Why is working out boring?
“I know I should go to the gym… but the gym is boring…” – Who is in this camp? I know a lot of hands go up on that one. Guess what? If your workout routine is boring it also probably means it’s ineffective.
WHAT!!?
Sooo you’re saying that I’m doing something I don’t like and for no good reason? No wonder I can’t stay ‘disciplined’!
Boring usually means that you are doing the same thing over and over or that you are doing activities that are mechanical and don’t offer any mental stimulation. The average adult has 206 bonesi, 640 skeletal musclesii and 100 billion neuronsiii. We are complex machines! We are also very good at adapting. The human body loves the path of least resistance. This is where we get the term ‘Newbie Gains’.
When you first start a new routine of walking 1km every day, you will feel some massive improvements – higher energy, better sleep, stronger legs, better posture… etc. But if you continue to walk your 1km per day for 10 years, you will get little to no health benefits one day from the next. Your body will have completely adapted to make that 1km walk so easy and not require any additional resources from you. Now, this may seem like a pretty obvious example, but the same thing is true of any dimension of fitness, regardless of difficulty. If you are not varying time, speed, load, movements and intensity, you are not reaping all the benefits of overall fitness and you’re probably bored.
What to vary?
The obvious first thing to vary is the length of the workout. This will consequently affect the intensity of the workout as well. A longer and slower workout will improve your endurance and stamina, while a shorter and faster workout will improve your power output. Both of these components of fitness are very valuable and one shouldn’t be neglected for the other. Intensity is also affected by loading. The more weight you are moving, generally the slower you will move and fewer reps you will do. Lighter loading allows for increased speed and increased reps. This is a good way to get both endurance/stamina training as well as power output training.
Changing the style and movements go a LONG WAY in keeping exercise fun and not boring. I don’t think I ever enjoyed going to the gym when I would do the same treadmill and circle the machines routine. I did it because well I thought I should do it. I also didn’t benefit very much fitness wise when I would run the same 5km route over and over. My body adapted to that stimulus and then it didn’t need to work very hard. The trick to making fitness gains is to keep the body needing to adapt. Adaptations are how we grow and get better.
CHALLENGE:
Try these 5 varied workouts this week!
Monday: 20min steady state cardio (swimming, walking, running, biking)
Tuesday: Set the clock for 7 minutes and do as many rounds as you can.
5 burpees
5 situps
10 mountain climbers
5 box step ups (sub squats)
Wednesday: Sprints!
Choose an appropriate activity for your joints. ie. if you haven’t gone for a jog in over 6 months, don’t choose running. Some options are hill sprints, jumping jacks, burpees, swimming, biking, rowing or skipping.
Set your clock to beep every minute for 12 minutes. In each minute complete about 20seconds worth of sprinting. Find an appropriate distance or use a clock to measure 20 seconds exactly. Go full out in those 20 seconds and then recover in 40 seconds in order to do it again.
Thursday: Abs and Glutes!
4 rounds:
10 Vsit twist
10 Hollow rocks
10 Superman
30sec plank
Friday: 3-5 Rounds:
Run for 2minutes
10 jump squats
10 pushups
Take back the FUN in working out. Constantly variation of your workouts will stop boredom and give you greater results. Hop on Social Media or comment below to let us know how this 5-day challenge goes for you!
ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skeleton
iihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_skeletal_muscles_of_the_human_body
iiihttp://www.ikonet.com/en/visualdictionary/static/us/the_nervous_system