On friday night at one of the Skinnydipping group’s dips, a friend that I haven’t seen in several months turned up. I knew he’d been training hard through facebook updates and some new photos, but when he turned up he looked incredible. He’s been training 7 days a week doing weights, martial arts, cross-fit and other bits and pieces.
Why is it that some people are so good at finding the motivation and discipline to do that kind of training? Does it come from their own set of insecurities or maybe a form of obsessive compulsion? Sadly my obsession seems to be with skipping the gym and eating badly. Two or three years ago I was even handed the best motivation to get in shape in the form of a photo shoot for aussieBum and that apparently still wasn’t enough.
Should I hang around with these motivated people more? Probably not. My flatmate is another disciplined guy and after sharing with him since July, still no luck. I’m genuinely fascinated as to why some people have this kind of mind set and why others (ie me) do not. Any trainers out there willing to offer advice in this realm, feel free to comment with said advice.
Each year in the lead up to the Mardi Gras parade, I’m reminded that there are very different forms of fitness and body awareness. Our float is full of relatively fit people, we are lifesavers, we can swim out into the surf or paddle out through a big surf to rescue people.
The routines we have done over the last four parades have been fairly simple and a lot of fun, but I’m constantly amazed that a few people cannot even march in time to music. Each year there are one or two people that while they get the arm movements correct their feet are completely out of time. I cannot claim to be any kind of spectacular dancer but for me it makes it much easier if your feet and arms are both in time to the same beat, not one to the real beat and the other to some imaginary beat. Yet those same people can race a triathlon or get a drowning victim to shore easily.
None of this is in any way a criticism. I’m constantly fascinated by how different people are. Aerialists for example, are renowned for being clumsy on the ground, yet dangle them 8 metres off the ground and they’ll astound you with spectacular agility and grace. I’m not including myself in that statement either. I still run into things on the ground and trip over a shadow, but I’m not graceful up in the air.
A few weeks ago I posted a photo of a guy as inspiration for the gym and I’ve come across this equally spectacular shot of him from behind. Sadly, right now I have a cold and can’t really go to the gym, even though I’m still going to go to silks class tonight.
Today is 14 degrees celsius in Sydney for the second day in a row and I hate it. I operate on a much happier level when I’m warm in the sunshine, not all rugged up trying to stay warm and dry. And like most men, I’m a wimp when I’m sick. It’s just a cold but if it gets much worse, you know I’ll be pretending I have ebola trying to get sympathy.
Last week, even after all my inspiration and enthusiasm to train hard, last week I only made it to the gym twice. I missed one day because of laziness and another because I had worked really late and needed to sleep in.
This guy must have had to train hard at his chinups. He’s naturally carrying a whole bunch of weight in front before he even starts. My lordy that thing must get in the way, but it is pretty.
Tomorrow is chest and calves day at the gym and no doubt I’m going to be in a world of hurt afterwards. If there are any personal trainers out there, feel free to send me and my training partner a new program. We’ve been doing our current one for a while and need to change it up a bit.
There is a guy at the gym that has me thoroughly intrigued. He’s not model good looking or stunning but definitely very cute in my books and from what I’ve seen, totally the kinda guy I could see me introducing to my family.
The intriguing bit kicks in because I get the odd smile and more recently hellos have been exchanged in a very casual way. It’s a kind of very mild flirting but he has a wedding ring on. I’m never the guy that straight-but-curious guys flirt with and test curiosity so I’m finding it quite amusing, knowing full well there will most likely never be an answer to the mystery. It’s a fun little intrigue to add to motivation to get to the gym so early.
It was a big struggle to get out of bed this morning and get to the gym, but I’m determined to be good and get myself into the shape that I want to be in. I didn’t sleep very well last night again because of strange dreams. Not necessarily bad dreams but not that thoroughly entertaining either.
This guy is today’s inspiration. I don’t want to be this big but I’m inspired by his discipline that he obviously has to get in this shape. I don’t think anyone of you out there is going to complain either.
Over the years, having grown up a very skinny guy, I’ve always felt skinny and now after being relatively consistent with the gym and now aerials and pole dancing, I’m heavier than I’ve ever been at 81kg (178lb) I’m starting to realise that gone are the days that I can eat what ever I want. My diet is fairly bad through the days. I try and eat well at night but burgers and chips feature too heavily in my diet.
So I’m going to be more disciplined with my food and I’m also going to try and get myself measured properly, like biceps, legs, chest and all that stuff so that I can get a better idea of progress. I may never look like Tyler here, but a lower body fat percentage wouldn’t hurt me.
Imagine going through life looking like this? Granted you’d probably get a few interesting looks walking around in some very skimpy N2N swimwear all the time and the rest of the time would be spent in the gym but hell, I wouldn’t mind.
Those nipples are the sort of thing you see emblazoned on armoured breast plates in movies like Gladiator, not on real people. Is one for volume and the other one for tuning the radio? Tune in to the sweet sweet sounds of dying happy on radio body-2-die-for.
My plans to be a super disciplined gym machine have all been trashed in a mess of bad nights sleep and total lack of discipline as usual. Where do these guys find the motivation? Perhaps in stunning photos of themselves. My consolation to myself is that by not having a chest, it will never turn into bitch tits. Yay for me. A cottage cheese arse is surely more comfortable than the half coconuts these boys have to sit on, the poor things. Maybe he needs a hug to comfort him?
The last couple of months have been very hit and miss with me, with me missing the gym a lot more than I’ve been hitting it. I’ve just been very very slack and I’m getting angry at myself. Last week I had a bit of a cold so I didn’t go and the week before that I was on Fraser Island so couldn’t go then, but I’m too good at making excuses. The same goes for my diet.
If the scenery around my gym was like in the photos above I’d be built like a greek god because I’d ALWAYS be in the gym.
This guy has taken a photo of himself every day for a year. Check out the physical transformation of the guy. He’s really got himself in shape. Very impressive, but there is one thing that concerns me. Unless he’s taken the background out in photoshop in EVERY photo, he’s been in the same place every day for 365 days of the year. No holidays? Great work though mate.
I found this video over at Dude Flesh.
Last night after a really nice night having a takeaway indian dinner with a new acquaintance that I’d like to see become a good friend, I came home and set my alarm for 5:40am to get up to go to the gym as usual. At some point during the night, when I was feeling like I wasn’t having a restful sleep, I changed my alarm to 7am thinking my training partner wouldn’t be too annoyed. So when my alarm went of at 5:40am I realised that I had been having some very realistic dreams. Thank god the other one wasn’t true… it was bizarre and disturbing.
