Despite my passion for fitness, I don’t always enjoy working out. Some days I find it especially hard to keep moving through an indoor cardio workout. When I’m tired, these workouts can be torture!
Over the years I have found a few ‘tricks’ to distract me enough to keep me on the caridio machines, to include:
• Scouting out a machine next to someone to strike up a conversation (I affectionately call these people my ‘cardio victims’)
• Plugging into some fast-paced, upbeat tunes
• Watching a good show/movie on TV (if available)
• Covering up the clock on the cardio machine’s display so I don’t know how much time remains
• Sifting through a juicy magazine with lots of pictures or reading a specific number of pages/chapters in a captivating book
Keeping up the pace on the cardio machines is another challenge. To up the ante on a slow-moving day, I break out the time into intervals. Specifically, I alternate my pace with quick bursts of high intensity followed by a moderate, ‘recovery’ intensity. When listening to music, I may change paces with each song. If that’s too grueling, I use the clock (e.g., 30 seconds super fast followed by 30 seconds moderate pace). While watching TV, I might use commercials as my cue to pick up the pace.
This summer’s Olympic TV programming presented a great opportunity to motivate me to work harder. In addition to admiring their sculpted physiques, watching the men’s 400 meter qualifying races, I was inspired to pick up my pace for (approximately) 40 seconds. I raced while they raced! How cool is that? OK, clearly they traveled much farther than I did during that time, but for a brief moment, I was racing with the Olympians! How about you, what tricks do you have for staying motivated through your workout? Post them here:
Kerri L. Mikeska, NASM-CPT
What has your body done for you today? What have you done for it?
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