7 Practical Tips For Beating Exercise Boredom

I'd like to add---

Sign up for a challenge or a race!
There's online challenges for exercise, or you can create one with friends... or sign up for a running/bicycling/triathlon race so every time you go out, it has a point in training.

Three things come to mind for me: 1) Make sure you're having fun, 2) Give yourself permission to take a break if that's truly what is needed. When exercise becomes work it is definitely much harder to stay motivated!

The 3rd one is a bit superficial but I find that buying a new pair of sneakers (especially when the old ones are sincerely too old) or new workout clothes can help. There is something about having "new" things that helps me stay motivated.

Take a picture before you decide to exercise. Once you start seeing results that should be motivation enough. It is hard to see results in yourself day to day.

When I get burnt out I try something new. Yesterday I did some Overhead shrugs instead of regular shrugs.

When I don't feel like exercising, I try to focus on how I'll feel afterwards. Such as ... how I feel good that I did something for myself ... or how I feel good that I follow through on my plan and promise to exercise ... or how I enjoy the feeling of the endorphins ... or ... how I can eat a bit more (just a bit) to account for the calorie burn ... or ... that it helps me improve for a sport I do with my dog (agility) and my dog deserves that!

Similar to Iorac, I try to think of the way my workouts might affect others - like how long I want to stay active now that I have young kids! I want my boys to have an active parent (2 would be even better) that they can play catch with when they're older, and that really does help me stay motivated to exercise.

I also love the idea of changing the route. We walk most days (with a double stroller) and it really does help me even to see a different part of the neighborhood. It also helps me to walk with a purpose - walk to a local business or the post office or just to a friend's house to say hello. Giving myself a destination makes the walk pass more quickly.

I agree with Heather's idea of signing up for an event. Its much easier to stay motivated when there is a goal in sight. I also like the idea of changing routines. Doing the same exercise everyday can be very monotonous and become boring. I think changing running routes frequently, or doing different exercise routines can help prevent boredom.

I think the absolute best tip, better than all the ones above is to get a personal trainer. No one is better at changing things up than a person who does it for a living.

Workout buddies and personal trainers are great ways to keep the motivation up. Also, adding in group fitness classes, especially ones you haven't tried, really can keep you excited about working out. A great resource to use is www.fitfiend.com to find workout partners, personal trainers, and recommendations for fitness classes and events.

This is kind of related to "buy stuff." I use my library's website to order exercise DVDs to arrive at my library. Once they arrive they usually need to be back in 7 days, so I rush to do them in case I love them and want to do them a few times. Occasionally I find one I adore and buy a copy for myself, but generally I just keep ordering them from the library on a rotating basis. Sometimes I find one I hate, but that's okay since I didn't spend money on it.

I also walk and bike, but the videos add something fun and give also me something to do on a rainy day.

Thanks to you, Crabby, I finally broke my usual (very monotonous but comfortable) cardio routine today and went BACKWARDS for a whole four minutes out of twenty on the cross-trainer.

It did indeed make the usual counting-down-the-minutes less boring (mostly because I was thinking "why is this so much HARDER?")

If my legs hurt tomorrow, I'm blaming you. ;-)

Another thing to try is to change the time of day that you exercise. If you always went for a run in the mornings, try going at sunset. If you worked out after dark, try just before lunch. It feels like a whole new enviroment.

I start a diet every New Years Day, and every year I get frustrated. This time I've lost 30 pounds, achieved my weight loss goal, and feel terrific. One of the key changes I made was to get a pedometer. It made me realize just how little movement I was getting, even with 3 trips to the gym and a couple of dog walks per week. My pedometer has a mode for aerobic steps/time as well as total steps/time, which showed me just how effective an hour spent walking the dog was vs. surfing the Web.

So I have become a real fanatic at walking the dog for an hour a day, despite rain, sleet, snow, winds, or interesting distractions. When I hit a plateau, I read an article on this site about high-intensity intervals and started running for a few high-intensity periods as part of my walks. When I got bored with my usual gym routine I joined a step class.

All in all, I've found this site to be a great inspiration and very helpful with new ideas. But I do swear by my pedometer and try to never be without it. A high step count at the end of the day was a reward I could count on, and eventually that (along with very healthy diet) translated into rewards on the scale, which has now become my friend.

So I also encourage others to try a pedometer--or whatever new thing might provide a fun new motivation for your workout!

I agree with Heather. I think that challenges are a good idea. I did a twelve week challenge a couple of years ago and had very good results. I also like working out at the gym with a friend. Exercising to me is more fun when it is also social.

I agree with Heather and sign up for an event. I can easily convince myself that there are so many other things I NEED to do aside from exercise. But having a race in the future feels like a deadline and motivates me to get out of bed at an unreasonable hour to get a workout in before life gets all crazy.

When I get bored with working out, I usually tweak my routine a little bit or adding some jump rope intervals. Sometimes buying new sports gear like a new sports bra or a cute pair of shorts helps me stay motivated too.

I have Netflix and there are a lot of On Demand DVDs that I can watch whenever I want to and sometimes I'll just pick one that sounds fun and do that instead of my normal routine. The library is also a great place to get new DVDs because you can try them for like a week and if you like it, THEN you can buy it. That way you don't end up buying a new DVD that you hate or isn't what you thought it was.

i think first things we need to do is self motivated :) give yourself a target and plan your exercise routine. Most important things is make yourself have fun and enjoy the exercie routine :)

I really like the "permission to do less". I often do this. I may not FEEL like treadmilling, but I guilt myself into doing "just a mile". I mean, what's a mile, right? Then once I'm actually into the swing of things, I just keep on going.

Burnt out excercising? First thing I do is rest. Rest is one of the most important things I can schedule into my workout routine. Yes, I actually schedule it into my weekly routine.

Once I can't use the "rest" excuse anymore I use a lot of the tips suggested here already. Some good ones are signing up for an event. (give yourself plenty of time to train properly)

Get a training buddy. So important if you have serious motivation deficiencies.

Try a different route or routine. I like to use mapmyrun, mapmyride, etc. to find new training routes that fit my current goals.

Buy new stuff! That's a good one. It really works for me. Besides you should be buying new running shoes every 6 months anyway and probably have 2 pairs at a time if you're serious about it.

Reading blogs and forums like this and interacting with folks about excercise. Feel like training already :0). It helps.

Hey, these are some really great tips!

I especially like add a single challenge. Often, people go overboard, and lose focus. Then get discouraged. Better to keep that focus and make it work.

Also like the "permission to do less". We all have those days where we just can't get it up to do the full workout as planned. Typically, this coincides with other stressors.

I've heard it said that stress is like a bathtub with many faucets and one drain. When the tub is getting to overflow, that's when we're close to a breakdown. The only thing to do then is to turn down one or more of the faucets, so the tub has time to drain.

Thanks, Crabby.