170 Motivational Lifting Quotes – For Crushing The Gym

Lifting Quotes

The Ultimate Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Motivation

If you’re looking for motivational lifting quotes to crush your weight training sessions, you are in the right place.

The hard hitting quotes on this page are from the very biggest legends in the world of weight lifting.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronnie Coleman, Dwayne Johnson, Eddie Hall and Brian Shaw are just some of the legends that share their quotes on mindset, motivation and how to take their lifting to the next level.

Pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone is the best way to achieve great things whether this is lifting weights, bodybuilding or simply striving to become the best version of yourself.

Making this collection of 170 inspirational lifting quotes part of your preparation, will help you smash your lifting goals to pieces.

11 Quotes For The Gym Grind

“If something stands between you and your success, move it. Never be denied.” 

– Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

“The road to nowhere is paved with excuses.” 

– Mark Bell

“Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but do it like you love it.” 

– Mike Tyson

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” 

– Mahatma Gandhi

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“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

“I never think about losing.” 

– Lou Ferrigno

“15 minutes a day! Give me just this and I’ll prove I can make you a new man.” 

– Charles Atlas

“Courage is looking fear right in the eye and saying, ‘Get the hell out of my way, I’ve got things to do.” 

– Unknown

“Intensity builds immensity.” 

– Kevin Levrone

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” 

Henry David Thoreau

“Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.” 

Robert H. Schuller

8 Ronnie Coleman Quotes

“Ain’t nothin’ but a peanut.” 

“It’s all just apples and oranges.” 

“Hard work and training. There’s no secret formula. I lift heavy, work hard and aim to be the best.”

“You can’t do this if you’re not dedicated and determined, and have a strong faith. Because it’s extremely hard, especially trying to work a job and do it.” 

“Light weight Baby” 

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“Ain’t nothin’ but a peanut.” 

“It’s all just apples and oranges.” 

“Hard work and training. There’s no secret formula. I lift heavy, work hard and aim to be the best.”

“You can’t do this if you’re not dedicated and determined, and have a strong faith. Because it’s extremely hard, especially trying to work a job and do it.” 

“Light weight Baby” 

18 Lifting Quotes For Motivation

“A champion is someone who gets up when they can’t.” 

– Jack Dempsey

“Learn it all, then forget it all.” 

– Bruce Lee

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” 

– Arnold Schwarzenegger 

“If you ain’t pissed off for greatness, that just means you’re okay with being mediocre.” 

– Ray Lewis

“Physical fitness can neither be achieved by wishful thinking nor outright purchase.” 

– Joseph Pilates

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“Rest doesn’t come on any specific week or day. When you feel it, it comes. You need to keep your baseline strength level high and never take too much time off. You have to be strong to be trainable. You want to be at 90 percent strength or higher at all times. You don’t want to be at 80 percent strength and then have to work yourself to death to get back to the place where you can start to really train and get stronger again.” 

– Louie Simmons

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” 

– Lance Armstrong

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” 

– Michael Jordan

“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

“Discipline is the bridge between your bodybuilding goals and bodybuilding success.” 

Felicity Luckey

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“Physical strength is the most important thing in life. This is true whether we want it to be or not.” 

– Mark Rippetoe

“It took me 20 years of hard training to get the physique I have today. What you need is what I had, belief in yourself!” 

– Branch Warren

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” 

– Wayne Gretzky

“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.” 

– Jim Rohn

“On the Internet, everyone squats. In real life, the squat rack is always empty. You figure out what this means.” 

– Steve Shaw

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
– Henry Ford

“I don’t eat for taste, I eat for function.”
– Jay Cutler

“Once you can squat 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

“Walking: the most ancient exercise and still the best modern exercise.”
– Carrie Latet

10 Workout Quotes For Encouragement

“Mediocre athletes that tried like hell to get good are the best coaches.” 

– Mark Rippetoe

“Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.” 

– John Wooden

“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

“There are two types of pains, one that hurts you and the other that changes you.” 

Jetti Woodruff

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” 

Jim Rohn

“To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise, we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” 

– Buddha

“If you’re capable of sending a legible text message between sets, you probably aren’t working hard enough.” 

– Dave Tate

“If you’re capable of sending a legible text message between sets, you probably aren’t working hard enough.” 

