Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Motivation Monday: So, You're Having a Shitty Workout...

Episode Date: September 18, 2017

This episode is part of a weekly series that I have dubbed “Motivation Monday.” (Yes, I know, very creative of me. What can I say, I’m a genius…) Seriously though, the idea here is simple: Every Monday morning, I’m going to post a short and punchy episode that I hope gets you fired up to tackle the workouts, work, and everything else that you have planned for the week ahead. As we all know, it’s one thing to know what you want to do, but it’s something else altogether to actually make yourself do it, and I hope that this series gives you a jolt of inspiration, energy, and encouragement to get at it. So, if you like what you hear, then make sure to check back every Monday morning for the latest and greatest installment. Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

Hey, this is Mike from Muscle for Life and welcome to another episode of my podcast. This episode is part of a weekly series that I have dubbed Motivation Monday. Yes, I know, so creative of me. What can I say? I'm just a genius. Seriously though, the idea here is simple. Every Monday morning, I am going to post a short and punchy episode that I hope gets you fired up to tackle the workouts, work, and everything else that you have planned for the week ahead. Because it's one thing to know what you want to do, but it's something else altogether to actually make yourself do it. And I hope that this series gives you a jolt of energy and encouragement to go ahead and do all of those things that you want to do. So if you

like what you hear, then make sure to check back every Monday morning for the latest and greatest installment. Let's start with this week's quote. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison. You don't want to be in the gym. Everything feels god awfully heavy. You're just going through the motions, counting down the sets until you can leave. I understand it happens. I have shitty workouts too, sometimes every week, sometimes twice. You know, every once in a while, I have to slog through a whole run of bad workouts. Like I've got some kind of low-grade kryptonite poisoning,

and every session is just sweaty grunting without aim or purpose. Again, it happens. The problem is though, these days, these fucking days, I tell you, they really can be suffocating, can't they? They can suck the life right out of you. Well, here's the first thing that you need to know. Bad workouts, just like bad days at work or the proctologist are normal. They're just part of the game, the warp and woof of what we do. In fact, working out is supposed to be hard. That's kind of the point. Easy things are boring things like shaving our genitals or thumb wrestling, which are perfectly fine things to do, of course, but they're really not going to amount to much. things to do, of course, but they're really not going to amount to much. Pornonuts have never helped anyone summit Maslow's pyramid, have never helped people reach self-actualization. Working

out, on the other hand, building your best body ever isn't manscaping. It's not bagging groceries, even though it might feel like that sometimes. So consider this. The act of transforming your body composition is so much more than merely building muscle or losing fat. It's you sacrificing who you currently are for who you want to be, and then using iron and steel to beat your new form into being. Forging a new you is heat and fire, hammer and anvil, lightning and thunder, not changing your underwear or cutting your nails. It's a mystical, mystifying, and mythological act. So yeah, sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's fucking hard as hell. And sometimes you really do have to leave some blood on the altar as it should be, as it must be. Woe is he who believes that things that don't come naturally and easily simply aren't worth doing or aren't meant to be done at all. And if we look around,

we can see this everywhere. Person tries something new, person flounders, and person immediately brands himself a failure and quits. Back to fondling himself and arguing with strangers on Twitter, he goes, because he simply doesn't get it. He doesn't get that nothing meaningful happens automagically. Everything takes way more time, way more effort, and way more grit than we want to believe at the outset. The fact that it's hard isn't a sign that it's probably not worth it. The struggle is the point. The struggle is how it signals its worth. The fact that it's hard isn't a sign that you don't belong in the arena. The struggle is how you prove you're worthy. Epictetus, the influential Greek philosopher, wrote about this in his Discourses. Here's what he said. What would have become of Hercules, do you think,

