next step is to find the activity that suits you the most.

Forget the social norms. It would help if you didn't think about what people think about you, nor should you try fitting a particular label. If you are the first and only parkour powerlifter, then so be it.

Find a partner that will be involved in your activity of choice. Having a partner increases your chances of sticking with whatever training you're doing. Plus, if they happen to quit later on, you'll most likely have the habit fully developed so that you won't need them.

Figure out whether you enjoy high-intensity exercise. Some people are more suited for activities like hiking and cycling, while some would enjoy martial arts more since they have to let go of some steam. Even walking is a decent alternative if you can't get yourself to do anything else.

Make your goals clear and determine what modalities will help you get there. If you want to become stronger, you have a wide variety of activities. Powerlifting makes you stronger, but so does strongman. Wrestling and BJJ are also terrific options for gaining strength. Although not all of the strength gained in one discipline will transfer to the other, a big chunk will. Want bigger legs but hate training them at the gym? Try sprinting and jumping, as they will make you stronger and probably give you bigger legs.

A List of Activities

To make the search a bit easier for you, I've compiled a list of different activities you might find interesting:

• Cycling

• Team Sports

• Running

• Hiking

• Swimming

• Boxing

• BJJ

• Aerobics

• Zumba

• Parkour

• Trail Running

• Walking

• Powerlifting

• Bodybuilding

• Powerbuilding

• Athletic Training

• DVD or Online Home Workouts

• Callisthenics

• Yoga

• Arm Wrestling

• Dancing

• Rock Climbing

• Jump Rope

• Rollerblading

• Skateboarding

• Golf

• Tennis

• Rowing

• Many, many more