5 Tips To Develop A Killer Mindset For Your Gym Workouts

As an avid gym enthusiast and observer of human nature I can’t help but see that most people are not putting in their full effort at the gym. It’s hard to not notice that most people are not training hard and are stuck in a sad world without gains. Thus I have taken it upon myself to provide for your benefit 15 tips on how to sharpen the mental edge and kill it working out.

1. Pump yourself up before going

You’re not going to your 9 to 5 wage slave paper pushing job here buddy. This is the gym! And what you do and don’t do inside this building actually matters. So you better put down that Starbucks frappachino pumpkin spice mocha latte and cranberry scone and come into this house with the right attitude. You slave all day and get an hour or two to work on yourself so you better show up here ready to put in the work. I want you to show up to the gym like a hungry dog ready to eat weights and defeacate results. If that isn’t your attitude there is a croquet club up the road that is looking for another soft turd of effeminacy to join.

The gym is the best part of your day, it’s the part of the day where nobody can give you crap, where you can do things with your body that most men can only dream of. It’s that time of day which empirically disproves feminism, where you can make women be in awe of the power your body possess. It’s that time of day where you put in so much manly work that you literally leave the building feeling high. If that doesn’t get you pumped up then you’ve been shopping in the soy section of the supermarket. You need to show up with that juice for attitude because what you take into the gym you take out of it.

Embrace your inner savage!

2. Go out of your way to be nice to the staff

People who work at the gym have a pretty boring job, they are either there to fold towels and scan cards or to spot people. Be nice to these people and chat them up every now and then. Do this not only because it is a good thing to do but also because the gym is your home and you want to be walking into a place everyday where people are happy to see and talk to you. Trust me it will make your whole gym experience better and also its a good way to meet girls as a lot of the trainers and front desk staff can be quite attractive.

You want the hot girl at the front desk to be happy to see you right?

3. Have fun

If you are like most corporate wage slaves, your day is already boring enough, so why make your workout boring as well? Be spontaneous, do things that challenge you, and always throw in something that is different.

Get a good pair of headphones and put on your music. Sometimes in between sets if my music hits it, I’ll bust out a dance move. Who cares? People sign up and pay money at the gym to go to lame dance classes with crappy music and boring routines. I’m having fun lifting weights and getting good at dancing at the same time.

Even better, most people who go to a club need to get drunk and still can’t muster up the courage to go out and dance. Why should anyone care what those people think? The point isn’t dancing though, the point is the gym is your time so make your time enjoyable and you will like being at the gym and your results will go up.

4. Think: Always be Gaining

Heavy squats: another way to have fun!

Don’t be afraid of small increments. Too many people feel they need to advance in weight way to quickly. This can lead to a lot of plateaus. It’s important to realize that weight training is a long term process.

It’s easy to feel that you can always have the same rate of growth as when you first started lifting. However, as your body gets used to weights you will experience diminishing returns. So if you get caught up in thinking that you need to be jumping up in weight by throwing on an extra set of 10’s to your bench every other week, your going to quickly hit a wall.

Go for small increments of weight instead even if it means putting on 2.5 or even 1 pound weights onto your bench. It’s still more weight than you were lifting before and in a years time it will add up to really significant gains. For instance, adding 2.5 lbs plates every other week means over 100 lbs of gain on your bench in a year. Most people would kill for that!

Be happy it’s still half a pound more than you lifted last time

5. Feel and chase the pump

Your muscles should feel like blood balloons at the end of a good workout. This is called “the pump”. It doesn’t matter what you’re working—you need to feel this way at the end of your workout.

What it means is that you’ve worked your muscles hard enough to generate lactic acid. Essentially you’ve challenged your body and pushed it to a level where it knows it will have to come back stronger in order to deal with the stress again. This is how you get gains.

If you don’t feel the pump, or have never felt it, then you need to change your routine up. A pretty good way to get a pump is to drop the weight and do timed sets. Take an Olympic bar and do bicep curls for one minute straight. It doesn’t matter how many reps you get, for one minute do nothing except curl that bar. You will feel the pump in your arms.

