Beat Exercise Boredom

9 Ways to Break Up Exercise Boredom

Provided by Prevention

You can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer, back pain, joint problems, and more, by achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. In other words, you can maximize all the goodies that life has to offer! Here's our best advice toget you where you want to be without getting bored doing it!

Change Your Venue

Bored to tears by your treadmill workout? Take a walk outside instead. Your after work routine has become too routine? Get up earlier. Changing where or when you exercise, even if you're doing the same activity, is a great way to change your outlook.

Find Fun Exercise

Investigate sports and hobbies that enhance your activity level. Backpacking, mountain biking, kayaking, even bowling can all burn calories -- but they don't feel like workouts.

Act Their Age

Join the kids for a game of backyard touch football or tag. Capitalize on their infectious energy.

Make a Date

Treat exercise as social time by pairing up with a friend or your spouse. By committing to someone else, you'll be less likely to skip your workout.

Count Backwards

Ever notice how your trip back from a great destination seems shorter than your trip there? Apply that principle to exercise by counting reps backwards -- from 10 to 1, instead of 1 to 10.

Lend a Hand

Support causes such as breast cancer, AIDS, or multiple sclerosis by doing fund-raising walks, bike rides, or runs. Beyond the exercise, you'll feel good about what you're doing, as well as fortunate to have a healthy body to do it.

Image Credit: Adrian Keating, AP

Gear Up

Add a new twist to your routine with equipment such as a heart rate monitor or pedometer. Tracking your workouts with these types of devices keeps things interesting.

Image Credit: Mark Harmel, Getty Images

Sign Up for a Marathon

It doesn't matter whether you're fast or slow. The idea is to set a goal. Now you have a tangible reason to put your sneakers on -- you're in training. Making that commitment can be really motivating, because you'll want to do well on race day. Choose an event that's happening about 8 to 10 weeks from now, that should give you enough time to get back in the exercise groove.

Image Credit: AP

Mix it Up on Your MP3 Player

Make a workout mix of your favorite music. Listening to music eases exercise in three ways: It distracts you from fatigue, it encourages coordination, and it relaxes your muscles to encourage bloodflow. If music doesn't work, try a book on tape.

Image Credit: Getty Images