I’ve grown to absolutely love my time at the gym– feeling proud when I’m dripping with sweat, when I’ve worked calluses into my palms, and when I can see my baby biceps get a small pump (it looks much more impressive before I hold my arm next to Giles’). But there a times when I dread walking into the gym. My time is stale, the workouts feel endless, and my head is just not in the game. Boredom. It happens to the best of us and the marginal, as I prove. There are a lot of ways to beat the boredom, but one of my favorites is to create my own challenge.
My husband and I usually join a couple of challenges every year on bodybuilding.com but what about those times during the year when there isn’t a challenge going, the goals are piling up and without any hope of achieving any of them any time soon? I don’t know about you, but this is the time when I ponder ordering a pizza (extra large with pepperoni and maybe some cheesy bread) with all the best intention of trying to make it to the gym tomorrow. Although, we all know this routine and that it ends with us eating the entire pizza, leaving no cheesy bread in the box and the only thing that is left on the table is regret. A big pile of regret, hating that we couldn’t just suck it up and get over a little boredom.
There isn’t anything you can do that will keep you from ever having a bad day at the gym or from ever struggling with the boredom of your workout, but sometimes, you just need to add a little somethin’ somethin’ to keep things interesting. And this is where challenges come into play. As I mentioned, before, you can check out bodybuilding’s site to get an idea on what they look like and how they work. The perk of using a challenge created by a site like bb, is that there are so many more people who have joined the challenge and there are often times prizes involved.
Guidelines to Beat the Boredom
Timeline
- Have a set start and finish date. 4, 6, or 8 weeks work well, but you can also have a time period that lead to a specific event (Giles and I created our own 5 week challenge leading to our trip to the beach).
- Have a set number of obstacles options per week. Once a week for more difficult obstacles or once every week day for the ‘lighter’ challenges work really well.
Obstacles
- Have a plan for setting the obstacles. If you’re doing the challenge with a partner, or a team, you can take turns. If the challenge is just for you, you can schedule them out, which is preferable to avoid forgetting or feeling rushed and thinking of a lame challenge.
- Have the challenge get harder as you go. You don’t have to make the obstacles the exact same thing (5 push-ups, then 10, and so on), but have them get incrementally harder.
Incentives
- Have them set you up for success, not failure. I know I’m not a dog, but I rather like it when I get rewarded for my behavior with food. But make sure that the food isn’t going to set you back in your progress or lead to some… shall we say…. delicious, but pudgy-inducing habits.
- Have options for inexpensive or free incentives. BB gets a lot of people to sign up for the Transform You challenge, but if you struggle to scrape together $250,000 as a reward, you can always try something with less mortgage involved.
Ideas
Obstacles for Weekly Obstacles
- 100 burpees with only 20 seconds break
- A 1 mile run
- 120 sit-ups with a medicine ball
Obstacles for Week-Day Obstacles
(these work best if you want to make your obstacles more social media-related)
- Swelfie– a sweaty selfie of yourself after a grueling day at the gym
- Pump it up! That’s right, show off your bicep progress
- Show off your cheat meal
- Think of a creative way to make one of your favorite dishes healthy-style and then share the pic and recipe
- Flaunt your gym outfit
- Brag on your workout partner and pose together
- What’s your motivation? Let everyone know what keeps you going
Rewards
- Try those pricey protein chips to curb the temptations
- Buy yourself a magazine (you can even make it a health magazine, perhaps even one covering healthy & tasty food)
- Go out for some drinks or dinner with some friends. You might want to have the place picked out and already know what you’re ordering, so that you can avoid getting something a bit too indulgent and still get yourself excited
- Gym clothes! These can be super pricey but I always feel less guilty if I know it’s earned
- Gym equipment: some grips, gloves, wrist straps, barbell pad….
I’ll be doing another challenge next month, so be anticipating the social media posts soon, but I’d love to share in your progress with you, so let me know if you would like to join me or make one for yourself.
