We know that exercise is incredibly beneficial for us, but many people don’t even do it. The benefits are wide ranging from improving physical health and strength to promoting mental health. If exercise feels like a chore to you, then we need to find ways to make it fun. If exercise is something you enjoy, you’re more likely to do it and stick with it. Once exercise becomes a habit, your life will improve dramatically. Here are some ways to make exercise fun.
1. Change it
Treadmill and elliptical machines can be terrible. It may be fine if you have some music or an audiobook on your headphones, but still, it’s not much fun. Change your exercise and cardio routine to something not so monotonous. Try something different like kickboxing, a dance class, or rebounding at a trampoline class. With fitness-focused dance classes, you can do anything from salsa to hip-hop. Let yourself go and when you finish the class you will have no idea that you just worked out and burned a lot of calories.
2. Visits
If your current routine is slow and takes a long time to complete, try doing some circuits. This will increase the intensity and you will complete your workout much faster. When doing a circuit, you’ll complete each exercise for the given reps and then go straight to the next exercise without resting. You’ll complete all the exercises, rest, and then do another round or two. You will be able to challenge yourself in a fun way trying to beat your previous completion times. Another fun challenge is interval training. You can perform an exercise for 30-45 seconds at maximum intensity and then rest for 10-15 seconds and repeat. Get ready to sweat and burn some fat.
3. Grab a friend
Having support and accountability on your fitness journey is crucial, so having a friend by your side will help keep you motivated. Set up fun exercise routines where you can challenge each other. Work out like a kid again and challenge him to a race or who can do the most push-ups. Have fun and laugh while you do it.
4. Turn up the volume
Take your best tunes with you to your workout. When you hear a song that motivates you, you will give it your all. Have fun with the music and increase your intensity during various parts of the song.
5. Take it outside
This is similar to the first point of changing it. If the weather is nice, go outside and use nature as your gym. When you are outside you will find; flat or grassy areas, parking lots, jungle gyms, curbs, stairs, beaches, sturdy tree limbs (for pull-ups), and more!
6. Dress up
Have fun with this one and get some new training gear. If your shoes are old, this is the perfect excuse to go shopping and buy some nice new shoes. For many people, when they dress stylishly they will feel more confident and excited to exercise.
Exercising doesn’t have to be boring, make it fun with these tips and you can turn it into a lifestyle.
