Getting into a fitness routine after some time off (or for the first time), we’d do well to leave our expectations at the door. Take what performance is there, have fun shifting tin or getting the blood pumping, and come back stronger next time. Sounds easy in theory, but practice is a little different. Ten mins in and we’ve lost more performance than we thought or are gassing out quicker than we “should”, and it’s sucked the fun out of the workout - making it that much harder to come back tomorrow and do it all again. Deflated, but not defeated, we can do this. It’s just a bit more frustrating that we’d have hoped.
From here we can take a hard nosed approach and just “deal with it”, accepting this is where we are and utilising our discipline to keep turning up until we’re in better shape. Another option is to just dial back our expectations - going in, seeing how we do and focus on enjoying the movements or our time training again. Both will generally work fine (they’ve each got pros and cons, but what doesn’t?), and if they keep us consistently active and pushing ourselves we’ll see our gains return quicker than they took to build in the first place. However, that doesn’t make for much of a blog post, so here are a few quick tricks to make workouts more fun as we get back into the swing of things.
As if lifting ridiculously heavy iron or fighting excruciating levels of acid aren’t fun enough...
1. Make It Unexpected
Sticking to a structured plan can be effective in the long run, but the repetition can get real old real quick. So, why not make each session a surprise? All we’ll need is a few cards/some dice or a random number generator, and a piece of paper/note app.
For a deck of cards, we could pick an exercise for each suit, and whatever number is on the card is how many reps we perform. Pick a few cards, or try to get through a whole deck for a monster challenge. For example, hearts could be tuck jumps, spades could be plyo press ups, diamonds could be sit ups, and clubs could be burpees.
For dice, note down an exercise and number of reps to each number of the dice, pick a rest period between exercises (between 0 and 60 seconds works well), and start rolling. An example could be:
1 = 10x squats
2 = 10x press ups
3 = 15x russian twists
4 = 20x high knees
5 = 10x jumping lunges
6 = 10x burpees
These “surprise sets” could be the whole workout, or something thrown in at the end of a session to fry the fibres.
I’ve used bodyweight examples for simplicity here, but the same can be done for free weight and machine exercises - just be careful if you’re mixing strength and endurance work (for example, going for a one rep max after a few AMRAP sets increases the risk of injury). It is safer to stay between 5 and 20+ reps for this style of “surprise” iron workout, or using the random chance to pick the exercises and then just select the reps based on how far into the workout you are (saving the heavier weight/lower reps for the beginning, and lighter weight/higher reps for the end).
2. Try Something New
Variety is the spice of life, so sprinkle on a new movement, rep range or setup to add some flavour to the workout. It could be in line with your overall goal (a new exercise for a target muscle group) or something completely new (swapping max weight for max time/reps) - just find something different or interesting, and step into unfamiliar territory.
As a new movement, there is no track record to beat and the only criteria for success is to do the thing - whether we move with grace or with challenge, we’ll have set a new personal best (that we can try to beat as we practice more and gain movement proficiency) and got to experience something new.
3. Make it a Game
Structure is great, especially if we’re working towards a particular goal, but to get a good workout in all we really need is accumulate a bunch of volume (sets x reps). So why not lean into it?
Pick out a few different exercises (whole body, target area, or even just one movement), choose a grand total to work towards - either a total number of reps, a total weight or total rounds/time - and then get to work achieving the grand total for that workout. For example, we could set a goal of:
300 press ups, performing as many reps as possible and resting between sets, or trying to stick to a specific protocol (eg sets of 10). We could also adjust as we go, as each rep counts towards the total.
5000kg lifted Each rep with a weight counts towards the grand total (eg 8 reps with 100kg adds 800kg towards our goal). Here we can count warm up sets or not, and adjust the weight as we need to.
10 rounds of a circuit, completing it as quickly as possible (using tactical rest or just go at it)
20 mins of a set circuit, recording how many rounds we complete in the 20 mins (again using tactical rests or just aiming to move for as much of it as possible)
For bodyweight exercises we can also take it a step further and set a target for the day (similar to a daily step count), and just perform a few sets here and there, split up throughout the day - with each rep counting towards the total, whether they’re evenly spread or done in one panicked blast before time runs out.
We can also focus more on the game side and assign points to more difficult exercises/sets. For example, a light set of leg press is worth 1 point, a moderate set of lunges is worth 3 points, and a heavy set of squats is worth 5 points, with the grand goal to reach 25 points in total (doing a mixture of rep ranges/weights/exercises for different points). Creating a points system will require some note taking and a bit more planning, but gets quicker and easier with practice.
4. Friendly Competition
Ultimately, fitness is you vs you - trying to improve or progress from where you used to be, whether it’s moving towards a certain goal or just pushing yourself to do harder things. Sometimes this is enough, but other times we can benefit from some more direct competition with another person. This could be a race to the finish line on runs, a battle to see who gets the most reps/steps in, or simply who improves the most (consistency, performance, technique, skillset, etc). Just decide on what the winning conditions are, the rules of engagement, and get to work showing them who’s boss.
There could be a prize for the winner, a forfeit for the loser, or bragging rights for the month - just remember it’s a friendly competition! No cheating or letting it take up too much of your lives.
5. Set a Reward
TREAT YO SELF! The endorphins and health benefits of exercise are great, but there’s no harm in adding a little extra oomph to that feel good factor. Strictly speaking, this won’t make the workout itself more fun, but if it gives us something to look forward to or a positive association with regular exercise it can at least make it more bearable if we’re having an off day. To make this a regular thing, what works best will be something small and inexpensive/non essential - such as scheduling in some extra “me time”, our favourite snack or a relaxing gym sauna sesh. By keeping it small and inexpensive, it’s easy to implement and stay on track with our program/goals, while giving us some positive feedback for our hard work (particularly on the days we don’t feel great, but have still put the work in).
As with workouts, don’t be afraid to mix things up and try different rewards - some will be eternally great, and some we’ll get used to or bored of over time. Saving up for larger treats can work too, but it is easier to lose sight of them over a lengthy period of time. For example, a weekend away in 8 months time is a great reward, but because it’s so far away it may lose its effectiveness as a motivator until we’re closer to the date. Here we could implement a few smaller treats along the way to acknowledge and reward our consistency, culminating in a big reward at the end.
Similar to the friendly competition, we can choose what the winning conditions are - it could be for consistency (hitting the gym twice a week for a month), improving upon a skill/movement (moving from dumbbell squats to barbell squats), or reaching a new level of performance (a new personal best or best time) - and can have different rewards for different achievements. The important thing is that they elicit a positive emotional reaction without breaking the bank or throwing us off course.