Conclusion

Your attitude directly influences the quality of your training perhaps more than any other factor. You wouldn’t show up to a job interview with a pushover attitude would you? Would you ask that hot girl in yoga pants one size too tight out with half asked wimpy game? So bring your A-game to the gym because jobs and women come and go, but your body stays with you your whole life.

Read More: 5 Ways To Develop Discipline Instead Of Just “Getting Motivated”

21 thoughts on “5 Tips To Develop A Killer Mindset For Your Gym Workouts”

  1. This is the correct attitude. Understand you will not always be gaining. You have a genetic potential. Only some can carry a lot of muscle, if you overgain size, your thighs will chafe, also arms to your chest. Part of the year work on form and get the full range of motion. If you have to “pump yourself up” to get to the gym, you will fail. It should be a natural healthy part of the day to look forward to. That will carry you through to train for years. Some days, some months you will gain. Be prepared to back off at other times. Train regularly, safely, and a strong physique will emerge. Notice the effect on the muscle, not what the weight size is.

    1. Total CRAP.
      1 – Put down the cappuccino, but overdose on DMAA as a Pre-Workout?
      2 – Who gives a FUCK what the towel girl thinks?
      3 – I pull a dangerous 550lb deadlift and some asswipe with headphones is dancing around me in his “happy time”?
      4 – Picture 4 makes ME want to report for knee surgery! Insane. Gains have to slow down at some point and are not really the point. Gains do NOT equal fitness.
      5 – Seen post-heart-attack Arnold lately? Post-Shriver? Post-Governor? He would be better off if he stayed home and watched TV.
      — Roosh gets another $10 coin back!

  2. Excellent article. The mindset is necessary. I love getting a quick workout in before going to the gym. Endorphins are going and it is always important to be nice and respectful to the staff. They deal with a lot of shithheads daily. Don’t be another one.

  3. I firmly believe having a home gym is the best way to get set on a workout routine. It’s much more convenient as it is too hard to make time for myself if I have to travel to a gym.

    1. I’d say, move closer to a gym. I do not miss using a wrench to add two 10-lb. plates to a DB …

      1. The costs of moving closer to a gym is a lot greater than putting in your home gym and having a good free weight set that doesn’t require using wrenches.

  4. Tip #6: Stop using juicers/fake natties (ie 99.9% of the bodybuilding/fitness world) as a benchmark unless you’re a juicer yourself.
    If you’re going to the gym for lean gains and you have more than two years of regular training behind you, you will make next to no lean gains. Natural bodybuilding is a waste of time. Don’t do it.
    And Roosh, if you’re reading this, start juicing. You’re in Poland. Juice is abundant and cheap in Poland. You’re almost 40 and still at NW0 by the looks of it, so you won’t go bald. You’re a 6’2 ectomorph with a pencil neck but good natural shoulder width. With steroids (something as simple as 300mg test cyp 1x week + turinabol 30-40mg/day) and regular weight training , you’ll put on 30 pounds of lean muscle in the first year. That’s exactly what happened to me. And you don’t have to come off (except for the the t-bol, short breaks are recommended). Treat it as TRT. I’ve been on the above dose non-stop for the last six years of my life. No health problems. Just insane pump at the gym, lean muscle & strength gains.
    Then get a viking haircut and grow a viking beard (not an unkempt imam/Moses beard like previously).
    e.g. https://www.instagram.com/pavel_ladziak/?hl=pl
    https://www.instagram.com/stiking1/
    You’d look badass and it would work wonders for your social media presence (and quality of life in general). Stian Bjornes (second link above) is 38, so your age.

    1. PS
      And take a look at the before/after pics of the Polish IG guy I posted. Just google “Polish viking before after”.
      He went from poor, subhuman cannon fodder genetic trash–invisible to any fuckable woman–to a “ballin” Greek god thanks to changing his style & juicing.

