We’re getting to the end of the year. You’ve been diligent on your fitness goals this year. You did the morning run before sunrise. You did the at home exercises and the treadmill after work. Some weekends you even did a lap or two in the pool. You did the work guys! But with only two months left in the year, you’re feeling the fitness boredom. Even we feel it radiating off you. There is nothing more challenging than entering the biggest food holiday season and having ZERO motivation to keep up all your hard work. Time to change it up.

Running solo on the trail or at the gym? It’s no wonder why specialized boutique fitness settings have become more popular over the years. By including the class setting, those bored with working out alone have a buddy to chat with or a challenger for their competitive nature. Another added benefit to working out with others is learning from one another. Use your workout buddies to help create that next workout or add a fun game for the group to compete. We are social beings and helping to crack the boredom for you may be adding some social time into your routine.

Time to switch things up. It’s ok to branch out from your go-to workout. It keeps the body and mind guessing. Going for that morning run like usual? Try a HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout to keep up the cardio but add a few new moves in. Lifting at the gym after work? Try adding some sprints or spin bike to continue building muscle. By changing your workout regularly, you can target different muscle groups and reduce the risk of plateaus or injury.

Have a playlist to set the tone. With all the music streaming services, the limit does not exist on the music selection available for your workout. Picking your music can help you train better. There are studies on the link between music and your performance. The right kind of music was shown to help people push themselves for longer periods of time and keep you “in the zone”. Loud, fast songs act as great motivators and with a higher tempo you’re more likely to push yourself during a hard workout. It was found that in addition to the right tempo, motivational lyrics were likely to keep you going for longer. Pick songs to pump you up!

When all else fails, taking a step back and reminding yourself of your goals can be helpful. Keep in mind that taking a prolonged break from exercise, while it may sound appealing, can push you back in your gains of fitness success. It can take about two months of no activity to completely lose the gains you’ve made all year. In as little as three weeks, your aerobic power can decline 5-10%. In that same time even the extremely fit will experience a rapid drop in their fitness before finally tapering off. We’re not saying rest is bad but there are other strategies for kicking the boredom out and bringing about new motivation.

Keep up the good work! A friendly reminder that you’re not alone in this journey can be motivation enough. At Gayosocool, we’re here for that and any remaining stubborn problem area left behind.