Back in January, I bought a new pair of running shoes for the gym.  I had owned my old ones for a *long* time – I remember using those shoes more than a decade ago when I was exercising before my trip to Kenya.  Those shoes were… well beyond worn.

I elected to get some Converse shoes as I hear that they are good for things like deadlifts, where you want solid contact with the ground (some of the pros deadlift barefoot).  Since I like deadlifts, I thought I’d listen to people who seem to know what they are doing, and so I bought new shoes.  I remember the feeling I had when I exited the store.  I immediately wanted to hit the gym and try them out.  There is something about new clothes that gives you a bit of a motivational kick.

Fast-forward to the present, I’ve been struggling a bit with maintaining a consistent schedule with going to the gym.  Last week, I was checking out some blog posts from a fitness YouTuber that I’ve recently started following – Jon Call, aka Jujimufu.  Seriously, the guy is freaking inspiring to me; I love his attitude and personality on camera.  I’m not ashamed to admit I also may have a bit of a man-crush on him.

In his blog archive, he talks about strategies for killing training boredom:

Try training in new outfits.  When you feel like a bad ass because you think you look cool, you perform better.  Owning the idea that you look great motivates you.  Beef up your training wardrobe and suddenly you’ll want to train sometimes exclusively as an excuse to wear cool training outfits.  Cool outfits kill training boredom.

 

Crimson Zubaz pants + wrist bands + face paint = Just another Jujimufu outfit.

I remembered back to when I bought the shoes, and how jazzed I felt to hit the gym, so I took this advice and hit up a local sporting goods store.  To aid with my training, I bought three Under Armour tee-shirts, a pair of shorts, and some wrist-bands for wiping brow sweat.  I like the design of UA shirts, and I find their fabric blend helps keep me cool in the gym.

With my new shirt in hand, I drove straight from the store to the gym to try it out.  As expected, I felt really good wearing the shirt and I had a good workout.

While I can’t use this strategy all the time to find motivation, I’ll have to keep it in mind that shaking up the wardrobe could be just the trick I need in the future.

For more suggestions on how to kill training boredom, I suggest reading the full article or searching out Jujimufu online.

Stay Awesome,

Ryan