Intrinsic Motivation
with Martyn, Strength & Conditioning Trainer
Have you ever told yourself this motivation “This is the summer I’m getting in shape”? Or“I’m going to start going to the gym every day”? Remember that New Year’s resolution you might have pinned up on your wall but gave up on after the first week? We all make plans and set goals to be stronger, thinner and fitter, but rarely ever follow through with them. In fact, the most commonly broken New Year’s resolution is related to fitness, whether it is to lose weight or get in shape. That is why, for our very first blog post, we sat down with one of our trainers, Martyn, who specialises in strength & conditioning training, and asked him some questions about becoming motivated to achieve your goals.
Martyn’s Own Motivation
Martyn comes from a family that has a history of very poor health. His personal motivation stems from wanting to avoid the same health complications that his relatives have experienced. In addition to this, he simply finding enjoyment in helping people, which has been greatly satisfied during his career as a personal trainer.
“I like to see people improve, and coaching people to do that is very fulfilling and satisfying.”
Martyn’s gratification in working out and exercising comes from feeling good and becoming stronger physically. This allows him to feel stronger for other challenges in life as well. Typically, Martyn works out about 5 days a week doing a variety of sports. His main sporting exercises include climbing and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. These activities guide his strength training sessions and compliment his progressions in those sports.
One of goals Martyn’s currently working towards is improving his swimming. He works with a coach around 3 times a week in order to accomplish this. While he is able to swim, Martyn’s goal is to develop skills to become an efficient swimmer.
“There’s also a survivalist point of view. If I fall off a boat, I want to be able to swim back safely.”
Martyn’s Motivational Methods
Martyn first firmly establishes fitness goals together with his clients. Then he will continually remind them of their goals throughout the duration of their training. If he finds that his clients’ goals need to be realigned to match what they ultimately want to achieve, Martyn will also facilitate that realignment to improve training effectiveness. But from there, Martyn’s motivational methods are all about the client driving their own motivation.
“I think motivation should be intrinsic and from themselves, rather than me providing them with motivation. It comes down to taking ownership of your goals.”
Martyn believes that you can always verbalise what you want to benefit and achieve from training, but to actually reach those objectives to have to align all of your habits to facilitate the completion of that goal, which requires no small amount of dedication and ambition.
Excuses, Excuses, Excuses…
