We all find ourselves in an exercise slump sometimes — you know the feeling.
You can’t quite drag yourself to the gym or your yoga mat. You feel uninspired. Every workout looks like a mountain to climb, and you aren’t even climbing real mountains, you’re just on the treadmill. It’s not even the physical challenge that’s making you procrastinate, it’s the sheer boredom.
Even those of us who have managed to work out regularly find ourselves in this predicament. Here are some easy ways to change your perspective and make like Marie Kondo to find the joy in your workout.
Change the Time
Having a set time you workout is essential. It helps you stay consistent and develop the habit. But maybe circumstances in life have changed? Perhaps you don’t go to the office anymore but work from home? Consider trying a different workout schedule if you’re getting bored. Instead of working out in the mornings, try the evenings, or the opposite.
Do keep a schedule once you’ve made a new one, though.
Change the Type of Workout
Have you been lifting weights for a year or more? Only been running? Great at swimming but terrible at yoga? Change up the type of exercise you do, and you’ll see a lot of benefits.
Your body adapts to what it’s doing. Those positive adaptations are what you see as the result of exercise. If you’ve been lifting weights, you look stronger. If you’ve been doing aerobic exercise, you are leaner.
But part of the trick of exercise is to keep your body adapting to the stress that is exercise. An excellent way to do that is to change the type of exercise you do.
Change the Tempo
A simple trick is to change how fast or slow you work out.
If you are used to doing an hour yoga class, maybe increase the intensity and shorten the workout. If you are accustomed to spending precisely an hour in the weight room, try shorter, more intense workouts.
Change the Place
If you only ever jog the same path, the path will become uninteresting. Change up the places where you workout. You don’t have to change the type of exercise to change the space. If you always are playing tennis on the same court, try a different court, maybe a clay court or grass court.
Try a different pool if you swim or a different trail if you hike. Move your yoga mat to a separate room in your house or try practicing in a park or yard. There are all kinds of ways to shift your environment and prevent boredom in your workouts by changing the space.
