Getting fit when you hate exercise sounds like an impossible dream, and the truth is that’s right – movement is key to fitness, and without it, no matter how well you eat or care for your body in other ways, you just won’t be as healthy as you could and should be.
So what should you do if you hate to exercise? It’s so important to your life and will change it for the better in myriad ways, but if you don’t enjoy it, it can be difficult to get started. Read on, and you’ll see how you can change your mindset and start to like – or even love – your exercise.
Why Not?
The best place to start is to determine exactly what it is about exercise that you don’t enjoy. There could be many things that mean you would rather do anything than go for a run, go swimming, join a gym, or participate in an exercise class.
For example, you might be self-conscious about your weight, which means you don’t want to work out in front of lots of people. Or perhaps you don’t think you need to lose weight at all (and you may well be correct, but that doesn’t mean exercise is of no use for you – you still need to get fit, and that’s a different matter entirely). Maybe you lead a busy life and begrudge having to give up some of your precious free time for exercising.
Once you work out what is holding you back from getting fit and healthy and starting to exercise, you can work on how to get past it. You could exercise at home with YouTube videos instead of going to the gym, for example, or try to incorporate exercise into your day by using the stairs instead of the elevator or parking a little farther away from your destination.
Try A Personal Trainer
Hiring a personal trainer can be precisely what you need to help you get fit and help you to enjoy exercising. You will form a bond with your trainer and want to please them, but you will also quickly and easily see how far you have come. Having a personal trainer isn’t a luxury if you hate exercising – it’s the ideal way to inject some fun and personality into getting fit.
You might even realize that being a personal trainer is something you could do. After getting fit and knowing how the process works, you could look into CPT certification online and start your own business. Now not only do you love exercise and are much fitter than before, but you can help others who felt like you did before you started.
Start Small
For some, their dislike of exercise comes from having tried to do too much too soon in the past. Even with the best of intentions, if you start exercising at a high level, you will soon burn out; your body, not used to such exertions, will want to quit early, and you will let it because you will be hurting and uncomfortable. You might then not want to return to the gym or the workout because you didn’t enjoy it, and it left you aching and unhappy.
If you start small, this won’t happen. Start with a short burst of activity, or start slowly and build up to something bigger. The more this happens, the stronger you will get and the easier it will be to exercise. Once it becomes more manageable, you will enjoy it more, and you’ll want to push yourself more, and getting fit doesn’t feel like an arduous task anymore.