Do you want to take your workout to the next level? The following workout motivation quotes will inspire you to push yourself to exercise even harder. And if you enjoy reading quotes that challenge you, have a look at our fitness motivation quotes, too.
Picking up your sportswear to go for the fourth workout of the week or that additional spin session in the gym often takes a lot of additional motivation. But when you boil it down, your progress in the area of fitness depends to a large degree on your personal motivation. Or rather, your ability to motivate yourself and to maintain your motivation on a high level for an extended period of time.
“There’s no secret formula. I lift heavy, work hard, and aim to be the best.”
Ronnie Coleman
Not only will your inner fire encourage you to start exercising, but it will also fuel your ambition to challenge yourself to exercise even harder during the workout. The difficult part lies in igniting this fire within you so that it inspires you to push yourself to the next level.
These workout motivation quotes help you to push yourself to the next level
Without this burning desire, all kinds of excuses may start to arise when it gets time to start working out.
112 Workout Motivation Quotes to Push Yourself
If you’re looking for a source of great inspiration that helps you to reach the next level, keep on reading. The following quotes stem from authors who learned effective ways to maintain their workout motivation on an exceptionally high level. Reading their thoughts will inspire you to follow in their footsteps and to challenge your own limitations.
Here’s our collection of workout motivation quotes
1.
“Train insane or remain the same.”
Jillian Michaels
2.
“I hate every minute of training. But, I said, don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
Mohammad Ali
3.
“Of course it’s hard. It’s supposed to be hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. Hard is what makes it great.”
Gerben Drost
4.
“Each workout is like a brick in a building, and every time you go in there and do a half-baked workout, you’re not laying a brick down. Somebody else is.”
Dorian Yates
5.
“There are no shortcuts. The fact that a shortcut is important to you means that you are a sissy.”
Mark Rippetoe
6.
“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
7.
“The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat.”
Navy SEALs
8.
“You can have results or excuses, but not both.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
9.
“If you think lifting weights is dangerous, try being weak. Being weak is dangerous.”
Bret Contreras
10.
“You’ve got to block out all distractions when you train. Your focus has to be 100% into the rep. You’ve got to get into a zone. You know you’re in the zone when guys in the gym look you in the eye and then quickly turn away ’cause they see the fire. You’ve got to be all business.”
Mike Matarazzo
11.
“Push yourself because no one else is going to do it for you.”
Shally Lishpa
12.
“If your family was captured and you were told you needed to put 100 pounds onto your max squat within two months or your family would be executed, would you squat once per week? Something tells me that you’d start squatting every day.”
John Broz
13.
“To be number one, you have to train like you’re number two”
Maurice Green
14.
“Painful workouts yield gainful results. This is true of every gain. No pain, no gain.”
Haresh Sippy
15.
“It wasn’t until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without work and a certain amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it can’t be as bad as that workout.”
Henry Rollins
16.
“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”
Jordan Belfort
17.
“The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.”
Marvin Phillips
18.
“Every successful athlete enjoys taking calculated risks. You have to. Especially in the gym when you’re squatting 500 for reps and you can’t get one more but grunt out ten. Your nose starts bleeding, you fall into the rack and that’s set one.”
Tom Platz
19.
“Always remember this… there is only ONE recipe for strength. Hard work plus proper nutrition plus time equals strong.”
Steve Pulcinella
20.
“You’re gonna have to go through hell, worse than any nightmare you’ve ever dreamed. But when it’s over, I know you’ll be the one standing. You know what you have to do. Do it!”
Tony Burton
21.
“Anybody that ever tells me that I can’t do something – that’s just more fuel to my fire. I love it when people say ‘oh you can’t do this, you can’t do that,’ because they’re the ones that make me do the extra rep, to throw the extra 10lbs on the bar, they’re the ones that, when I step on stage, I want them right alongside me so I can just destroy them on stage.”
Guy Cisterino
22.
“I try to push myself a little every day. For me, it’s doing 10 more seconds of whatever I’m working on. So if I’m on the treadmill sprinting my butt off or doing a grueling core workout, I think to myself, ‘You can do 10 more seconds, and you’ll be that much mentally stronger.’ After a while, those 10 seconds add up!”
Alex Morgan
23.
“Physical fitness can neither be achieved by wishful thinking nor outright purchase.”
Joseph Pilates
24.
“What seems impossible today will one day become your warm-up.”
Rojalin Mohapatra
25.
“The elite athletes train in spite of or around injuries. Sometimes they get worse, sometimes they get better, and sometimes they just get supplanted by another recalcitrant body part. Any way you cut it, something’s always going to be bothering you. Suck it the up and keep going.”
Jamie Lewis
26.
“Most champions are built by punch the clock workouts rather than extraordinary efforts.”
Dan John
27.
“Everyone has the ability to accomplish unique feats, everyone. You choose this. Become someone great in one other life. Forget about failing too many. Who cares? Doesn’t matter when you start or finish, just start, no deviations, no excuses.”
Tom Plat
28.
“I would like to be the first man in the gym business to throw out my scale. If you don’t like what you see in the mirror, what difference does it make what the scale says?”
