OyChicago blog

My eight-year-old nephew slept over a few weeks ago. Like most eight-year-olds, he loves to just run around. He doesn't need to play baseball or shoot hoops, but whatever he does is fun. As adults we somehow lose the fun factor. People walk by my office with this look of dread on their face and whimper, "tell me I should work out today." And of course, I oblige.

Working out does not have to suck! You can have fun. People like my boot camps and training sessions because they laugh while they sweat. The clients training for a particular event, probably have a little less fun but that's by choice. Some sadists just enjoy a good old-fashioned butt kicking in the gym and I love them for it. If you can make your workout fun, you will be more likely to keep doing it.

People love Zumba because they like to dance. If you do not like to dance, maybe you would like to hike, kayak, play basketball… Those might not have the same benefits of weight training, but you can even make weight training enjoyable.

I make weight training fun by throwing a medicine ball against the floor (slam) and getting out some aggression. I enlist a friend to throw around a medicine ball with me. I try new equipment like the RIP Trainer, sand bags, VIPR… I also love a good agility course. And I've learned a lot of my clients like that too, so did my nephew.

I took my nephew to a park and let him help me put cones, loops, tennis balls, an agility ladder and other equipment in random order. I picked two pieces of equipment to arrange my way, and he picked two pieces to arrange. We then hopped, kicked, ran, jumped, and crawled around the equipment. Check out the short below. We alternated showing each other how to do the course. He LOVED it, and so did I. It was fun. He had no idea he was working on speed, jumping ability, and coordination. When we came home from the park, he guzzled two cups of water and my wife took one look at me and said, "I've never seen you so sweaty." All it took was 30 minutes in an open field, check it out.

The obvious moral to this story, make fitness fun. A subtle sub plot, make exercise part of your lifestyle and include your friends, spouse, coworkers, children…