Make it easy to fall in love with fitness

There are two classes of people in this world. Those that love exercise, and those that don’t. There are your yoga pants wearing, green smoothie drinking, full of energy bouncing off the walls with health types. Then there’s those of us that dread even the thought of pulling our workout pants out from the back of our wardrobe, and then sweating, hurting, and feeling our chest constrict with the effort of just drawing in enough breath to get through ten minutes of exercise.

Except… that this isn’t quite true is it? Remember that time you were walking along, chatting to a friend, and before you knew it twenty minutes had passed and you realised you’d walked farther than you thought, and hadn’t even noticed? How about that time in your early twenties when you were out dancing until the early hours of the morning? What about that day when you managed to get through all of the family Christmas shopping in 4 hours flat, making your way from store to store pushing a trolley, and feeling like a rock star for getting through it all.

Were you counting down every minute, every second, hating the fact that your body was being forced to move, and cursing the word “exercise” in those instances? Nope, you weren’t even noticing the time pass you by. So drawing on these experiences, you might just be reconsidering the idea that it’s impossible for you to take part in physical activity without hating it.

Be enthralled

What makes you tick? What are you super interested in, could talk about for hours, what do you already do that makes the time fly by? Could you find a way to incorporate this into a workout?

Obsessed with Suits? Open up Netflix on your phone, perch it on the treadmill display panel, and walk away. If exercise is the only time you get to watch it, soon you’ll come to crave your visits to the gym. Love chatting with friends? Get a workout buddy, or schedule a call on your morning walk. Love reading? Download the audiobook and listen while you work your way through your weights circuit. Love laughing? A comedic podcast might be right up your alley.

Make it easy

Forget perfect. Forget having everything just right. Just move. Any way that you can, as often as you can. In whatever way feels right for you. Do leg lifts in the kitchen. Clean your house. Rake up leaves. Sweep cobwebs off the ceiling. Dance in the car. Swim. Get a yoga app. Do some YouTube workouts. Walk up and down your hallway. Reorganise your Tupperware. Jump on an exercise bike during ad breaks. Mow the lawn. Repaint your house. Do some biceps curls with your drink bottle. Walk to the water cooler at the other end of the office.

It really, truly, doesn’t matter what it is that you do, as long as you do it! Start looking for opportunities in your day to move your body, and soon enough you’ll have built up a baseline level of fitness that will make it so much easier to get into formal workouts. Every little action counts, and makes you healthier, so what’s stopping you? Thirty seconds here, a minute or two there. Pretty easy to add it all up to 30 minutes in your day!

What are your favourite ways to get moving? We would love to hear how you make your workouts feel fun and easy!