Do you hate working out?

Posted by : bmahfood Saturday, June 2, 2012

(Photo credit: fitsugar.com)

Many people do. So they don't do it. Some people do it anyway, but there's absolutely no enjoyment in it. Then there are those who actually find pleasure in it. They work out regularly and they truly love it. Where do you come down on this? I kind of matters, doesn't it? To your health, happiness and healthspan (as opposed to lifespan).

We've all heard the age-old wisdom of "no pain, no gain." And there's truth there, but here's my thinking: If your workouts don't give you some pleasure and enjoyment, even as they cause some discomfort, you are far less likely to get regular exercise or keep it up as a lifestyle. So what can we do to make working out enjoyable?

Accepting that achieving and maintaining fitness requires hard work, it makes sense to find an enjoyable means to that end. Some tips:

Find an activity that you love and that fits your life. It could be golf, tennis, gardening, basketball, running, walking, rock climbing or going to the gym and pushing your muscles to fatigue (that's when you can just barely complete that last repetition).

Do enough to be fit, not to be a star athlete (unless you really are a star athlete). Some people push themselves so hard at the gym that they dread going. It's a matter of cost versus benefit. Exerts tell us that the difference to health between moderate exercise and no exercise is vast, while the difference to health between moderate exercise and strenuous exercise is relatively small. And what's worse, if you push your body to the point of injury, you won't be able to exercise at all, at least for a while.

Build your fitness gradually. Muscles that are not used to any exercise will sing with pain when starting out. The soreness that comes when you work out for the first time in years is horrible. You'll walk around wincing with each step. It makes sense to start out slowly, letting your atrophied muscles have some time to adapt to the new demands of your workouts. That way you can minimize that initial soreness and feel good about keeping it going. (There's another kind of soreness that is a regular part of working out when you do it right, but this kind is actually pleasant in a weird way.)

Do it regularly and often enough for it to benefit. Don't be a weekend athlete who collapses with a heart attack trying to do things your body is totally unprepared for. That's no good to anyone.

Any other tips you'd like to share? Add your comments!

Workout song of the day...