Beating Boredom While Exercising

Staleness can be a problem when you tell yourself, “I’m going to start running around the block, M-F for 30 minutes a day.” If you don’t get bored while exercising, more power to you.

For those of us who feel the staleness of exercising, here are a couple tips on how to beat boredom while exercising:

• Cross Training- Don’t do the same exercise everyday. Try to mix it up by running, swimming, biking, skating, or playing a sport. Alternating activities will help your body to not get used to one activity, which also helps to lower the risk of injury from overuse.
• Destination- Choose a destination to run an errand, or change your destination from your typical.
• Set Goals- Setting different small goals to work on every week or everyday.
• MP3 Players- Listening to music or an audio book (for your slower runs so you can concentrate).
• Friends- You can keep each other motivated while exercising and before exercising.
• Different Routes- Change the places where you exercise by taking different routes.
• Change Distance and Intensity- For example, run slower and farther one day and faster and shorter another day; or you could change distance and intensity in the same day by switching off between running fast for a short distance and then walking or jogging slow.
• Add Weights- You could keep things interesting by running with weights every once and awhile.
• Try New Things- Be open to different types of exercising like Yoga, Pilates, dance aerobics, water aerobics, etc.

Keep exercise exciting and remember to have fun. Stay motivated, mix it up, and keep it up!