5 Ways to Reduce Exercise Boredom
Are you bored with your exercise routine? If so, have you given any thought as to why you might be bored?
Most likely it comes down to either:
• what you are doing OR
• how you are doing it.
If you do the same routine over and over, it will get old after awhile and you will lose interest. Then it becomes something you know you have to do, but no longer enjoy doing. I’m that way when it comes to walking outside. I just don’t care for it. So I knew this month it was time to change things up.
Here are a few ways to reduce exercise boredom:
Change your routine
Are you doing the same routine over and over? If so your body gets accustomed to it, you might stop losing weight or gaining muscle. One solution is to change your exercise routine every month or so. Try something new that you either haven’t done in a long time or something you have never done. If you are someone who strictly loves to do cardio like me, incorporate two days per week of strength training (don’t do it two days in a row though unless you do one day upper body and one day lower body). Sometimes your routine is fine and giving you the results you need. But in the case it’s not maybe all you need it to step up the intensity and do a HIIT (high intensity interval training) type of workout.
Or you can try out a circuit training program where you rotate through a series of exercises. I like changing up what equipment I use. If you regularly go to a gym to workout, try a workout routine at home that uses just your own body weight – little or no equipment required! This week I started doing 5 body weight exercises following this video.
Exercise with a partner
When changing up your routine is not the answer, many times all you need is to change the conditions. Staying accountable to a partner (and them accountable to you) is a powerful incentive. Neither of you want to let the other person down, so you show up to exercise even if you don’t feel like it. Once you start hanging out with your workout buddy, the time will fly by and before you know it, you will have completed your workout.
Side note: I prefer to workout alone unless it’s with my hubby spinning or boating but I still need accountability so that’s why I started the monthly fitness challenge. Join us!
Take a fitness class
If you are a “people person”, taking a class at a local gym or the YMCA can work wonders. Join a yoga, Zumba, Spin or other type of exercise class. A local dance company here offers adult dance classes that I hear are popular. Sometimes being around other people will inspire you and help you break out of the exercise boredom rut.
I would love to add the Peloton bike to our home gym. Connecting to a spinning class in NYC from my home in IL sounds really cool.
Set up exercise playlists
Need some workout inspiration? Set up some fun exercise playlists to make your workouts fun. I absolutely love music and like to change it up when I workout. Listening to music motivates me and gives me more energy so I can only imagine it could work for you too. Having upbeat music makes me sweat more and then having a cool down playlist helps at the end of a hard workout. Grab your headphones or if you workout in a home gym like me turn up your speakers and get moving. I absolutely love my Bose SoundLink bluetooth speaker. It goes with me wherever I go.
Lastly and one of the most important things to do to reduce boredom….
Set a goal
Setting personal fitness goals is very important. It is easy to lose interest in exercising if you do not have a goal in sight – something to work toward. You don’t have to set large goals in the beginning, it’s OK to start small and and reach higher as you go. Without a goal, you are exercising just for the sake of exercise and not really focused on a measurable result (losing weight, building muscle, etc.).
Reassess your goals. If your progress has stalled, look at your goal and see if you can find a new way of working toward it. Sometimes taking a fitness challenge like mine every month will help you find your way again.
My personal fitness goal for August is to get at least 15-30 minutes a day of exercise. I will play every day by ear and choose the workout I feel most excited about on that day. Plus I need to get up out of my chair and away from my desk all throughout the day.
You don’t have to be bored with your exercise routine. Incorporate one or more of the strategies above in your next training session to reduce your exercise boredom. Then let me know what you chose to add and how it’s helped you!
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