You Can’t Afford to be Exercise Bored
It happens to the most committed of us babes.
You may try to start a new workout routine with renewed motivation, always going to the gym six days a week and weirdly enough not hating it. You’re posting gym selfies again, and all your hard work is paying off. You’re sleeping better, jeans fitting better (mm, bring dat booty over here…), and you’re noticing changes (GREAT changes) in your body. But that boredom always eventually hits, like that urge to check up on your awful… awful… ex.
If you’ve been exercising awhile, I’m sure you can relate. One day, all of the sudden, at the gym door there’s a brick wall blocking your way. Your motivation drops off the face of the earth, the mere thought of having to do one more workout makes you bored enough to check up on your Grandmas quilting class’ schedule. This starts to backfire, you start making some bullshit excuses for why it’s totally okay to skip your workout.
And before you know it, your 45, you’ve isolated yourself, everyone at the local pizza delivery joint knows you by your first name and you die.
It’s expected you’ll experience a burnout every now and again; it is possible to stick with your workout plan in the long term without being bored to death. So the next time your exercise motivation is escaping, there are ways to seduce it for good.
Are you the type who goes to the gym and trudges through the same 30 minute treadmill session every single day? (Tried and convicted), it may be your safe space, but be brave! Mix it up! Added variety to your workout can make you more likely to stick to your workout. Monotonous workout routine lead to boredom (I don’t think you needed me to tell you that), and doing the same thing over and over can lead to the dreaded fitness plateau, (gasp). When you repeatedly do the same motion over and over your muscles quickly adapt, causing your progress to come to a screeching halt. Cardio-only gal? Try adding some strength training or power yoga into your routine. Scary I know but like I said, be brave! New stimulating movements will “shock” your muscles, leading to faster results.
Shake things up by adding high-intensity intervals into your usual cardio workout. (Cardio is my safe space). High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, is a training technique that involves alternating intense periods of “all out” effort followed by brief recovery periods.
Sign up for a group exercise class! (This has a bonus effect if you’re a lonely old cave witch such as myself!) Whether its barre, yoga, boot camp or kickboxing (call me!), group classes are a great way to add some variety and fun to your workout routine! You’re less likely to slack off when you’re surrounded by other people.
Believe it or not, workouts don’t have to be a chore. The key to workout consistency is finding an activity that you truly enjoy, whether that’s Zumba, kickboxing (again, just lemme know), yoga, Tai Chi, hula hooping, jump roping – the sky’s the sweaty limit! As long as you are giving your best effort, it’s doing its job. Even if you are just dancing in your apartment to your favorite tunes is better than nothing! (Nobody puts baby in the corner!)