if there had been no lion, hydra, stag, or boar, and no savage criminals to rid the world of? What would he have done in the absence of such challenges? Obviously, he would have just rolled over in bed and gone back to sleep. So by snoring his life away in luxury and comfort, he never would have developed into the mighty Hercules. And even if he had, what good would it have done him? What would have been the use of those arms, that physique, and that noble soul without crises or conditions to stir him into action? Now, the message of this simple allegory extends far beyond the tales of Greek mythology. I think it strikes at a fundamental aspect of human nature, which is

we can only be as great as our circumstances demand. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me me and if you are going to post about it on social media definitely tag me so i can say thank you you can find me on instagram at muscle for life fitness twitter at muscle for life and facebook at muscle for life fitness kublai khan who was the grandson of jenghis Khan and one of the last great Mongolian rulers,

he knew this well. He knew that soft lands make soft people. So every year he would make his soldiers split their time between the luxury of their newly acquired Chinese territories and the austerity of the rugged plains of the steppes where they came from. And he even personally kept a plot of grass from his homeland in the garden of his Chinese palace as a reminder of the spirit that built his empire. Rome's eventual rise to prominence started with a rather inauspicious string of humiliating military defeats that simply would have broken a weaker people. The early Romans, though, while they may not have known warfare, few peoples in history have known how to embrace the struggle better than they.

And they used that ability to cultivate a military and diplomatic prowess that ultimately won them millions of acres of territory that stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates, from Britain to Egypt. Every one of us that are playing the transformation game struggles too. It's hard for me, just as it's hard for you and has been hard for everyone that has ever lived. It takes work, unconscionable amounts of unholy and sometimes rather unbearable work. The work that most people simply don't want to do. You know, the hard things, the uncomfortable things, the complicated things, the unexciting things, the exhausting things. All the things that never get easier or even enjoyable necessarily, but must be done regardless.

Building the body of your dreams isn't hard in the same way that other work is hard though. Nobody's gunning for you. You're not wrestling alligators or jacking off horses. And when you look at it that way, it's actually pretty easy, but it is also hard and that's okay. We shouldn't discount what it takes and what it means. It takes resilience. It takes sacrifice. It takes the courage to stop giving so many fucks about things that simply aren't fuck worthy. And it teaches an invaluable lesson that if you have the power to change your body, then you have the power to change your life. So remember all of that when you are having a bad day in the gym,

when you're having one of those harder than hell workouts. Remember too, that sometimes the hardest work moves the needle the most. Sometimes it's on those days that you break through physiologically or even psychologically. You really never know. So just don't let that stop you. Put your head down and charge again into the breach. And remember that no obstacles in your journey are too towering or thorny unless you say they are. There's nothing that can't be overcome with enough perseverance. So when you're having a hard day of training, just train anyway. Do it because it's hard. Don't let that one bad day rob you of all the days that

are going to follow. Days that might be hard too. They might even be harder. Who knows? Who cares? It's supposed to be difficult. You're smithing a new body, a new mindset, a new identity. Why do we think that should be easy? It is what it is. It is what it must be. Hey there, it's Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don't mind doing me a favor, then please do leave a quick review on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This helps other people find their way to the show and learn how to build their best bodies ever as well. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on new episodes. And if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at Mike at muscle

for life. And that's just spelled out muscle, F O R life.com and share your thoughts on how I can make this better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. Oh, and before you leave, let me quickly tell you about one other product of mine that I think you might like. Specifically, my 100% natural whey protein powder, Whey Plus. Now, this is a naturally sweetened and flavored whey isolate protein powder made from exceptionally high quality milk from small dairy farms in Ireland. Whey Plus also contains no GMOs, hormones, antibiotics, artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary junk. And if I may say so myself,

it also tastes delicious and mixes great. And all that is why Whey Plus has over 1,400 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average and another 600 on my website with a five star average. So if you want a clean, all natural and great tasting whey protein supplement that's low in calories, carbs, and fat, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of way plus today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps use the coupon code podcast at checkout, and you will save 10% on your entire order.