Customizing your workout

Working out can be hard, stressful, difficult to schedule, and sometimes boring. Sometimes you just don’t feel that runner’s high but instead are counting the seconds until you are done. So how do you make working out fit your life? By customizing your workout to your life.

Are you a single parent with few hours in the day? Try spacing your workout throughout your workday with quicker, more intense workouts. Consult a personal trainer to devise a list of exercises you can do anywhere that will suit your body type and help you achieve your goals. If all that fails, challenge yourself to one active movement per hour: take the stairs, run in place, do some push-ups. It will get you off that desk chair and get your blood pumping.

Join a class at your gym to meet new people and to socialize with others while you work out. It will make the time go faster, you’ll make new friends, and get a good laugh in at the funny things your instructor says or does. Your social time will be filled as well as your workout time!

Make a playlist of music or audiobooks to get you through it. Studies have shown that upbeat music actually makes you work harder as you run because your body synchronizes to the beat of the song. Audiobooks can be great for those long workouts where you want to be distracted or don’t need pumping up like yoga or lifting weights. Make it work for you so that you keep your mind busy and your body focused on moving.

As you customize your workout to your life and taste you will find that it is easier to fit it in with your day and it will help you achieve your fitness goals!