Exercise also prevents depression, lowers anxiety and enhances the release of endorphins, a hormone that improves your mood. When you consider the added convenience of exercising from home, the argument is made much stronger. However, because of doing the same routine over and over again, exercising can fall in a rut requiring you to come up with strategies that can make it fun. The following are 7 ways on how to make indoor exercises more fun.
1. Set goals.
Setting goals is the key to remaining motivated throughout the workout period. It makes the process fun by making you feel confident that if we remain disciplined, you will be able to achieve the set goals. Also, goals give you a sense of direction. They outline the right track which if you are able to follow, making the exercise process more enjoyable.
2. Crank up the tunes.
Listening to music makes working out fun. If you are running, lifting weights or power walking, music can improve your performance and boosts your endurance level by making you think that the workout activity is easier that it actually is. This gives you better results in the same period of time. Music also coordinates your workout, for example, the lyrics can reinforce the aspects of a technique when they feature words like push, cut or punch. You should allow your body to move with the beat and even sing along to get that extra push needed to keep going. Though music makes indoor workouts more fun, you should not become too dependent on it such that it distracts you from the exercise.
3. Buddy up.
Partnering with a friend can significantly boost your exercise. Generally, we are social creatures which explains the success of group fitness. A fitness buddy brings in collaboration, camaraderie, accountability and even friendly competition which keeps you on your toes and gives you something to get excited about.
4. Change it up.
Sometimes we find ourselves doing the same set of workouts over and over again which can be quite boring. The good thing with indoor exercise is that you try new workout routines that you would otherwise not be comfortable doing in public. Setup a home gym and get started towards building muscles, instead of the regular boring workout. Consider adding a variety of new routines to spice up your workout. Try switching from cardio routines if you are always running on the treadmill, to swimming. For strength training, switch between resistance machines and free weights. Changing workouts not only make exercise fun, but also challenges and strengthens the body.
5. Go back to being a child.
There is no embarrassment when working out indoors which means that you can do all the fun exercises that you dropped years ago since it was no longer cool to do them as an adult. Exercises such as the hula hoop, sets of jumping jacks or skipping are great for burning calories.
6. Skype your buddy or trainer as you workout.
While the solitude of indoor exercise has no embarrassment, some people still prefer the traditional group workout even from home. To achieve this, you only need a good webcam and stable internet connection. Get a personal trainer or a gym buddy and use skype or any other free video calling alternative to begin the workout session with your friend or trainer as long as they have the app as well. There are many apps that allow you to hire remote trainers over video calls. They even allow you to choose solo or group activities. These services are mostly offered over hangouts or skype. Taking a group fitness class remotely exposes you to lots of fun, gives you something to look forward to and keeps you on your toes.
7. Reward yourself.
Rewarding yourself is a great way to maintain good high spirits when working out. It gives you something to look forward to, which in turn makes exercising fun. Choose a reward that is desirable, but a bit frivolous, so that it looks like a treat: like a massage or a post workout smoothie. A bowl of broccoli will certainly not cut it. While there are many ways of making indoor exercise fun, you should keep in mind that the benefits are worth the hard work. Doing challenging workouts and engaging exercises goes a long way in making exercising rewarding and fun. Featured photo credit: Flickr via c1.staticflickr.com
