Not Naturally Healthy

Jogging is boring.
Weights are boring.
Exercise gets boring.

Alright, fine, maybe there’re people out there who really really like digging in and pumping the guns but they’re unique individuals. Even Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers who ever stepped into the ring, hated training and exercise, doing it only to ensure that he would beat the living snot out of any man who dared face the Greatest. It isn’t the best option, but sometimes combining the TV and the treadmill may be the best option.

The first few times I changed my jogging route, it alleviated the boredom. For a week, anyway. Then it just felt boring. Same route, same houses, same people. Boredom’s probably a bigger issue that the difficulty involved in exercise. This is probably the single greatest reason that gyms have music and sometimes televisions – if you can get rid of the boredom, you’ll probably get more people into the gym.

Only athletes or people who really, really want a rockin’ bod fight out the boredom with a combination of motivation, training and habit. Most of us aren’t athletes or willing to work through monotony, of course. Happily, the rest of the world is catching up to us in terms of feeding that need.

Watching the TV while running on the treadmill is perfectly acceptable – it alleviates the issue of staring into the same bleak wall or out the same bloody window quite well and can distract you from the difficulty of running, perhaps allowing you to run further than you usually can.

A common method of getting your exercise while having fun is to play with friends. Traditionally, this can be done with a good game of full court basketball or a fast paced game of badminton. Some set up periodic exercise or jogging sessions, often on the weekends. The more competitive minded might look into martial arts or the more brutal boxing to burn off their calories while enjoying themselves.

Now, even video gamers can get into the act with Nintendo’s Wii. Their unique motion-sensing control scheme forces people to be far more active that they would be with a PC or any other gaming console. Nintendo seems to have seen into this boon, with Wii Fit, a game complete with peripherals and the shame that only an emotionless computer could pour and force on someone who hasn’t been fit in decades. Shame or not, this activity can burn off a few more calories than you might think.

There are some concerns with combining exercise with pleasure, the most prominent of which is your form. If you don’t have form, you may as well not exercise cause you’ll probably hurt yourself. For example, the right deadlift or back squat requires precise posture – a straight back a head that’s facing straight forward. If you’re straining to look at the TV while you’re doing these squats, you might find yourself with new dental work – or an injured or even broken back. Now that’s just not cool.

Boredom’s something we all have to deal with when it comes to exercise, but we just have to be careful that it doesn’t make us sloppy on the dumbbells and the machines. Otherwise, the TV and treadmill idea is one that casual exercisers would do well to implement. Who wants to stay bored anyway? I sure as hell don’t.