Vince Gironda
29.
“Weight lifting is about lifting the impossible, overcoming the unachievable. If you don’t lift things that are hard, and only do the things you can do, it’s only going to get boring. Unless you want to lift beyond your limits to get stronger, to achieve new goals, and to be satisfied, you got to lift past these challenges, and still lift the things you think are impossible to really understand how your true strength will show. lift how I lift, see how I lift, watch how I lift, learn how I lift, and your true strength will come forth and be revealed”
Chasers Holmes
30.
“The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit.”
Morihei Ueshiba
31.
“A well-built physique is a status symbol. It reflects you worked hard for it, no money can buy it. You cannot borrow it, you cannot inherit it, you cannot steal it. You cannot hold onto it without constant work. It shows discipline, it shows self-respect, it shows patience, work ethic, and passion. That is why I do what I do.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
32.
“Anyone can go hard on the last sprint of a workout, if you’re tough, you’ll go hard on each and everyone.”
Travis Macy
33.
“The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength.”
Henry Rollins
34.
“At the end of the day, let there be no excuses, no explanations, no regrets.”
Steve Maraboli
35.
“If you’re training hard and heavy with the goal of lifting something awesome, something is always going to hurt.”
Jamie Lewis
36.
“Good things come to those who sweat.”
Unknown
37.
“Someone busier than you is working out right now. What’s your excuse?”
Unknown
38.
“They can crack jokes. They can sit back and analyze and criticize and make all the fun they want. But I’m living my life, I’m doing it. What are you doing?”
Kai Greene
39.
“Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”
John Wooden
40.
“A one-hour workout is 4% of your day. No excuses.”
Gemma Clark
41.
“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”
Steve Prefontaine
42.
“The best feeling in the world is a hard workout, a shower, and a protein shake.”
Mirko Cro Cop
43.
“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”
Thomas Jefferson
44.
“No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training… what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
Socrates
45.
“Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back. The Iron never lies to you.”
Henry Rollins
46.
“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.”
Fred Devito
47.
“When working out, length is not a substitute for intensity.”
Bill Loguidice
48.
“Just remember, somewhere, a little Chinese girl is warming up with your max.”
Jim Conroy
49.
“No pain, no gain. Shut up and train.”
Marina Chepurnova
50.
“Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today.”
Tim Fargo
51.
“There’s more to life than training, but training is what puts more in your life.”
Brooks Kubik
52.
“If you ever lack the motivation to train, then think what happens to your mind and body when you don’t.”
Shifu Yan Lei
53.
“If you aren’t hurting after a good workout then obviously you haven’t done something right”
Mark W. Boyer
54.
“Fitness is not about being better than someone else. It’s about being better than you used to be.”
Khloe Kardashian
55.
“Your body, despite the science that says “X number of reps is better for this, Y for that” will get stronger if it is overloaded.”
Dr. Ken Leistner
56.
“The only bad workout is the one that didn’t happen.”
Unknown
57.
“Just do some kind of workout. Do something that gets your blood flowing and gets your mind in the game.”
Jocko Willink
58.
“The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
59.
“People laugh and call me lazy, while they twist around in their three-hour workout making zero progress. Sometimes, instead of what you do in the weight room, it’s what you don’t do that will lead to success.”
Jim Wendler
60.
“Your body can stand almost anything. It’s your mind that you have to convince.”
Tushar Patel
61.
“Nothing lifts me out of a bad mood better than a hard workout on my treadmill. It never fails. Exercise is nothing short of a miracle.”
Cher
62.
“I’m not the kind of guy who tries to run between the drops. Sometimes you gotta get a little wet to reach your destination”
Erik Fankhouser
63.
“I don’t care what you USED to bench”
Serge Ceralde
64.
“NOT training every day leads to more injuries! If you train every day then your entire body is fatigued. Muscles, tendons, cartilage, ligaments, etc. When you train every other day, then the muscles and avascular tissues don’t recover at the same pace.”
John Broz
65.
“Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you’ve got a kingdom.”
Jack LaLanne
66.
“There is no reason to be alive if you can’t do the deadlift!”
Jon Pall Sigmarsson
67.
“Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
68.
“No matter how busy I get or how much pressure is on my shoulders, a good workout makes me feel at ease. I come off the treadmill feeling relaxed, full of joy and with a sense of perspective over the issues on my plate.”
Robin S. Sharma
69.
“If you’re just interested in average results, there’s no need to put that much effort into it.”
Mike Tuchscherer
70.
“The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow.”
Unknown
71.
“Work hard in silence. Let success be your noise.”
Frank Ocean
72.
“To feel strong, to walk amongst humans with a tremendous feeling of confidence and superiority is not at all wrong. The sense of superiority in bodily strength is borne out by the long history of mankind paying homage in folklore, song, and poetry to strong men.”
Fred Hatfield.
73.
“The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince.”
Vincent Lombard
74.
“I do it as a therapy. I do it as something to keep me alive. We all need a little discipline. Exercise is my discipline.”
Jack LaLanne
75.
“Do today what others won’t so tomorrow you can do what others can’t.”
Jerry Rice
76.
