If changing our approach to our workouts (see yesterday’s post) doesn’t work to break up the boredom, we can address other elements of the experience. Basically, if there is a variable, we can adjust it.
Consider, for example, pace. Some of us are the kind of people who do everything deliberately. We lift and lower slowly. We like endurance cardio. When that gets dull, we can mix it up with some sprints in cardio and some power moves in weightlifting. The speed demons among us can do the opposite and exercise patience along with our muscles.
Then there is time. Sometimes throwing in a longer workout is exactly what we need to wake up our body and brain. Conversely, maybe we want to work harder for a shorter time and call it a day. Or we can get crazy and break up our workout into smaller segments at different times of day.
What about location? Being stuck in the gym forever is not a recipe for happiness, so maybe take that run outside. Already working out outdoors? We can try a different route, add some hills.
Company can help. We can piggyback on a friend’s workout, see what they do that is different, or invite them to join us. This works best with friends who have roughly our same level of fitness or with a friend who is a lot more fit who is willing to take a rest-ish day with us.
How about order? We can try doing the workout backwards. We may realize that we do it in the usual order for a reason, or we may discover that backwards is better; either way, we’ve done something different and we’ve learned something.
In short, we break up boredom by trying things, lots of things. Some of them will be fun and some less so, but at the very least we will not be staying the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment