Hate An Exercise? Do It Every Day

Everyone who works out has an exercise or two that they hate, but they know the benefits of keeping it in the program are worth it. These tend to be challenging activities that require strong exertion or

Your hated exercise might be squats, push-ups, pull-ups, running or any form of interval training. When everything is going well, you tackle these exercises head-on, get them done and feel great afterwards.

But when you are a bit tired, lacking intensity or want to cut the session short, these exercises are the first to be removed or modified to be easier.

The problem with this approach is that progress can slow down. If you aren’t doing these exercises as planned each week, they will lag behind the work that is getting your full attention.

This can further deflate your motivation to do them because you feel like the hard work that you do complete is unrewarded, which is made easier when you are looking to avoid them anyway.

I have this happen to me all the time. In fact, I am currently at the end of a three-week rut where I’ve been avoiding running like the plague (too soon to say coronavirus?). Yesterday, after cutting out the running component of an otherwise great workout, I reviewed my strategy and decided to go back to an old favourite method to build up some momentum.