Today’s Training Tip
Make exercise fun
Time for an Attitude Adjustment
Let’s face it, many people don’t enjoy exercise and those of us who do are very lucky. For those who don’t, the physical and mental benefits of exercise are important enough that even the most resistant should reconsider their attitude toward exercise.
From Boring, to Fun
If you consider exercise boring don’t join a gym expecting a sudden change of opinion. Thinking outside the box can go a long way toward making exercise fun. Give these tips a try and see if you can have fun while exercising…
- • Listen to a riveting audiobook only while taking walks or doing another form of exercise
- • Go to the gym at the same time each day and make new friends by introducing yourself to others doing similar workouts
- • Join a running, walking, hiking, or cycling group
- • Participate in non-organized exercises such as tossing a frisbee around
- • Invite a friend to join you and set goals together
- • Create an exercise contest with a friend with the winner being treated to a cup of coffee or lunch
- • Join an online exercise challenge
- • Volunteer at a local shelter to be a dog walker
- • Keep looking until you find some sort of activity you enjoy – you’re much more likely to be consistent and not quit if you enjoy what you’re doing
Questions
- • Are you one of the lucky ones who enjoys exercise? ~ Yes, very much so.
- • If yes, have you always enjoyed exercising and if you haven’t always enjoyed exercise, what changed your mind? ~ Yes, I’ve always enjoyed exercise and being active.
- • What other training tips would you like for me to cover?
After 6 years of running, I would say I only started liking it 2 or 3 years in! As for other forms of exercise – I must admit it’s a struggle! I think for strength work I will probably need to rope in a friend – maybe doing it together will force the consistency and eventually make it part of my lifestyle as running has become!
Since you learned to like running, there’s hope you can learn to enjoy other types of exercise with the right incentives. Finding a friend who can be a workout partner sounds like a good option for you.
I love races and being with other runners… So I run.
Exercising alone… nope.
But I’ve forced myself to join a gym and I do go and use the machines. Not convinced that it makes a difference but it can’t hurt, right?
More tips for that aging runner…
My tips for the aging runner will have to be “do as I say, not as I did.” 😉 But sure, I can pull together a list of tips. Stay tuned!
Interesting tips.
Unfortunately many of those things are in the past.
Before the bad injures I also used to go to the gym and the swimming pool where I found many friends to train with.
About running I trained alone before going to work because I didn’t have a pre-established time but I had good friends to go to race together. Because of the age, the injures and other reasons my friends stopped to run and I remained alone.
Moreover the members of my running team prefer to race in Rome and around it, while I prefer to race in the beautiful hamlets of Tuscia (Lazio Region – Viterbo province).
However now, that I’m retired, for the workouts I join a group of running friends but never in summer when I prefer to run in early morning.
It sounds like you’re self-motivated and enjoy exercising enough that you don’t need additional ways to get you out on the trail to run. That’s a gift!
Great topic!
I’m trying to get my 85-year-old dad to do some exercises… It’s tough!
I’ve accompanied him five times to his physio sessions to get an idea of what kind of exercises she wants him to do.
Yesterday, I asked the physio if she could recommend some good fitness videos. It would be a lot more fun for my dad. Together, we found a few suitable ones, but not many. I think there’s a big market gap there!
Your dad is lucky to have you cheering him on to get more exercise. Videos will not only make it more fun for him, but also help him remember which exercises to do and how to do them correctly. Good luck, I hope he enjoys it enough to stick with it.
You know my motto–if it isn’t fun, why do it? I’m really enjoying fitness at this point–it feels great to move my body in so many different ways!
Exactly, and that’s why we need to help those who don’t like exercise find a way to see it as fun.
I enjoy running and walking but lately haven’t been motivated because of work. I know, I know. An excuse and I need to stop using it because I also need to take care of myself. Work will always be there.
Yes, you’ve got to take care of yourself!
I’m one who didn’t enjoy exercise as a kid. My parents weren’t very active and my PE teachers were nothing stellar. Also, I was not naturally gifted with athleticism or coordination, LOL. I’m grateful I discovered running & eventually others forms of fitness. Now, I cannot imagine NOT being active 🙂
You are one of the most active people I know. I’d forgotten that you’d told me that you didn’t always enjoy exercise.
Although I do enjoy exercise, I have found myself in an exercise rut before which usually means I need to try something new – that always seems to work. Since last year I am shifted more toward HIIT and strength vs endurance running and it has given me enough variety so that I don’t get bored, which is key!
Not getting bored is key, good for you for realizing that and making the necessary adjustments.