Stay Motivated: Mix Up Your Fitness Routine
Feel like you're stuck on the same old treadmill? You may be, if your regular exercise routine has become dull, dull, dull lately. And that boredom can undermine your best intentions. When physical activity becomes ho-hum, it's easy to find excuses for not doing it.
To cure the blahs, mix up your routine. Summer is a great time to add new physical activities, outdoors or inside, to boost your interest and keep your exercise engine going. You might choose to lap swim at the local pool as part of your weekly routine, or start each morning of your vacation with a tandem bike ride. Even a power walk through an outlet mall can provide a different twist on your usual walking circuit.
If you've been exercising alone for months, the American Council on Exercise suggests you take a class (tennis, step aerobics) or join a club (cycling, ballroom dancing).
Changing activity not only helps some people enjoy exercise more, it may encourage them to keep exercising while others still doing the same-old-same-old drop out. So, stop yawning, and start…kick-boxing?
The value of variety
Mixing up your routine does more than just beat boredom. "There are some physiological benefits as well as psychological benefits of having variety in your exercise program," says Barbara Bushman, Ph.D., FACSM, associate professor, Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, and associate dean of the Graduate College, Southwest Missouri State University.
When you do the same type of exercise exclusively, your body builds certain specific strengths. By switching your activity mode, you broaden your physical abilities.
Doing a different activity "stresses the body in a new and novel way," Bushman says. That's why, after trying a new physical movement, you sometimes feel sore in places where you had forgotten you had muscles.
"Stress on the body is a good thing," says Bushman. "We don't want it to be an excessive overload, but…we need to push it beyond what it normally does in order for it to improve."
