How to keep motivation at the highest level during training?

The mind and motivation are two things to work on when you want to progress quickly and efficiently. Michel Gillot, coach and physical trainer at INSEP, gives us his advice in this article.

Table of contents:

1. Identify your motivations
2. Establish a plan
3. Stick to goals
4. Be kind to yourself

Identify your motivations

First, it is important to ask the right questions: Why did I come to practice sport? Why do I want to practice sport? You have two options:

• The motivation 💪 comes from yourself: it is an intrinsic motivation. It is most of the time held and motivated by a health problem. It's a very strong motivation because you know that if you miss training, you can have big disappointments.
• The motivation is external: it can be very strong but much more fragile if the external element disappears. For example, playing sports to please those close to you.

Establish a plan

When you practice a sporting activity, it is very important to know where you are going. The creation of a plan will therefore be an important step since this plan will be the element to which you will be able to hang on to validate and verify that you are following the right path.

Stick to goals

Once this plan has been established, what is very important is to set milestones. Validate small progressions that will help maintain constant motivation. For example, if you have pounds to lose, note the progression over time (note a -2 then a -4 kilos). Scoring a -2 the first or second week will make you want to continue and move forward. The advantage of these step points also allow you to resume or reorient your training plan in the event that it is not suitable and the intermediate objectives are not achieved. This can save you a lot of wasted time by going the wrong way and subsequently suffering a lack of motivation to return to the initial point.

Be kind to yourself

During training, you should not be too demanding. On the contrary, being kind to yourself is essential. You have to accept being a little less fit on certain days. The most important thing is to cling to the plan and to be in a certain continuity and constancy. If the session goes a little less well, we avoid falling into the trap of disgust and abandonment. We must not forget that even a speed champion does not run the 100m in 10 seconds all year round.

Little more

If you work with a coach it is important that the objectives are clear and validated by both clans. Very often we can see coaches taking ownership of the student's objective and wanting to take him to the path that he himself chooses. So the important thing is not to forget that it is a request from the athlete and that from then on, it is up to you to guide the coach by agreeing on the objectives to be achieved.