There are some absolute truths about physical fitness. If you challenge the strength of a muscle, tax its ability to produce force, it will respond by improving that ability. If you challenge the capacity of your heart and lungs to deliver oxygen to tissues, those systems will adapt by improving that capacity. If you learn how to execute biomechanically sound movements properly and incorporate them into your training, you can use them at high intensity with a relatively high degree of safety, and thus push the limits of your body's physical capabilities, most of which will then improve as a result.
The same is true of nutrition. While new knowledge is constantly uncovered, there are some long-standing and scientifically backed principles about what best feeds the human body. We need protein, we need essential fats, we need vitamins and minerals. We need minimal sugars (our bodies can actually make what we need, we don't require any dietary sugars). Whether you eat Paleo, or follow the Zone diet, or the South Beach diet, or just follow Mom's advice and eat your vegetables, if you're eating real, whole food which includes good protein, plenty of stuff that grows, and not too much sugar you're probably pretty OK.
The nice thing about physical activity and nutrition as it applies to training is that, as a coach, they're relatively easy to share. If you know the squat is a fantastic training movement, and you know how to properly execute a squat, you can show someone a squat, talk them through squatting, watch them, help them correct their form until it is consistently excellent, and then they can go and do it (preferably with intensity). Once they're out of your care, they may never do it again, but that's up to them. You've done your job; they can squat.
The same is true for nutrition. People can be taught about the importance of omega-3 fatty acids, and about the dangers of hyperinsulinemia. They can be provided access to studies and anecdotal information to support the dietary guidelines provided. As their coach, I'm not in a position to actually control their diets, but I can offer them the information.
But, there is a third component to fitness, certainly important and if you are or have hopes to be a competitor in some sport, vital. I'm speaking, of course, about the mental/emotional aspects; about motivation, persistence, and drive. I touched on it a bit in this blog post about resolve, but while being resolved to do the work even when it sucks will take you to a very high level of fitness, there's more to it than that. What I want to talk about here, specifically, is what keeps you going in the middle of a tough workout (and they're all tough, or they should be), and what makes you push your hardest.
As a coach, the mental aspect of training is a little harder to instruct about than movement or nutrition. There's only so much I can do to motivate someone... most of that has to come from within. If you've ever been a competitive athlete and enjoyed it (or, indeed, been competitive in any activity), you probably already know what will most strongly drive you to push your hardest... maybe it's besting your previous performance, or maybe it's beating the guy or girl who beat you last time. If you've never been a contender, as it were, it might be harder to get into "the zone" and keep pushing your hardest when you're exhausted, your muscles are on fire, you're dripping with sweat, and there're still 3 rounds to go.
I do my best to motivate my athletes... for some, it's encouragement. For others, it's calling them out for resting. For others still, yelling at them about how much harder someone else is working does the trick.
I wasn't an athlete in my younger years, and the only activity in which I was competitive was playing chess. And, while it was extremely fun, success in that for me came with a passionless and calm analysis of the board and movement permutations. I've found this detached approach to be not at all helpful in my pursuit of fitness. When I took an interest in fitness, I would do the workout, but when it started to suck, my intensity dropped way off. My "try" dialed way down. I thought this was just normal, and just kept training.
Then, one day, when I was training at a small (and now vanished) MMA gym (doing endless round knee drills, as I recall), the coach thought we were flagging and said something along the lines of, "come on, you fairies!"
Now, that was and is really offensive. It's homophobic, ignorant, and the kind of comment I'm usually prepared to address at length when made in my presence. Specifically to that situation, though, the fact that it presumed that being gay makes a person less capable (my coach had no idea I actually was gay) made me furious, and seriously pushed a button inside... how dare he judge me! How dare he think I can't work as hard, or doubt my capability! And I worked my ass off, like I never had at any physical endeavor before.
Now, I'm not recommending that you have people shout bigoted remarks at you (I tried it, actually... asked my training partners to call me names, but knowing they didn't actually have contemptuous and bigoted opinions about me meant their comments just made me laugh, they didn't push my buttons). But, it turns out that for me someone thinking I'm less, thinking I can't get it done, most strongly pushes my button. So, I'm constantly trying to find new ways to push it, and to find new buttons. The point here is, I was years and years into my pursuit of fitness before I even realized I had such a button. So, it's possible you're missing out on whatever it is that'll make you work your hardest.
So, if you haven't found it, experiment. The workouts which really go amazingly well, try to remember what fueled you. Was the it athlete next to you whom you were trying to keep up with? Was it watching the clock tick up to your previous time? Were you thinking about the useless and frustrating meeting your asinine boss made you sit through for three hours that day?
Try listening to different kinds of music before or during training, watching videos on youtube of folks doing the workout you're going to do, or thinking about how incredibly infuriating those voice response customer service robo-call centers are... whatever it takes. If you don't know what your buttons are, find them, and find a way to push them. Because I promise that everyone has a button, because we're all as much emotional creatures as we are rational ones, and there will always be for everyone a way to get into that state of mind which will have you ignoring that urge to put the bar down when the workout starts to really suck.
Here are some links to stuff which might help you find your way into the zone...
Lisbeth Darsh's wise words on Using the Dark Side and Seizing the Moment.
A post on unlearning limitations from Marsha at Strong Is the New Skinny.
A video that many of my friends have found to be inspiring.
A mess of quotations about effort.
The music of Linkin Park and Disturbed, the two bands whose music I find best for working out.
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