Constraints, Creativity, and Motivation

One of the best ways I get creative with my workouts is to simplify my choices.

There are a lot of things to choose from, and I have them all easily accessible to me at my house and the gym.

When I don’t have a clear goal I’m striving for, I come up with constraints to get my training going.

Right now I’m only using kettlebells. It’s been about two weeks.

The classic kettlebell moves are the snatch, the clean, the swing, the press and the get up. There are no other movements I’m doing. Each day, I focus on one or two, and do the others as accessory movements or warm ups.

It’s really simplified my training routine and I’m coming up with unique workouts due to the lack of choices I have.

It’s also creating more opportunities for me to tune into my body and really focus on how it’s moving. I can compare how certain movements feel day to day, and even compare how the weights feel throughout the week.

When getting to the gym becomes more difficult, many people blame it on lack of variety in the gym, claiming a workout with more variety would be more motivating. Perhaps it’s the other way around though, maybe you don’t need more choices and variety in your routine, but less.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain