Saturday, October 27, 2007

Motivation and planning: the keys to muscle gain success

Motivation and planning: the keys to muscle gain success
When you first decide to begin a weight gaining program,
the first things that you think about are probably the
workout routines, the supplements, and your nutrition plan.
However, before you get too involved in the details of
gaining weight and building lean muscle mass, you should
take some time to identify your motivation and set some
goals for yourself. Obviously, you're going to need a lot
of knowledge to succeed in this new endeavor, and that
knowledge will focus around what to eat, what supplements
to take, and what kind of workout program you should
follow. Despite the need for such knowledge, you may be
setting yourself up for failure if you don't stop and think
about what it is you're trying to achieve. That's because
lack of knowledge is only one cause of failure in weight
gain and in every kind of new endeavor. A major cause of
failure is the lack of planning and unclear motivation.

Before you race off to the gym or fill your pantry with
high calorie foods and protein drinks, you need to ask
yourself what exactly it is you are trying to accomplish.
Do you know exactly how many pounds you would like to gain?
Perhaps you should ask your doctor how much weight you can
gain and how quickly you can do so without harming your
health. Based on this advice, you can then set a timetable
for achieving your goal. If you break your goal into small
chunks it will seem less daunting and more easily
attainable.

Knowing what you want to accomplish before you start your
weight gain program is very important for your success.
You can visualize what you will look like at the end of
your program and how long it'll take to get there. The
other pillar of success, however, is proper motivation.
When things get tough on your journey, as they inevitably
will, you will probably begin to doubt your goals. Even if
you set your goal properly, you'll wonder if you really are
capable of achieving your objectives or if you even want to
achieve them.

When this happens, you must return to the original reason
that you wanted to gain muscle. Did you want to look more
attractive? Do you want to be more physically fit so you
could participate in sports? This is where you have to
decide for yourself what exactly your motivation is. By
the way, intrinsic motivation is far superior to extrinsic
motivation. What does this mean? It just means that you
need to have your own reasons for wanting to achieve
something along with a deep desire to overcome obstacles.
You are far more likely to succeed in achieving your goal
if it is truly your goal and not just the result of peer
pressure or some other outside motivation. If you keep
these things in mind, you are well on your way to muscle
gain success.


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Jon Cardozo, from Jcardozium research, writes on how to
build muscle naturally, nutrition, and general fitness.
Visit his website for more information on how to gain
muscle at http://maximum-muscle-gain.com

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