How do we make exercise fun? Easy answer: We don’t.
Exercise is not supposed to be fun. It is work. Exercise is performed for three purposes only: 1) to improve performance, 2) improve health, and/or 3) to improve appearance. Improvement, i.e., adaptation, is driven by overload (in order for a body system to adapt, it must be stressed to a level greater than that to which it is accustomed). Anything less yields no progress or the return to a lower training state. Exercise is pushing beyond one’s current level of comfort.
I like to tell my students my philosophy on exercise: It is like the guy who is hitting himself in the head with a 2×4. When asked “Why?”, he responds, “Because it feels so good when I stop.” This is exercise. We “suffer” for an hour or so a day so the rest of the day is better.
I question when someone says they “enjoy exercise”. It is possible that they are referring to the outcome of the exercise—when they are through. If, however, they are enjoying the exercise session, they are either not working hard enough, have a high tolerance for pain and recover fast, or they have a rare physiological/psychological disorder in which pain is imperceptible. Only in the latter case is the answer: “You can train harder.” It is true that one may not wish to train harder. In which case, then, I would argue that they do not wish to exercise. What they desire is “physical activity.”
Physical activity is defined as any activity about resting levels. We are all “physically active” to some degree, if we get out of bed in the morning. Some are more physically active than others. Exercise is a subcategory of physical activity—performed, again, for the purposes of improving performance, health, and/or personal appearance. Some have jobs that require great physical exertion, but this is not exercise. Such people may not need or want as much exercise as us sedentary workers, but their job is not exercise—as I presume they don’t ask for more strenuous work on a regular basis for the aforementioned purposes.
Exercise need not be torturous, but it has to be uncomfortable. It needs to be progressive—in other word, one has to be adding more work (on average) to each exercise session over time.
If the weights or intensity of the cardio have not changed for a long time, you are going through the motions of exercise. If you are not feeling discomfort and perspiring, you are not exercising—you are active, at best. Push yourself. “Get tough and a funny thing happens: life gets easier” (Dani Shugart). Make the “fun” part of exercise the inevitable physiological and psychological changes that will come from working hard and pushing yourself.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!