Can you believe we’re 10 days in already? That means you might have just sailed into the doldrums. In nautical terms, the doldrums are areas of calm. This is great if you want to float gently about, but not so great if you are in a sailing ship. Calm winds mean little or no progress. This middle phase of our 29 day challenge could feel like you’ve entered the doldrums and you’re not getting anywhere.
So what do you do? First of all, don’t be surprised. You’re still on track. Second, become a master of mixing it up. If you usually do your routine in a particular order, try reversing the order. Another cool trick if you are doing an exercise circuit is this: write your exercises on a popsicle sticks (one per stick) and put the sticks in a cup. Randomly draw out a stick to find out what you’re going to do next. This is fun with a buddy – take turns drawing the exercise. This is even more fun with a group. When someone draws the “20 Burpees” stick, the whole group gives them the gears!
If you usually do 3 sets of 12, try 2 sets of 18, or see if you can knock out one whole set of 36, just to see if you can. If you’re doing a pool workout, try to use less strokes to cover the same distance in the same time. In other words, you’ll be trying to improve your stroke efficiency.
And what about you plankers? Try mixing up your stance. You could try one set with feet close together and the next with feet wider apart. Or hands closer together or farther apart. And, for goodness’ sake, brag about how you’re doing to anyone who will listen. Plank deserves respect.
If you are walking, try reversing your route, taking a different route, or doing your walk with a friend.
I didn’t mention TV yet, but I need something to watch when I’m on the elliptical machine. I make myself warmup for a whole batch of commercials (yuck). But it keeps me doing the activity when I would otherwise have a hard time sticking at it. And if there’s nothing good on TV, I blast out some energetic tunes.
If you have found some helpful tricks, leave them in a comment. See the “Comment Help” page if you have trouble leaving a comment.
We’ll be in this phase for a while, so the more tricks you have to bust the boredom, the better. Good luck!
This is Marilyn,(Mom, Granny) with all due respect, I would like to stand down from my position as Honorary Fitness Mentor. No, I'm not giving up! No way! But I have a dear friend who has decided to join the challenge. Her aim is to try to walk from her room to the front desk of her Seniors' Home once every day. She uses knee braces and a walker – oh, and did I mention that she is 99 years old? I think she Mary Osbourne, deserves to be honored just for even thinking about it!
My tip for relieving boredom is to repeat a little mantra that I have made up to improve my posture as I walk; Left right, left right,
Don't shuffle left right
Lift your feet " "
Don't lean (on your walker)
Walk tall left right
Shoulders back " "
Chest out " "
Head up " "
Chin in " "
SMILE! By which time I'm shuffling again, so I have to start it over again!
Wow – you said a lot there! We certainly can find a suitable replacement for you as Honorary Fitness Mentor. And I loved the boredom mantra. You essentially are ensuring good form throughout your workout. That is a great strategy for not only busting boredom, but also maintaining form. Might have to turn this into a blog post. It's very good.
I've been keeping my brain distracted from doing the plank by watching a T.V series on Netflix. I watch it on the iPod (that way I can keep track of time on my phone) so I have something else to focus on. I've also done some variations to my plank – start out with fully extended arms for the first 15 seconds, move onto my elbows for 15 seconds, back to fully extended, and so on… all while in fully extended plank position until I finish that plank interval. I'm going to try some other plank variations in my workout to make it more fun and exciting. It's definitely tough on my arms, but I feel my arm muscles are getting a lot stronger – and so is my core!! 😀
Keep it up, everyone! You're all doing a fantabulous job 🙂