Exercising is not always the easiest habit to establish. I mean, hey, half the battle is putting the time into it , right? But, do you ever wonder if you are getting everything you need out of the workout? Are you truly pushing yourself each and every day or do you go to the gym and go through the motions?
Today at the gym I really thought about my chest workout. I stood in the middle of the gym and contemplated whether my last few chest workouts were what they should be. You see, I hate chest day. It’s the worst. I don’t like the exercises, I don’t building those muscles, it makes my boobs look weird, etc. This workout is so easy for me to change, manipulate, and go through the motions. It also happens to be the one workout of the week I burn the least amount of calories. That right there says something about my level of commitment.
Today was not going to be one of those lack-luster workouts. I decided I would do everything on my schedule and I would up the weights until I “really” couldn’t do the weight. It took a lot of self-talk, my favorite pump up tunes, and placing myself smack-dab in the middle of the gym. Who wants to wuss out in front of all the guys? No one! (Typically, I hide in the aerobics room on chest day because I know somewhere deep down that I am not working to full potential.)
I’m proud to say that I did a great chest workout! I burned through a ton of calories in the 1:05 minutes of total workout time, I felt the muscle pump walking through the gym, and I DB pressed more than one really skinny guy working out next to me. 
What is the lesson in this? When you workout don’t waste your time. Have a clear goal for what each workout should be. If you are lifting, you should be LIFTING. If you are doing HIIT training, you should blow it out. If you are doing steady state cardio, you should work for your full hour. Whatever your workout is for the day, make it the best workout it SHOULD be and not what you talk yourself into. Push, push, push. You might just surprise yourself.