By now, you are well-aware that exercise is crucial to your physical and mental health. Not only does exercise help you maintain a healthy weight, it can fight against disease, improve your mood, give you energy, help you sleep, and can be quite fun! However, despite how well you know this, it’s still challenging for many of us to stick to a fitness routine. There are plenty of obstacles that can get in the way of your regularly scheduled exercise regimen. Over the next two blogs, we will go over some common reasons why people don’t exercise, and steps you can take to overcome them.
I don’t have the time
This is a common excuse for pretty much anything, but it is particularly common for exercise. When you’re already balancing your professional and personal lives, fitting in exercise can seem like a hassle when all you really want to do is collapse on your couch at the end of the day. The truth is, it isn’t that you don’t have time; it’s that you won’t prioritize fitness. With a little creativity, absolutely everyone has time to exercise. Here are some ideas for how you can make time for exercise:
- Do short workouts throughout the day. The standard recommendation that you get 30 minutes of exercise a day doesn’t mean that you have to do them all at once. You could do ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes in the afternoon, and ten minutes in the evening, or any variation of that schedule. Even if you don’t have a half an hour block during the day to work out, you can likely spare ten minutes here and there.
- Wake up earlier. For night owls, this may seem like hell, but simply waking up 30 minutes earlier can free up some time if your days and nights are especially hectic. Try waking up two or three times a week to exercise early, then slowly add more days into your routine.
- Walk more. Chances are, there are instances when you drive that you really could walk. If there is an errand you can run that is walking distance from your home, make a point to walk instead. If this isn’t an option, something as simple as parking farther away from work or taking the stairs instead of the elevator can make a huge difference.
Exercise is boring
This is a common perception, but couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you find that running on the treadmill every day bores you to tears, the good news is that there are tons of different ways you can incorporate exercise into your routine that can be fun too.
- Go for an activity you love. You might find that swimming engages you more than running, or participating in a martial art is more interesting to you than a gym membership. It’s not about how you workout; it’s just important that you do it at all.
- Switch it up. If you are bored by exercise, you are probably doing the same thing over and over again. Keep yourself on your toes by switching up your activity frequently. Maybe one day you ride your bike, then the next day, you lift weights at the gym. Vary your routine to keep it interesting.
- Get a buddy. A great way to both establish accountability and keep exercise interesting is to find an exercise buddy. This makes exercise a social outlet, which will instantly engage you more.
These two common excuses are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of challenges to your fitness routine. In our next blog, we will continue to go over common challenges to fitness, and what you can do to overcome them. In the meantime, when you need a men’s clinic in Tucson, AZ, contact Men’s Vitality Center today.