    2. Haha!
      Did I read this right?
      quote
      “Dear Roosh..use some steroids”
      unquote
      —And to think a few articles ago people criticized me because I said the R-Man needs a makeover!
      Hahaha! ;-D

    3. “ juicers/fake natties (ie 99.9% of the bodybuilding/fitness world) “
      So true. It amazes me how naive people are to think they can achieve these large lean mass shredded bodies all year round like their internet heroes with just hard work diet and the snake oil supplements/plans they’re trying to sell.
      Celebrities talking about their 30 pound lean muscle gains In Three months for a movie and the dumby public think they did it naturally.

  5. Difference between bodybuilding and weightlifting. I’ve been lifting weights since my father gave me my first 110-lb. barbell/dumbbell set from Joe Weider’s store in Jersey City when I was eight. That was the late 1960s.
    Anyway, at my age, it takes around 15 minutes to warm up; and even then, sometimes not fully. Today I did five 5-rep sets of military presses with 135; added 20 lb. for a few more sets; etc.; until I had 205 lb. total, with which I did five 1-rep sets, then three 2-rep sets. I took off 10 lb. and did some more, etc.
    Felt as if I was getting stronger as the workout went on; a fantastic feeling I don’t get every time I go to the gym. The point of this story (if you’re still awake): you don’t get a “pump” from doing 1-rep workouts with heavy weight; but you’ll get strong. God bless those who would rather lift light weights for 10+ reps. I just don’t see it.
    And I also hate when guys wear baseball caps in the weight room. Or talk. Or wear black socks (either white socks or no socks). Or talk. Or stare into their phones between sets. Or talk.

      1. nevermind, you are questioning a personal neurosis…sock color means nothing but to him.
        if you are in a gym for any reason other than for yourself and your own satisfaction, you are there for the wrong reasons. i go for me, for my own reflection i am ok with in the mirror that i can see and go “im ok with me”. i go io maintain my health and my strengths for me.
        if you are there for any other reason based in anothers desires or opinions or validation, you are wasting your lives trying to live for judgements outside of the single one that matters, your own.

  6. i think the most important tip was not mentioned: KEEP GOING *regardless* of if any of the other 5 reasons are in your favor. it’s easy to do something when inspiration hits you. but inspiration is transient. motivation is temporary. the discipline of doing something even when you don’t feel like doing it, is what builds real separation between you and the next guy.

  7. This hit the point right on!! It’s YOUR time, the one thing in life we have control over is our body. That “high” and “pump” is worth living this dull politically correct life. He is spot on about being good to the staff, and most importantly the small incremental weight increase “progressive overload”. Bodybuilding takes time and patience but is worth it, love the article keep them coming !!!

  8. RE: 4. Think: Always be Gaining: Let’s all be rational with this. Gains ALWAYS are biggest in first 6 months – 1 year.. Then it’s a grind. The final 3-5% of your peak physique is literally like 30-40% of the entire work of your life in weight lifting. In fact, your kitchen game is more important than your lifting quite often, most people never realize this which is why they get stuck so long at plateaus. When I really lifted hard in my late 30s and was strongest and biggest, the amount and quality of meals I cooked easily involved 20-25 hours a week in prep and dish cleaning… maybe more. It’s easy to “want” the workout, the community, etc.. but you’d better “want” all the requirements when your NOT in the gym, because that’s what counts the most.

  9. RE: 1. Pump yourself up before going : For the longest time I’d listen to no music, just put in discrete ear plugs to fade the crappy gym music, and self-focus on that voice in my head that said Go. I’d listen to metal, or other music on the drive in. Finally, I just copied all my metal over to my phone, got some blu-tooth wireless earbuds, and the change in my lifts when listening to the music, within a month, were incredible. Finding that perfect volume, where your ears aren’t trashed during the concentric part of lift (yes your hearing protection is reduced notably during strain), and just quiet enough to hear someone speaking loudly is the key for your playlist.

  10. It’s easy to lay on the couch after that soul-sucking job of yours.
    I think I am hitting the gym tonight…

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