“You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” 

– Walt Disney

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” 

– Abraham Lincoln

“If you start lifting weights, you will expect to put weight on, as muscle is heavier than fat. But you have to look more at your body shape – you will get heavier – but you might get smaller and heavier at the same time, which is fine. And it doesn’t really matter what you weigh as long as you are happy with your shape and size.” 

– Victoria Pendleton

16 Quotes By World’s Strongest Man Brian Shaw

“If you’re the best at everything, you’ve got no one to challenge you and make you better.” 

“I watched World’s Strongest Man growing up on TV and I just loved all of that, so I decided to enter a Strongman contest – just for fun. Really. For no other reason than that, I just wanted to compete in something and push myself. I ended up loving it from the get-go and also found that I was very gifted.”

“I love giving back. There were a lot of people when I got started who really helped me. I do a lot of seminars and appearances. It’s neat to be able to be in a position to do that. I’ve always loved coaching; it’s how I got started.”

“I know I’m big. I’ve been big my whole life. I’ve never had to prove how tough I am.” 

“Those Olympic lifters – how can you call someone the strongest man if he can’t walk over to a car and pick it up?” 

Weight Lifting
Lifting Quotes

“I want to show people how to do this at an exceptional level whether they are a competitor, a CrossFit strongman or someone who just wants to do strongman workouts at home.”

“I wouldn’t want to be too lean.”

“The weight room has always been a place for me where I could go to be relaxed. It’s my sanctuary of sorts.” 

“I mean, I always try to evolve and get better and go back to the drawing board and look at where I can improve what weaknesses I have.”

“I’m just eating to be the strongest human being on the planet.” 

“My motivation is being the best. Pretty simple and straightforward.” 

“I don’t care how much weight’s on there. If you’re doing 40 reps, that’s cardio!” 

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“Being a strongman is a real test of functional strength. What can you pick up, carry and how fast can you move it. It’s not a weight room strength, it takes brute strength and power to lift, carry and pull all types objects from fire engines, Mack trucks, transport planes, and large stones.” 

“It’s a lot of fun, any time you can pick up a car is pretty awesome.” 

“I’ve always been fascinated by different feats of strength throughout history.” 

“First thing in the morning, it’s very important to eat quickly. So I’m reaching for eggs.”

19 Inspirational Quotes For Lifting Weight

“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.” 

– Thomas Jefferson

“For me, life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.” 

– Arnold Schwarzenegger

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” 

– Theodore Roosevelt

“Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible.” 

– Frank L. Gaines

“Forget failure. Forget mistakes. Forget everything, except what you’re going to do now. And do it.” 

– Lou Ferrigno

“If you always put a limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” 

– Bruce Lee

“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

“Rule of thumb: Eat for what you’re going to be doing and not for what you have done. Don’t take in more than you’re willing to burn off.” 

– Lee Haney

“You dream. You plan. You reach. There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, with belief, with confidence and trust in yourself and those around you, there are no limits.” 

– Michael Phelps

“Being negative and lazy is a disease that leads to pain, hardships, depression, poor health and failure. Be proactive and give a damn to achieve success!” 

– Phil Heath

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.” 

– Michael Jordan

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” 

– Michael Jordan

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” 

– Michael Jordan

“Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.” 

– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“When a gifted team dedicates itself to unselfish trust and combines instinct with boldness and effort–it is ready to climb” 

– Pat Riley

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” 

– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” 

– Kevin Durant

“Champions keep playing until they get it right” 

Billie Jean King

“To enjoy the glow of good health, you must exercise.” 

Gene Tunney

15 Eddie Hall Quotes

“I went away and all I trained for was the moving events, my static strength was so high, no one was even close, even now. And I just realized I’ve got to be able to move, I’ve got to be able to pull trucks, so that’s what I did.”

“I think it’s all about goal setting, the number one rule of goal setting is to be public – tell a friend, tell a family member, tell your fans, put it on social media, you know, because that sets it in stone.”

“Ever since I was a child I’ve dreamt of being the World’s Strongest Man, and to actually accomplish it is something else, it really is something else – total euphoria!”

“The pressure on my body was surreal. I passed out after. I had nose bleeds. It’s not healthy doing something like that.” 

“They’re all hard, you know, they’re all, you know, amazing feats of strength world records.” 

“The worst injury I’ve ever had in my personal life is trapping my own d**k between two metal plates.” 

“You don’t have to be a genetic freak to be the strongest man in the world, you’ve just got to be the hardest worker and that’s what I am.” 

