Motivational quotes
Workout motivation quotes for the set you do not want to do
Workout motivation quotes from fighters and lifters, every attribution verified. Lines about pain, reps and getting up, for the session you keep skipping.
Workout motivation quotes are usually written by people who have never been tired. You can tell. The lines on this page are different: Ali on hating every minute of training, Arnold on the last three reps, Dan Gable on wrestling. Every one was said by the person named, and I checked, because a fitness quote with a fake name is just a poster.
What they have in common is the body. Effort, pain, endurance, the part of the session where the mind wants to negotiate. Fitness motivational quotes that talk about dreams and destiny do nothing for me at round four on the pads. These talk about the round.
Here is my concrete detail. At my gym the pad holder counts the last ten knees out loud, and the count is always slower than you want it to be. Somewhere around knee six, the line in your head matters. Exercise motivation quotes are for knee six. Nothing else in the session needs them.
The attributions matter because these are people who actually did the work, and the work is the whole point of quoting them. If you want inspirational workout quotes that fit on a locker door, the gym collection is shorter and blunter, and the self-discipline guide is what you read on the days a line is not enough. Fitness motivation sayings get you to the gym. Discipline gets you through it.
40 quotes, every one checked against its source. No misattributed internet favourites.
- 1
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.
Helen Keller - 2
Fall seven times, stand up eight.
Japanese proverb - 3
Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.
Theodore Roosevelt - 4
Never give in - never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.
Winston Churchill - 5
Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking and using our potential.
Liane Cordes - 6
We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.
Jim Rohn - 7
Champions keep playing until they get it right.
Billie Jean King - 8
You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.
Maya Angelou - 9
If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but by all means keep moving.
Martin Luther King Jr. - 10
The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.
Pele - 11
You have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it.
Lionel Messi - 12
You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.
Michael Phelps - 13
It is not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, but the fight in the dog that wins.
Arthur G. Lewis - 14
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
Seneca - 15
Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
Mike Tyson - 16
The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs.
Cus D'Amato - 17
A champion is someone who gets up when he can't.
Jack Dempsey - 18
I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'
Muhammad Ali - 19
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
Vince Lombardi - 20
It's not the will to win that matters - everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters.
Paul "Bear" Bryant - 21
The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.
Juma Ikangaa - 22
Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise.
Kobe Bryant - 23
The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself are the ones that matter.
Jesse Owens - 24
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
Steve Prefontaine - 25
Once you've wrestled, everything else in life is easy.
Dan Gable - 26
If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.
Emil Zatopek - 27
Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.
Arnold Schwarzenegger - 28
The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow.
Arnold Schwarzenegger - 29
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it.
Arnold Schwarzenegger - 30
It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.
Edmund Hillary - 31
You just can't beat the person who never gives up.
Babe Ruth - 32
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
Samuel Beckett - 33
What does not kill me makes me stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche - 34
If there is no struggle there is no progress.
Frederick Douglass - 35
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Will Durant - 36
The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
Vidal Sassoon - 37
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Thomas Edison - 38
Discipline equals freedom.
Jocko Willink - 39
Grace under pressure.
Ernest Hemingway - 40
Nothing will work unless you do.
Maya Angelou
I send one of these every day, with a photo from wherever I trained, and never the same quote twice. If you want to tell me how the session went after, I am around.
The rest of the collections are at the quotes page.
