How To Make Exercise Fun

How To Make Exercise Fun

If you’re searching for ways to make your exercise routine more fun, you must be having difficulty with it. You probably feel frustrated, in pain, bored, experiencing burnout, or overtired. On top of that, you may feel like you’re not making progress, and your inner critic is telling you to quit. However, it appears you haven’t given up yet, and you’re searching for answers to figure out how to have fun exercising.

Reasons Why You May Not Be Having Fun Exercising

When you’re doing it right, exercise is fun. On the other hand, when you’re doing it wrong, it’s something you will loathe and eventually give up. So, let’s start by examining some reasons why you may not be having fun.

You May Be Exercising For The Wrong Reasons

Most people start exercising with a New Year’s resolution or goal to lose weight, look better, or get in shape. However, those goals will happen when you follow a reasonable diet and find an exercise routine you enjoy.

Instead of judging your reasons in terms of right or wrong, it may be more helpful to consider why you should exercise.

  • Physical fitness – Exercise helps you stay healthy. Regular exercise improves strength and flexibility, boosts immune functions, and improves overall health. Exercise can increase your stamina and endurance. You’ll be able to do more for longer. When you have more energy, you’ll have more fun doing exercise.
  • Mental Health – Exercise has been proven to boost your mood, ease the effects of depression and anxiety, and help you sleep better.
  • Exercise helps you control your weight – Exercise burns calories, resulting in weight loss. Although vigorous activity burns more calories, brisk walking can help you lose weight.
  • Long-Term Health Benefits – You will feel better overall. Exercise may also help prevent certain health conditions, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain cancers.

Instead of a specific goal, aim to stay active and enjoy all the benefits of regular exercise. Exercising regularly as you age makes you more likely to remain mobile, flexible, and stronger and to have a better quality of life.

You May Be Doing Too Much

When people decide to start exercising, they often go from not exercising to exercising every day. Going from little to no exercise to a lot of it will lead to irritability, tiredness, burnout, or possible injury. Not surprisingly, any of those things will make exercise not very fun.

First, no one quickly becomes physically fit. However, the benefits begin the first day you start a routine with as little as 10 minutes a day. Moreover, you should start slow and increase a little bit every week. Before you know it, you’ll be working out for 30 minutes or more. If you need help planning your routine, you should talk with your doctor or a personal trainer to help create a program that works best for you.

You Don’t Like Your Routine

There is no shortage of advice on the best exercises that burn the most calories, gain the most muscle, and lose the most weight. You may have even talked to a personal trainer who crafted your ideal exercise routine. So, you resolve yourself to do those exercises since you want to reach your goals as fast as possible. However, you’ll never have fun if you force yourself to do something you don’t enjoy. As a result, you may rush through what you’re doing, take shortcuts, and possibly injure yourself.

How can you have fun exercising if you don’t like your routine? You can’t. It would be best if you did activities that you enjoy. It all counts as exercise! If you don’t like to run, bike, play tennis, or football, then don’t do them. Instead, try something new. You never know what fun new activities you may discover.

Your Exercising at the Wrong Time

Many sources talk about the best time to exercise. Unfortunately, if you’re a night owl forcing yourself to exercise at the crack of dawn, that will not work unless you change your sleep schedule. Additionally, our lives are busy, and we have our schedules to consider. However, you can schedule exercise like any other activity in your life. Try different times and find what works best for you. When you find your ideal time, you’ll have more fun exercising.

when exercise is fun, you look forward

Ways to Make Exercising More Fun

You may already like your exercise routines and activities. However, you may not be having fun exercising right now because it may feel dull or monotonous. Thankfully, sometimes, it takes a minor tweak to put things back on track.

Mix Things Up

Don’t do the same routine every time. Eventually, you’ll burn out or lose your will to exercise. If you exercise outside, try a change of scenery, such as a new trail or route. You may even find a new favorite place to exercise. On the other hand, if you usually go to the gym or workout at home, take a class and try something new, or meet up with a friend and exercise together.

Music Makes Exercising More Fun

Music can do wonders during exercise. Instead of exercising in silence, put together a playlist of some of your favorite songs and listen to them while you’re exercising. Ideally, your playlist should last as long as you plan to exercise. A study from Brunel University London in the United Kingdom reveals that music can make exercise much more enjoyable.

Tracking Your Progress

Tracking your progress helps you achieve your goals and shows you how far you’ve come. You can use a journal, notebook, or mobile app to make tracking your workouts easier and show you how much progress you’re making. Visualizing your achievements and having a record of all your hard work can help you determine what is working and can make exercise more fun.

Celebrate Your Wins

Exercise is hard work. Therefore, you should celebrate when you reach certain milestones or achievements. You don’t necessarily have to throw a party (unless you want to!), but recognize your accomplishments. For example, celebrate every pound lost, every additional mile you go, every 5 pounds more you lift, or every 5 minutes more you exercise. In other words, recognize your hard work, including the small wins.

You Can Have Fun Exercising

There are many ways to have fun exercising. You have to find what activities you like and the best time to exercise that works for you. Through trial and error, you will find activities that you enjoy. However, do not try to rush results. Build up your routine slowly, and include some rest days where you do light or no exercise at all. Don’t forget to be kind to yourself, and above all, have fun!


FitTrend’s mission is to help you along your self-improvement journey, promote an active lifestyle, and help you achieve your goals. Our journal can help you track your workouts, weight, mood, calories, and more. Also, FitTrend allows you to connect supported gadgets to your account to make it easier for you to update your journal automatically. Create your account today and start using FitTrend for free!

Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.

Sign up for more content to help you achieve your health and fitness goals!