How to Exercise Without Feeling Like You're Exercising

One of the most significant roadblocks on the way to fitness is most certainly mentality. It’s all well and good to want to get fit, but when it comes time to step up to the treadmill your eagerness deflates with the prospect of another long slog of running. The fact is simply that, sometimes, exercise is no fun.

People go out of their way to find diets that don’t feel like diets – whether it’s touting the benefits of protein-rich keto, or the antioxidant-rich routine of a glass of wine per night, people love to hack their diets so they don’t like hard work. Why not take the same approach to exercise?

It’s totally possible. This post will discuss a few of the ways you can make your exercise regimen feel less like work and more like play.

Have Fun With It

If there’s one takeaway from this article, it is this: find an exercise where you have fun, and you won’t feel like you’re exercising. Yes, you can run until you are sore in the feet, but there are other ways to get exercise that allow for a little more fun. You can go axe throwing with your friends: a new sport where (you guessed it) the objective is to throw axes at large wooden targets. It works out your arms, legs and core, but it’s so fun you won’t even notice.

Instead of conventional cardio, you can try working up a sweat in a dance class. Or, better yet, just go to a dance club in the evening (but watch those calorie-dense drinks). Another great source of cardio is… romance, for lack of a better word. It makes no difference to your body whether you get your exercise from the weight rack at a gym or the lanes of an ax throwing facility or on the dance floor of a bumping club. So you might as well make it fun!

Try a Lighter Approach

Often, the feeling of exercise is the feeling of pushing oneself to the physical limit. This can be good sometimes, but it can also turn you off of exercise, which is a net negative. Instead of insisting on a gruelling workout for yourself, try a lighter approach. Instead of running, just go for a walk around your town, and take in the interesting sights. Instead of a weight circuit, just

lift a few light weights while binging your favorite show.

Rope in a Friend

Sharing your experience with another person can make time fly by, even when you exercise. Not only will having a friend around motivate you to exercise harder, but the company can also distract you from focusing on the strenuous nature of the activity. It is often this focus that makes exercise so difficult, so distracting your mind from it can make exercise a lot more tolerable.

Pick a fun activity, allow yourself to exercise lightly sometimes, and find a friend who will share in the experience. Follow those three, simple tips and your exercise regimen will be a source of joy in your life.