Fun ways to exercise: Casual and easy ways to exercise
Searching for fun ways to exercise? Here's a look at fun and easy ways to exercise so you can burn calories, lose weight or build a body that you always wanted at the gym, at home or outdoors. Sweat and hard work are irreplaceable but that does not mean that you should hate working out. Stop feeling lazy and bored, and find the motivation to exercise by having fun while doing it.
1) Exercise with friends: Make your workouts a fun social event
Exercising can become mundane when you repeat the same set of exercises on a daily basis to achieve goals like losing weight or toning your muscles. Make your workouts fun by teaming up with your friends who are also interested in hitting the gym or exercising at home.
Exercise together to loud music, catch up on the week's gossip and compete with each other to reach your workout goals.
2) Exchange vigorous massages with your partner
Massages are traditionally known to open up knotted nerves of the body and eliminate cellulite. While they relax the body of the person receiving the massage, it is a tough job for the masseur.
Add excitement to your massage routine by lighting a few aromatic candles around the room and buying some scented oils. Massaging your girlfriend, boyfriend, husband or wife from head to toe will relax him or her and help you indulge in some physical activity at the same time.
3) Exercise with your partner: Add spice to your workout routine
Exercising with your partner can help you make your workout fun while you spend quality time with your partner. Be each others' workout buddy and support each other to push out one rep after another.
There are many fitness routines that are tailored for couples who want to exercise together at the gym or at home. Reward yourselves with some playfully naughty and fun time after you exercise.
4) Explore and alternate between new workout routines: Learn new forms and types of exercises
Pilates, Yoga, Swiss ball, Tai chi and Taekwondo are a few exotic workouts that you can learn to introduce yourself to a new form of exercise and push the boundaries of your fitness routine.
A new exercise routine will take you on a learning journey and you will discover a new fitness philosophy. This will take you away from the mundane routine that you pursue every day. You will look forward to a fun workout session if there is more to it than just doing the same thing that you do all the time.
Once you are familiar with a couple of exercise routines, you can alternate between them every few weeks. Change is refreshing and alternating between different workout styles will help you cope up with the boring element in exercising.
5) Take dancing lessons with your partner: Add grace, poise and charm to your exercise routine
Dancing lessons with your partner can be fun and sensuous. It can be a good way to take your workout routine beyond the walls of a gym. Learn any dance form that suits your personality.
Choose from exciting dance genres like Tango, Jazz, Samba, Salsa, Ballroom or Hip-hop. Dancing together will help you burn calories while swaying away with your partner.
6) Ride a bicycle: Pedal your calories away
Riding a bicycle can help you exercise some of the important areas of your body. Riding a bike can be a fun workout if you are the type of person who would like to get some fresh air and be in tune with your environment while exercising.
Riding a bicycle is a fun way to exercise because you don't necessarily need to take out time for it. It can be a part of your daily commute. Map out your riding route in midst of sprawling greens of a park or through the by-lanes of your city.
7) Play sports indoors with Wii: Fun way to burn calories
Playing games on Wii can be a good form of light exercise if you want to avoid being a couch potato. Different Wii games can give different movements and a charged up gaming session with your friends will help you burn a few calories away.
Exercising on Wii may not be a complete substitute to the real thing, but it is a fun alternative which is better than sitting on the couch and watching TV.
8) Replace exercise with sports: Quit a boring gym routine for a fun sport
Tennis, football, swimming, basketball and baseball are just some of the options that you can pick up as a fun alternative to exercising in the gym. Pursuing a sport rigorously will see you running, stretching and indulging in heavy physical activity.
Playing a sport will also help you socialize, build sportsman spirit, make new friends and feel good about yourself as you get better at the sport.
9) Replace a chair in the living room with an exercise bike or a treadmill: Pedal instead of sitting
Replace an ordinary chair in the living room of your house with an exercise bike or a treadmill. Every time you are lounging around, you can pedal some calories away instead of sitting like a blob.
Procrastinating exercise may become easy when you have to drive to the gym or go to a particular venue to workout. Don't allow yourself to use this excuse. Putting an exercise bike or a treadmill in front of the TV will give you more opportunities to simply jump on the equipment and burn some calories right away.
