Hitch Fit Living Magazine Volume 3 - November/December 2015 | Page 19

How do you give it your all consistently everyday towards building the physique you want and not
experience mental burnout? Mental burnout is a state of emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by
excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed and unable to meet constant
demands or when you feel like you are lacking progression. Burnout is a psychological condition, a
mental state. Although it can feel like physical exhaustion, burnout does not exist in the physical state!
You can control your mental state it’s all just a matter of prospective and mental outlook.
Be honest with yourself. In all of your time spent in the gym, I’m willing to bet that you didn’t
go to your limit and beyond in every single workout. In your nutrition, you probably weren’t one
hundred percent on point. You didn’t leave it all there with nothing left to give. So it should come as
no surprise that you aren’t seeing consistent progress. When you loose the intensity in the gym you
start to slow down and the progress comes to a stop. Next thing you know you start slipping on the
nutritional side of things and with that, your entire mental focus is then shifted and the fire inside of
you starts to die out. Experiencing mental burnout can have a negative impact in all aspects of your
life not just your fitness goals.
Now this is my way of thinking. Some might see it as being too hard on myself but I see it as a
driving force keeping me in motion! When I wake up every morning and look at myself in the mirror,
I see failure. Everyday I think to myself “man you're not there yet, and you’re running out of time, you
have to make today count.” My fear of never achieving my goals before my time is up keeps my fire
alive and my passion driving onwards. It keeps my intensity levels up in the gym and committed to
quality nutrition, which allows me to consistently progress! If every single day you give 1-2 hours
towards building the body you want, those hours quickly add up towards a large amount of time spent
in pursuit of your huge dream and it becomes closer and closer everyday. When you finally are able to
make noteworthy progress towards what you’re trying to achieve you throw some gasoline in the
mental fire growing the flames hotter and hotter as you progress in life. Yes! It is hard work, everyday
you go to the gym and give it everything you have, you come out drained physically but mentally
you’re sharper than ever and full of pride and confidence. Your body will recover and rebuild to be
better than it was before as you fuel the mental fire it continues to burn brighter and brighter with
each passing day.