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“I’m not going to walk around at 28 stone until I’m 48. My plan is to win the World’s Strongest Man, walk away gracefully, and live a long life. ” 

“No event in strongman competitions lasts longer than 40 seconds, so by swimming in fast bursts, my body is conditioned for the level of speed and power it needs.” 

“And then I made the commitment to become The World’s Strongest Man. And I said out loud, put it on social media, told my friends and family. And again people laughed. That added small fuel to the fire for me and ten years later to the day I won The World Strongest Man.” 

“I think one of the hardest was by a guy called Paul Anderson. He was renowned for lifting up 19 people in a carousel lift with his legs. So, we replicated that and I cracked my back. It was pretty hard to walk for a couple of days after that.”

The swimming helped me move over to the strongman, I had these huge lungs, a huge heart, it gave me the dedication, you know.”

“It’s that great feeling, like the first man on the moon, the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. And now, I’m the first to deadlift half a ton. It’s history, and I’m very proud to be a part of it.” 

“I’ve won it at a time when it’s at its best, the competition is rife, you’ve got giants like Brian Shaw, Hafthor Bjornsson, both of them 6ft 9′, 6ft 10′ and then you’ve got little old me who’s 6ft 3′, so you know, it’s definitely a nice time to win the World’s Strongest Man, because there are some absolute freaky huge guys out there.”

15 Quotes For Hitting The Gym

“The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.” 

– Henry Rollins

“There is no reason to be alive if you can’t do the deadlift!” 

– Jon Pall Sigmarsson

“There is no such thing as over training, just under nutrition and under sleeping.” 

– The Barbarian brothers

"There is no such thing as over training, just under nutrition and under sleeping." 

“Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but don’t nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weight.” 

– Ronnie Coleman

“Don’t be scared to lift heavy! You won’t get huge and bulky, you’ll get amazing.” 

– Jessie Hilgenberg

“Bodybuilding saved my life because I overcame the nerd stage. I got picked on. I was fascinated with power, and then I decided to take that direction because I knew that would make me feel good about myself.” 

Lou Ferrigno

“Always remember this…there is only ONE recipe for strength. A secret recipe that was handed down from Sandow to John Grimek to Paul Anderson to Vasily Alexeev to Bill Kazmaier to me. Now I’m giving YOU that magical recipe…hard work plus proper nutrition plus time equals strong.” 

– Steve Pulcinella

The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides a champion from someone who is not a champion. 

– Arnold Schwarzenegger

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“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

“I don’t do this to be healthy, I do this to get big muscles.” 

– Markus Ruhl

“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.” 

Chasers Holmes

“People laugh and call me lazy, while they twit 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

“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

The bench press per se is not a risky exercise. When done right, it can help improve upper body strength and size. It’s only when form takes a back seat to numbers and when it’s grossly overtrained that problems result. Injuries occur in the shoulders and elbows when the bench press is overtrained, poor technique is used, such as rebounding the bar off the chest and bridging, no other exercises for the upper body are included in the program, and there are no core exercises done for the upper back. Quite often, it’s a combination of all these factors.” 

– Bill Starr

“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

"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." 

“If you’re training hard and heavy to lift something awesome, something is always going to hurt. Whether it’s your wrists, elbows, knees, hamstring, or even something ridiculous like a serratus muscle, one body part or another is always going to be giving you some bullshit. The elite athletes train despite or around those injuries.” 

– Jamie Lewis

10 Hafthor Bjornsson Quotes

“For a beginner, find a trainer that you trust and set some goals.” 

“I treat my body the same way I would treat a brand new car. You have to treat it well so it can run for a long time.” 

“To be the best, you have to have the right equipment at your disposal.”

“Don’t tie yourself down to one workout, as your muscles quickly adapt to a certain style of training, so you’ll see less results over time. The same can be said about cardio and your diet.” 

“There’s nothing better than proving people wrong.”

Lifting Quotes

“A lot of big guys can’t bend down, have knee pain, are slow. I’m fast. I’m flexible, especially for my size.” 

“If you’re dedicated, it’s going to pay off.”  

“I always knew, in my heart of hearts, I would win World’s Strongest Man.” 

“People laughed at him and said, ‘you’ll never be famous, your name is too hard.’ But everybody knows who Arnold Schwarzengger is. I’m far, far away from where he is.” 

“I don’t get people asking me to fight face-to-face but there’s a lot of brave folk on the Internet.” 

