Five

We get bored with our same old workouts.  Here are five ways to modify what we’re doing to make it less boring.

 

1.     Go faster.  In fact, if we go as fast as we safely can, we add some significant challenge.  This can take the form of intervals of max effort, or just a general increase in speed, whether in cardio or weight training.

2.     Go slower.  This one is for weight training specifically.  If we deliberately raise and lower the weights at a very slow pace, we increase the time our muscles are under tension.  It can be super challenging and useful for building up our strength and endurance.

3.     Go a different direction.  We tend to do everything going forward, but life isn’t always that way.  We can try walking backward (safely!) on the treadmill, or we can trade our regular lunges for side lunges, or we can throw in some twists.

4.     Change the order.  If we always do our cardio first and then our lifting, we can switch it up.  One note:  no matter what order we are doing our workouts in, we need to ensure we get in a warm-up.

5.     Change the time.  We can try working out in the morning if we are usually after-work workout people, or vice versa.  We can try a short, intense workout instead of a longer one, or we can see what happens if we do something more endurance-based and long for different.

 

These are my ideas.  What are yours?