Beating Burnout In Your Training

Burnout is real, it happens to everyone, and when it comes to training and working out, it doesn’t get talked about enough.  We all start these workout programs, or pick a race, or event and train for it. We know that it’s “good for us”, and that it’s important for our overall health and wellbeing.  And most of the time we really enjoy it, but we all hit that rut, or rough patch, where we simply lose motivation and can’t quite figure out why. Somewhere along the line the process becomes tedious, or loses its excitement, and then we fall victim to ourselves.  We simply find any excuse to avoid it, maybe it’s work, or family, or man that weather has been awful, or one that I find myself using a lot, “I’d benefit more from extra sleep today”. (Which often turns into tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.) Today I’d like to offer up some strategies for overcoming that burnout feeling, because like it or not, it is human nature, and will happen to all of us at one time or another.

1. The first piece of advice I give on this is simple, Examine Your “Why”. Why are you doing this?  Is it for competition? Is it for general health and wellness? Is it to keep up with friends, or colleges at work?  This is always a good place to start because if the, “why”, doesn’t make sense maybe it’s time to pick a new activity.  If you are doing something because everyone else is, or got talked into it by some friends, maybe you need to find something that you really enjoy.  On the other hand if you are just going to the gym or for a run or walk and have been doing that for awhile, maybe it’s time to add some element of competition.  This doesn’t have to be a race, it can simply be a step competition with friends, or family. It’s amazing how motivating winning is!
2. This brings me right to point #2, Involve Your Friends.  Let’s face it training is no different than anything else in life, it’s generally better with company, so whatever you are doing, maybe try and join a group, or get some friends to train with you.  This does many things, it gets you a group of like minded people to hold you accountable, it also helps break things up a little bit. I know personally whenever I’m feeling like I don’t want to get out the door and run, if I know I’m meeting people I obviously go anyway, have a blast and never look back.  
3. The Third thing to try is to, Try Something New.  Nothing can motivate you again like trying to master a new skill.  Human nature is to want to be good at what you are doing, and so when you start something new you are way less likely to suffer from burnout because you are motivated to master that skill whatever it is.  This is where you can start to combine ideas and try something new with friends!
4. Last, if trying new things is good, sometimes, Returning To Something Old, can work well too.  A lot of times we pick up new sports, training goals and activities with time, and often when we feel tired, unmotivated and burnout, nothing is better than getting back to your roots.  For me, the first sport I really enjoyed was swimming (mostly because I was really bad at most others), and when all else fails, nothing gets me back in the training groove like some good laps in a pool.   

I would love to hear how you fight the dreaded training burnout, leave your suggestions in the comments, and happy training!!