12 Funny Lifting Quotes

“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people and more useful in general.” 

Mark Rippetoe

“There are no shortcuts. The fact that a shortcut is important to you means that you are a pussy.” 

– Mark Rippetoe

“That’s a good weight…for a small woman” 

– Dorian Yates

“I was slamming some weights on a leg press. And – I don’t know if I had a semi or what -but I trapped my d**k in between the plates and I ended getting five stitches.” 

Eddie Hall

“Don’t have $100 shoes and a 10 cent squat.” 

– Louie Simmons

“If you insist on wearing gloves, make sure they match your purse.” 

– Mark Rippetoe

Some people are born to lift heavy weights; some are born to juggle golden balls

– Max Beerbohm

“Just remember, somewhere, a little Chinese girl is warming up with your max.” 

– Jim Conroy

“I’ve made many good friends in bodybuilding, though there are few I’d trust to oil my back.” 

– Lee Labrada

“I’m an extremist, and I hope to be remembered that way: non-compliant and an artist. I do not want to be remembered as a nice guy. I want to be the slayer of Bambi.” 

– David Dearth

Lifting Quotes

“Heavy lifting doesn’t need to be heavy spending if we do the job right.” 

– Buzz Aldrin

“Trust me, if you do an honest 20 rep program, at some point Jesus will talk to you. On the last day of the program, he asked if he could work in.” 

– Mark Rippetoe

“The reason fat men are good natured is they can neither fight nor run.”  

– Theodore Roosevelt

17 Quotes To Hit Your Lifting Goals

“Strength does not come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.”

– Nikki Rogers

“Wisdom is doing now what you are going to be happy with later on.”

– Joyce Meyer

“Decide. Commit. Succeed.”

– Justin Seedman

“You have to believe in yourself when no one else does — that makes you a winner right there.”

– Venus Williams

“Don’t work out because you hate your body — work out because you love it.”

– Unknown

“Make time for it. Just get it done. Nobody ever got strong or got in shape by thinking about it. They did it.”

– Jim Wendler

“The groundwork of all happiness is health.”

– Leigh Hunt

“If you have discipline, drive, and determination… nothing is impossible.”

– Dana Linn Bailey

“Unless you puke, faint, or die, keep going!”

– Jillian Michaels

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

– Steve Prefontaine

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“If you wait, all that happens is you get older.”

Larry McMurtry

“To ensure good health: eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness, and maintain an interest in life.”

William Londen

“We are what we repeatedly do; therefore excellence is not merely an act, but a habit.” 

Aristotle

“To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”

– Bertrand Russell

“Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.” 

– Doris Lessing

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” 

– Napoleon Hill

“If you only do what is easy, you will always remain weak.” 

– Joyce Meyer

15 Healthy Lifestyle Quotes

“Exercise should be regarded as a tribute to the heart.”

– Gene Tunney

“Eliminate the mindset of can’t — because you can do anything.”

Toni Horton

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.”

– Anonymous

“If you don’t do what’s best for your body, you’re the one who comes up on the short end.”

– Julius Erving

Lifting Quotes
Lifting Quotes

“If you keep good food in your fridge, you will eat good food.”

– Errick McAdams

“Weight loss doesn’t begin in the gym with a dumbbell; it starts in your head with a decision.”

– Toni Sorenson

“To ensure good health: eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness, and maintain an interest in life.”

– William Londen

“New meal; fresh start.”

– Michelle Hyman

“Instead of indulging in ‘comfort food,’ indulge in comfort meditation, comfort journaling, comfort walking, comfort talking, comfort manicures, comfort reading, comfort yoga, comfort hugging.”

– Karen Salmansohn

“Instead of indulging in ‘comfort food,’ indulge in comfort meditation, comfort journaling, comfort walking, comfort talking, comfort manicures, comfort reading, comfort yoga, comfort hugging.”

“My body is less judgmental of my diet than my mind is.”

– Mackenzie Banta

“If I don’t eat junk, I don’t gain weight.”

– Paula Christensen

“Success is the sum of small efforts — repeated day-in and day-out.”

– Robert Collier

“Fitness is like marriage, you can’t cheat on it and expect it to work.” 

Bonnie Pfiester

“A huge part of losing weight is believing you can do it and realizing it’s not going to happen overnight.” 

Author Unknown

“The hardest step to fitness is the first. Take it now!” 

– Heather Montgomery