“I am a great believer in super-compensation. Short term overtraining leads to long-term success.”
Dan John
77.
“Motivation may be what starts you off, but it’s habit that keeps you going back for more. Are your habits working for you or against you? Are your habits helping you to achieve your goals or hindering the process?”
Miya Yamanouchi
78.
“Regarding the mantra…”There is no overtraining” Just because you can handle large amounts of volume doesn’t mean it’s needed. That’s the crux of the issue. Just because the body can tolerate something doesn’t mean it’s a necessity for progress. This is simply poor logic.”
Steve Shaw
79.
“Make it a joint effort. Doing a workout with a partner or trainer can motivate you to reach your goals.”
Gunnar Peterson
80.
“The difference between someone who is in shape, and someone who is not in shape, is the individual who is in shape works out even when they do not want to.”
Donna Lynn
81.
“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”
Muhammad Ali
82.
“You don’t become a runner by winning a morning workout. The only true way is to marshal the ferocity of your ambition over the course of many days, weeks, months, and (if you could finally come to accept it) years.”
John L. Parker Jr.
83.
“Unless you puke, faint, or die, keep going.”
Jillian Michaels
84.
“Make every workout count.”
Unknown
85.
“Leg day is my favorite day. You can’t have a thorough leg workout without feeling completely spent. It’s a challenge, but the benefits of maintaining muscle mass on my legs are important because, as the biggest muscle group in the body, it also helps me keep the proper body composition in terms of fat to muscle ratio.”
Ian Ziering
86.
“Working chest, delts, tris, and biceps works approximately 10% of your overall lean body mass. Working hard on deadlifts (bent legged, trap Bar, or sumo) or squatting (not necessarily at the same time) works more like 70% of your musculature at once and sends a strong message to your body to get better at growing now!”
Wesley Silveira
87.
“Most of us think we don’t have enough time to exercise. What a distorted paradigm! We don’t have time not to. We’re talking about three to six hours a week – or a minimum of thirty minutes a day, every other day. That hardly seems an inordinate amount of time considering the tremendous benefits in terms of the impact on the other 162 – 165 hours of the week.”
Stephen Covey
88.
“The real workout starts when you want to stop.”
Unknown
89.
“Biceps are like ornaments on a Christmas tree.”
Ed Coan
90.
“When it comes to health and well-being, regular exercise is about as close to a magic potion as you can get.”
Tich Nhat Hanh
91.
“Far too many bodybuilders spend too much time exercising the smaller muscle groups such as the biceps at the expense of the larger muscle groups such as the thighs, and then they wonder why it is that they never make gains in overall size and strength.”
Reg Park
92.
“I’m addicted to exercising and I have to do something every day.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
93.
“To enjoy the glow of good health, you must exercise.”
Gene Tunney
94.
“Don’t limit your challenges, challenge your limits.”
Jerry Dunn
95.
“Mediocre athletes that tried like hell to get good are the best coaches.”
Mark Rippetoe
96.
“Train hard, turn up, run your best and the rest will take care of itself.”
Usain Bolt
97.
“Everyone has the ability to accomplish unique feats, everyone. You choose this. Become someone great in one other life. Forget about failing too many. Who cares? Doesn’t matter when you start or finish, just start, no deviations, no excuses.”
Tom Platz
98.
“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people and more useful in general.”
Mark Rippetoe
99.
“We must train hard. It’s not about denying a weakness may exist but about denying its right to persist.”
Vince McConnell
100.
“If you can’t explain the essence of your program to a three-year-old in 60 seconds, it’s too complicated. I’ve trained with Olympic medal winners and I can assure you, they don’t do anything mysterious, they just do the exercises better than we do.”
Maik Weidenbach
101.
“You can either suffer the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.”
Jim Rohn
102.
“I already know what giving up feels like. I want to see what happens if I don’t.”
Neila Rey
103.
“One workout at a time. One day at a time. One meal at a time.”
Chalene Johnson
104.
“Intensity builds immensity”
Kevin Levrone
105.
“Once you can squat with 180 kilograms, your arms and shoulders will come along much more receptively…If you want big arms and shoulders, your first priority is to be sure that your leg/hip/back structure is growing and becoming powerful”
Stuart McRobert
106.
“The internal processes of muscle growth are seriously complicated, people devote their lives to it, but the external processes that kick it off, the things in your control can be distilled down to a few principles: Get stronger in the right rep ranges, eat appropriately, commit to the program and consistently work hard at it.”
Daniel Roberts
107.
“There’s more to life than training, but training is what puts more in your life.”
Brooks Kubik
108.
“The single biggest mistake that most beginners make is putting 100% of their effort into the positive (concentric) part of the rep, while paying no attention to the negative (eccentric) segment.”
Dorian Yates
109.
“If you’re capable of sending a legible text message between sets, you probably aren’t working hard enough.”
Dave Tate
110.
“If you don’t make time for exercise, you’ll probably have to make time for illness.”
Robin Sharma
111.
“Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but nonetheless doing it like you love it.”
Mike Tyson
112.
“Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
I hope you enjoyed this collection of workout motivation quotes. What inspires you to to give everything during a workout?
Stay victorious!
