Matters of Motivation

Tom "Falcon" Johnson

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Self-training wanna-be from Guam...lol

Matters of Motivation

« on: October 12, 2008, 07:03:45 AM »

I hit my first real stumbling block the other day, and found myself a little disheartened about my training. Ironically, I started losing heart during my training sessions because I wanted to do more training...lol.

The problem started with olympic lifts, squats, cleans, and various other lifting exercises involving the bar. Seems like everywhere I go for information, all I keep reading is that plyometric exercises and anything involving trying to increase leg strength via bodyweight alone isn't going to get me very far without a fair amount of work with the bar beforehand.

This sent me into this annoying thought spiral where I kinda started wondering if all the leg training I'd been doing up to this point has been all for naught. I'm having trouble locating a gym on Guam that has a nice solid weight rack, and doesn't mind people using it. (I've actually found a gym that has a weight rack and explicitly asks patrons not to use it, weird as that sounds.) So this led to more thoughts, and I started getting into this neurotic, "So what's the point, Tom?" conversation with myself. It hasn't stopped me yet, but it's definitely thrown a mindfuck of a monkey wrench into my daily routine, and I'm starting to find myself giving up earlier on my attempts to scale this wall I've been trying to get for the past week, because I think I'm subconsciously convinced I can't get myself to jump any higher.

Does anyone else have weird moments like that where they just start doubting themselves, and let their training lapse because of it? I'd really love to know what you guys do to keep yourselves motivated, especially in situations like this. Thanks.


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Shae "shae" Perkins

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Re: Matters of Motivation

« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2008, 08:23:57 AM »

I always like to mix it up and find something new to do. Go out of your norm. Do something you have never really done before.


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Conway {Refuze}

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Re: Matters of Motivation

« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2008, 09:00:53 AM »

Screw everything. Just do what you want. Don't down yourself subconcsi-whatever-ly.
If you want to scale the wall, scale it. Forget all rules, remember, parkour is all about forgetting
what society says.

That's my philosophical answer.

If you want to do something, train however you want, and just do it.


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Re: Matters of Motivation

« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2008, 09:54:53 PM »

Losing motivation is hard to deal with. I've had it happen many times and it sucks, pure and simple.

I've lost motivation because of my job and being so tired I couldn barely walk after work. I've hit long stretches where I start to ask myself "What's the point?" because I've been doing the same thing over and over and over again.

The only real solution is to simply bust through it. Just like jumping in a cold lake, the easiest - and most exhilirating - way is to jump straight in. So you feel frustrated about not having a weight rack to use? USE ANYTHING HEAVY! Rocks, logs, cement slabs, refrigerators! Anything will do really, long as you get a good hold. Feel the problem is more mental? WATCH VIDEOS! READ! Read or watch or listen about stories of people overcoming great odds or doing what they or others saw as impossible. (For instance, whenever I feel lazt about lifting, I remember a story I read after Afghani bodybuilders. They have to get up at 4 or 5 am to travel an hour to a gym with no air conditioning, poor lighting, and only the bare essential equipment. And the Afghani sprinter for the 2008 olympics never trained in spike track shoes because the stadium had a CEMENT track that the spikes couldn't pierce.)

So just get out there and f*cking do it. Because it can be done, some way or another. And YOU can do it.


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Bret [Soundcrafter]

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Re: Matters of Motivation

« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2008, 12:54:44 PM »

Quote from: Conway|NoRush on October 12, 2008, 09:00:53 AM

Agreed. My training is likely ineffective to some degree, and I think all information needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

F*cking do it, agreed.


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Tom "Falcon" Johnson

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Self-training wanna-be from Guam...lol

Re: Matters of Motivation

« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2008, 06:41:52 AM »

Points taken all around...lol. Thanks for the motivational words, fellas. So I had me an idea, since I train at this area which is basically an assortment of random assorted soccer fields that no-one ever really uses. Since there's over a dozen soccer goalposts of various shapes and sizes, I thought, "Why not use this to my advantage?" So I've finally found my pull-up bars, and low rails to balance on, not to mention a great place to do hanging traverses and modified underbars. I can basically run a circuit of the whole field, going from goalpost to goalpost. I jump to the first bar perpendicular to me, attempt a pull-up(or at least let myself down from my jump slow enough to strengthen the muscles) and traverse across the longer bit of it, then do another pull-up at the end of it. It's murder, but I love it...lol. Startin' to get some good blisters goin'. Hopefully, I'll soon have some decent calluses to serve as scars from my never-ending battle against gravity.

A great bonus about this field, though: there's a couple of medium-sized goalposts that nobody seems to be using, so I started taking that "use anything you can" advice into account, and my mind made a weird connection between the Olympic bar and the goalpost...so now I'm trying to figure out different ways to lift these goalposts... Tongue

. Also, there's tires. BIG tires. Very flippable big tires, if you catch my drift...lol. Granted, the field itself is a little muddy, but it's a goldmine of possibilities. Now if only I can figure out a place to practice wall-ups and vaults...*pondering*.........

Thanks again, y'all. You're tops.


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"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return."

-Leonardo Da Vinci

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American Parkour > Parkour and Freerunning > General Discussion > Topic: Matters of Motivation

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