10) Have more steamy sessions in the bedroom with your partner
For couples, sex is possibly the most fun way to exercise and burn calories. Don't increase physical intimacy with your partner to burn calories, but use the excuse of burning calories to increase your physical intimacy with him or her.
This excuse will give your relationship a fiery boost and will be just the spark that you needed to get back to being a happy couple.
11) Be busy and plan fun outdoor activities: Give yourself some organic exercise
Being on your toes and keeping yourself active all day can also be considered as a form of exercise. Your need to sweat it out at a gym may decrease if you can remain active all day.
Become more active by planning fun outdoor activities with friends, partners or family. Classic examples are camping, picnics, fishing or other activities that serve as a mini-vacation as well as an organic calorie burner.
12) Walk the dog: Have fun burning calories by playing with your pet
Dog owners have the perfect excuse to step out and go for a daily walk. Look at is as a fun bonding session between you and your pooch. Taking the dog for a walk will also help you meet other interesting dog owners along the way.
Owners of other indoor pets can remain active by playing with their pets. For example, people who have cats as their pets can make their cats run around the room chasing feathers or other toys.
13) Dance to music at home: Let your hair down to burn a few calories
A fun way to exercise and burn calories is to let your hair down to groovy music in your own house. Let yourself get lost in the music and sway away to thumping beats. Dance as if you have no worry in the world.
The best part about dancing at home is that you will have complete privacy. You can wear anything you like, whether it is a funky sports bra or a worn out t-shirt.
14) Work on a DIY home improvement project: Exercising while doing something constructive
You may be used to calling a handyman to do home improvement jobs including fixing planks on the patio, applying wallpapers, vacuuming carpets, patching scraps on the ceiling or cleaning glass windows.
Avoid outsourcing these jobs till you are on a mission to exercise regularly to lose weight or tone up. You will have a lot of fun as you take on such projects. You will be intrinsically motivated because the end goal will beautify your home.
15) Window shop the entire mall regularly: Walk through each and every store
Girls and women will find fewer more fun ways to exercise and burn calories than this one. Pick a mall and window shop it from top to bottom. Avoid taking the escalators and plan to walk or climb stairs wherever you can.
You will have unknowingly walked a lot by the time you have window shopped an entire mall. Be sure to avoid the food court and leave your credit card at home if you are afraid that you will spend on something that you can't really afford.
16) Take up a part time job that involves physical labor: Exercise and earn money
A fun way to exercise and make money at the same time is to take up a part time job that involves either laborious work or a fast paced work environment.
Replenish stock at the supermarket shelves, flip burgers at a busy fast food joint or take up a job in a warehouse – Such jobs will help you remain active and make some extra money at the same time.
17) Train for a marathon and run it
Exercise becomes fun when you have a practical goal in sight. Goals like losing a certain number of pounds or doing away with certain number of inches may remain elusive and unattainable until they are actually achieved.
Training for a marathon will help you focus your energies into a practical goal. Don't allow age or fitness levels become a barrier and look at the training as a step by step process. Increase the distance you run every week. Ask a friend to join your marathon running ambition.
18) Buy a trampoline for your backyard
Get a trampoline for your backyard which you can use whenever you feel the need to refresh. A few minutes will give you just the adrenaline boost you need. Use the trampoline as a fun thing to do and as a trigger to drive away laziness. Follow it up with another physical activity.
19) Do gardening and yard work: Take up gardening as a hobby
Gardening and yard work involves a lot of bending, stretching, turning, twisting and digging. It can be an effective form of fun exercise if you don't want to succumb to the usual grind of running on the treadmill, lifting dumbbells and doing cardio sets at a gym.
Get your hands dirty in your backyard as you tend to your garden, learn a thing or two about your greens and sweat it out.
20) Explore new gyms for fun with trial memberships: Go gym hopping
Many gyms are known to provide free monthly trial memberships to lure new customers to join them. Go gym hopping and try out various gyms on their trial memberships to exercise in new environments and new suburbs.
