When going to the gym, you obviously want to achieve some good results, whether if we’re talking about weight loss or muscle gain. Apart from a well-thought workout, focus is on the first place in terms of helping you reach your fitness goals.
However, sometimes it happens to get distracted exactly while we’re performing some perfect, deep squats. It can be a workout colleague who gets a little bit too talkative, or some noise that steals your attention; even other person’s inappropriate equipment can make us forget about the number of reps we were counting in our mind. Well, these little things can seriously affect our focus and delay the desired results.
In order to avoid these situations, we have to be aware of the factors that might affect our fitness routine and figure out some solutions that can help us ignore them.
1. Bad music
How many times did you lose several minutes before doing some cardio exercises, for example? And that happened only because you weren’t able to find a single song in your playlist that could motivate you start moving and keep up with the rhythm.
Solution: update your playlist
Prepare some music before going to the gym. Plan ahead and take a few minutes a day to update your playlist. Delete the old songs and look for some new, exciting tracks. This way, before an intense exercise, you'll easily find the song you want to listen to.
2. Suspicious smells
Imagine that you're running on the treadmill, focusing on what you’re doing and, suddenly, you notice a fishy smell. You can’t pay attention to anything else but the disturbing odour.
Solution: change the place
We know it doesn’t seem very fair, but that's the best solution. If you want to continue your workout without distractions, then move elsewhere; find an odour-free corner of the gym. If you can’t find another available treadmill, choose a bicycle or a stepper instead.
3. Too many wires
Remember that we talked about music at the very beginning? What about the following scenario: you are about to perform some bicep curls and, even if you're highly motivated to finish the set, your headphones slip off your ears. You probably stop, plug them back in and start over again, right? But after a few minutes it happens again. Well, at this point, we both know that your training session is kind of compromised.
Solution: keep up with technology
Purchase a pair of wireless headphones. Even if they seem to be rather expensive, think about it like this: you don’t want to pay that gym subscription and keep stopping in the middle of each exercise, right?
4. The never-ending talks
You know how it usually happens. You meet a friend and get from a brief greeting to a detailed discussion about the best restaurants in town and the latest professional achievements you’ve had.
Solution: stop the discussion politely
You’re at the gym to train, not to sit and chat, so find a polite way of ending the conversation. You can simply say that you can’t talk anymore because you have to get back to your pending workout. Maybe this will motivate the other person, too.
These are only a few common things that can get you distracted at the gym. If you lose your focus during your training session, you’re risking not only not getting the desired results, but also hurting yourself.
