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Many of us are having a difficult time sticking with a solid fitness routine right now. We’re trying to navigate home workouts, distance learning, working from home, gym closures, and ... let’s face it -- pandemic fatigue. All of the limitations and challenges can make it easy to feel disenchanted with your routine. This is when we need to get creative and spice things up a bit.
If you find yourself feeling blah or uninspired with fitness, here are five ways you can add pizzazz to your workouts, increase their effectiveness, and get more out of the time you spend working out.
Cranky? Get moving. Exercise makes you feel happier. When you work out, your body makes endorphins -- "feel-good" chemicals in the brain. You can actually start to feel better within a few minutes of moving. But the effects of regular exercise can last for a long time.
You might not expect it, but using energy to exercise gives you more get-up-and-go. Sometimes when you're tired, the last thing you want to do is move. But when you exercise regularly, that fatigue goes away and you find yourself with a lot more pep.
Get regular exercise to help you fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly. The harder you exercise, the more likely you are to have a good night's sleep. It doesn't matter when you exercise, as long as you don’t have trouble sleeping. If you do have problems, though, work out earlier in the day.
You just walked a mile or ran your first 5K. Success like that can boost your self-esteem and make you ready to conquer anything. Exercise makes you feel good about yourself.
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Exercise calms your body and your brain. After your body works hard, the levels of stress hormones -- like adrenaline and cortisol -- drop. Stress and anxiety fade away, especially after aerobic exercise.
Want to be more efficient at work? Take a break and get some exercise. In one study, people who got moving in the middle of the day were much more productive when they went back to work. They also were happier and got along better with their co-workers.
Exercise and diet work together to keep your weight healthy. Whether you want to lose some inches around the waist or just avoid putting on extra pounds, exercise is the key. Try to work out 30 minutes most days of the week.
Regular exercise can add years to your life. And that counts even if you're not a hard-core fitness buff. Just get moving. Even a little exercise can help you live longer than not exercising at all. The American Heart Association says that people who maintain a healthy weight and are physically active live an average of 7 years longer than those who don’t.
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Your bones and muscles get stronger when you work out. It's especially important to do weight-bearing exercise, such as weight-lifting, tennis, walking, and dancing. This can help build bones as you get older. And it can help ward off osteoporosis and protect your balance and coordination.
It's no secret that exercise is great for your heart. Regular workouts lower your risk of heart disease, improve your blood cholesterol levels, and help control and even prevent high blood pressure.
Regular exercise can cut your risk of some cancers, including colon, breast, and lung. And people who have cancer have better quality of life when they exercise.
If you have arthritis, regular exercise can help ease your pain. And it can make your daily activities easier. Try non-impact exercises like swimming. They can be easier on sore joints.
1. Assess your strength-training routine. When I talk to personal training clients to find out what they’ve been doing, it never surprises me to hear that they strength train the same muscles every single day. They’ll take HIIT, BODYPUMP, CrossFit and strength circuit classes consecutive days in a row. While strength training is AMAZING, and one of the best ways to protect your bones and build lean muscle, it’s important to be strategic in how you strength train. Remember that results occur during rest, not work.If you’re working the same muscles to fatigue day after day, it causes a continual cycle of muscle breakdown without giving the tissues necessary time to recover and rebuild. Alternate strength-training days, or if you like classes or workouts that challenge your entire body, sandwich those workouts with rest days or pure cardio days to give your muscles a break. If you need help setting up a strength-training split, check out this post.
2. Add in smart interval training. Interval training is a great way to burn fat, protect your heart health, and you can become stronger, fitter, and faster. Add in some Tabata intervals to your strength work, or HIIT. Just like I mentioned in the last point, don’t do the same thing on consecutive days. It’s important to alternate cardio intensities so you’re not going full throttle every.single.day.
3. Stop doing “traditional” core workouts. Whenever someone gets on the floor and does 100+ crunches or sit-ups, a fairy dies. These exercises can create stress and pressure on your spine, negatively affecting the low back. Also, they’re the opposite of functional. I don’t think I do a crunch movement in real life, ever. Focus on functional core work like planks, deadlifts, and squats!
4. Pay attention to breathing and form. It’s easy to get in the workout zone (especially with a killer playlist) and find that you’ve been holding your breath for the entire set of reps. Focus on engaging your core (pull the belly button in and drop your ribs), and exhaling on the exertion (the hardest part) of each movement.
5. Try a new class, or change your scenery. Change sparks change. If you’re feeling stuck or blah in your routine, try something totally new. Take your run outside instead of the treadmill. Take a new virtual class. Try something you think you may not like, and you may surprise yourself. If you do these things, and you’re still feeling blah, maybe it’s a signal that you’re overtraining and need a break. Take the break and come back even stronger. Our bodies are intelligent machines and will usually tell us what they want ... it’s just up to us to listen.
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