How to Build Mental Strength with Home Fitness Gym

After battling mental health for so long, my mental resilience was almost zero. I struggled with getting through hard times. Dealing with life challenges and daily stressors and pressures made me an emotional wreck even after overcoming the mental challenges.

But, I’m proud of where I am right now. I have since learnt to cope and deal with challenges so well that even I am surprised. However, I would be lying if I said that it has been easy. It is quite a journey. Surprisingly, setting up a home fitness gym two years ago has played a significant role. If you are going through the challenges I had, here is how my home gym helped me build mental resilience.

Enhancing mental fitness

I haven’t always been a fitness fanatic. I actually started physical workouts after my doctor recommended that I lose a bit of weight. When gyms closed following the pandemic, I started doing workouts at home. I started with basic hoist gym equipment such as skipping ropes, resistance bands, kettlebells, dumbbells and the like. I now have an ab wheel, pullup bar and an adjustable weight bench.

What I love about physical exercises is that it gives me an avenue to get rid of pent up emotions. I always feel happier and in better moods after every session. I have also realized that physical exercises are good for the brain as well. Exercises calm the mind, which makes it possible to solve problems in a relaxed manner and improves the ability to reason. This has helped me be in control of my emotions a great deal. Additionally, doing strength exercises have helped me in building endurance on top of keeping me in the best shape.

Makes it easy to hit the gym

One trick of building mental strength is to challenge yourself to do something that you don’t want to do for 10 minutes. You can quit if you still feel like you don’t want to continue after the 10 minutes lapses. Interestingly, once you start, you are most likely to continue after ten minutes. It is true that starting is always the hardest part.

I use this trick whenever I feel like skipping my daily workout session. The good thing is that my home gym is just a few seconds away. All I need to do is get into my working out gear and start exercising. If I had to commute, that would be an added burden, and a reason to quit. I have seen this trickle down to other aspects of my life. I believe that I can tackle anything even when I don’t feel motivated, which has helped me overcome many challenges.

Setting achievable goals

When I started working out, I knew that I wanted to lose weight. However, the problem was that I wanted to lose weight fast. I set goals that were too high to reach, which left me disappointed. I had to slow down and make goals that I could achieve easily. Instead of aiming to lose 50 pounds, I started with 10 pounds at a time until I got to my ideal weight. Again, my home gym kept me motivated to workout at my own pace. Unlike in a public gym, there are no judgmental eyes and so, no added pressure to be perfect.

However, my biggest takeaway from this is that achieving each mini goal gave me the motivation I needed to move on to the next goal. This gave me confidence in my abilities and the mental resilience to achieve the goals I set my eyes on.

Working out in silence

Physical exercises are great for building tolerance for being uncomfortable. If you can finish your workout session even when you feel tired and in pain, it helps in building your tolerance when in uncomfortable situations. However, I learnt from a fitness coach that this is only possible if you can allow yourself to be present with the discomfort. This means giving the workouts undivided attention and focusing on your breath, steps and the like.

Public gyms can be noisy and distracting, which makes it impossible to concentrate on the workouts. On the other hand, my home gym gives me all the silence I need to focus on my workout session.

Conclusion

Building mental strength is crucial if you are to get through the inevitable hard situations in life. However, the journey to achieving mental toughness isn’t that easy. In my case, starting a home gym has helped me a lot in the journey. Just being able to do several exercises in silence, without having to commute and see myself achieve my weight goals worked out for me.