Hot Body Training

Today, I Stumbled Upon a post by Jonathan Fields entitled How To Make Exercise More Fun Than Sex. Well, that definitely got my attention! Full marks for the post title. In the article, Jonathan talks about how to overcome the challenges of getting people to exercise by taking out the boredom factor. I see this problem all the time; people stop exercising because they become bored.

It’s not really surprising if you take a look around your gym and see what the majority of people are doing. Whichever way you look at it, the stationary bike, treadmill and rowing machine aren’t much fun after a while, yet this is what 90% of out of shape people are doing in the gym. I really hate doing these types of cardio workouts. Quite frankly, it bores me to tears. As I see it, the gym is my place to lift heavy weights! If I want to do any cardio-vascular work, I’ll take it outdoors and make it fun. I’m lucky in that I live on the doorstep of the mountains with lots of hiking trails. I also live within 10km of the Atlantic and Indian oceans with long, practically deserted, white sandy beaches.

View of the Atlantic Coastline, Cape Town

If you’re currently enduring winter or do not have access to the great outdoors, you can still join some classes, like martial arts or dance classes or any other of the great ideas that Jonathan came up with.

What to do if your weight training routine becomes boring?

If this is the case, I’d bet that you’ve been stuck on the same routine for a while now. You’re stagnating, your progress has stalled and the monotony has set in. It’s time to change it up a little. Remember, you should be changing your routine every 4-6 weeks to keep your body adapting to new stressors. If you read my Train Like an Athlete post, you should get some ideas for exercises that are a lot more challenging and a lot more fun than tricep kickbacks or leg extensions.

Wrapping it up.

Exercise shouldn’t be viewed as a chore. If it is, then you need to change the way you do it. Granted, not all my methods could be called fun. The Tabata Method would probably fall under the category of excruciating, but I guarantee you won’t be bored. So next time you’re plodding away on the treadmill, why not try something different?

Here’s that link again: How To Make Exercise More Fun Than Sex.