Could you eat (insert a delicious food that makes your stomach go “WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”) everyday?
Could you eat (insert a food that burns your buttcheeks and you wish that you could wipe it from the face of this Earth) everyday?
I don’t know many things, but I do know that I’d fight a bear and a tiger at the same time for a Cinnabon and could eat one everyday. Ask me to do the same with arugula or beets and eventually I’d end up trying to jump off a cliff. I imagine the scenario might play out similarly for you, minus the whole bear and cliff thing.
We do what’s fun and what we enjoy.
We avoid what sucks. As flawed as that can be at times, that’s how we roll.
But what if we applied this same mindset to our training and diet?
What if we did we did more of what we liked & loved and less of what we didn’t?
A Case Study In Fun
Kimberly Mills is one of my favorite Facebook friends. She’ll randomly update me with her progress and life happenings, but the reason why I dig her so much is because I can tell that she is living one hell of a life. In her messages she rarely uses periods, only exclamation points ranging from 1-18 depending on how excited she is.
Kim sharing her amazing story in the July/August issue of Experience Life magazine
She works with a trainer, but each set and rep of her training program isn’t locked down and set in stone; she has a ton of fun both during and outside of her official sessions. In fact, and I affectionately call her a special kind of sick because of this, she joined the 10,000 burpee challenge where she does 100 burpees a day for 100 days – definitely not my cup of juice, but if fun were money she’d be making it rain 24/7/365, and that’s more important than anything else.To say that she is loving fitness would be the understatement of the century.
A few weeks ago my friends Andrew Griffin, JC Deen and I got together and trained in a completely different way than we usually do. There was air humping. There were faux English accents, and we swung hammers in a very manly fashion – I can’t think of a time when I’ve had more fun during a workout (I managed to hit some PRs because of all the awesome energy as well.
Since then I’ve completely revamped the way that I train, doing only exercises that I love to death or I think are cool and want to learn, because…
If you aren’t having fun, you’re doing it wrong!
No matter if you want to be ripped like old pictures after a bad breakup or turn yourself into The Incredible Hulk, it’s gonna take awhile to get there, so why not enjoy as much of the process as possible?
Fun is a prerequisite to success.
The road is long and there will be many times when you get frustrated, pissed off and want to ragequit. Try to bypass the fun step and the odds of you giving up before making it to where you want to be are pretty high.
I just put on my Miss Cleo turban, so I can now accurately predict your future – the less fun you have, the less permanent the results. For all my gamer nerds out there, don’t grind to get to the end game without stopping to actually enjoy all the quests and people you meet along the way.
This is a marathon, not a sprint. If you don’t find some way to milk as much fun & enjoyment as you can from the delicious teat of life then you’re missing the whole point.
Some people enjoy the thrill of constantly chasing after a new strength PR. Some enjoy learning a new movement and after months of small successes finally getting it. Some enjoy getting their swole on all day every day. Then there are those who aren’t having fun unless they’re raiding Death’s refrigerator and eating all his sammiches by the end of their workout.
If you like yoga, do yoga.
If you like jogging (and can do it without hurting yourself), go do it every now and then without worrying about muscle loss or strength regression – worrying will do more harm then the running ever could.
I don’t care what you do as long as you love it. Just make sure that what you’re doing is leading you closer to your goals – it’s hard to have fun making no progress.
There is ALWAYS room for good ‘ol fashioned tomfoolery – one workout or meal will never make or break your assault upon the gates of Castle Awesome, so stop treating it like it will.
Need some ideas? Grab your spoon, because here’s an entire bowl full of ideas for you.
Workout Funjections
Homie Fun
Get a training partner or two and just let whatever madness happens happen. Everything is more fun with homies.
Procrastinator Fun
Perform 2-3 sets of 1-2 exercises at the end of your workout.
Example:
A1) Leg Press – 2 x 20
A2) Dumbbell Hammer Curls with optional bicep kiss – 2 x 10
“Oh hi there” Fun
Choose an exercise that you love and intersperse it throughout your workout, staying 4-5 reps below failure.
Example:
A1) Deadlifts – 2 x 5
A2) Tricep Pushdowns – 2 x 8
B1) Dumbbell Rows – 3 x 10
B2) Tricep Pushdowns – 3 x 8
C1) Goblet Squats – 3 x 8
C2) Tricep Pushdowns – 3 x 8
Pump Fun
Get your main strength movement (bench press, overhead press, squat, deadlift, chin up, etc) out of the way and then pump your muscles to oblivion and beyond for the rest of the workout.
Example:
A) Barbell Back Squat – 3 x 5
B1) Barbell Hip Thrust – 2 x 30
B2) Chin Ups – 2 x AMAP (as many as possible with good form)
C1) Bodyweight Back Extensions – 2 x AMAP
C2) Dumbell Squeeze Press – 2 x 20
D1) Barbell Curl – 1 x 15
D2) Seated Row – 1 x 15
“I love everything!” Fun
Pick 4-8 exercises that you love the hell out of and do only those for your workout, varying the sets and reps for each.
“Zomgwtf!” Fun
Fill this workout with exercises that have haunted your soul since the beginning of time, or ones that you rarely do and want to get better at.
Example:
A1) Single Leg Deadlift – 3 x 8 each leg
A2) Pullups – 3 x 8
B1) Dumbbell Walking Lunges – 3 x 10 each leg
B2) Dumbbell Military Press – 3 x 10
C1) Dragon Flags – 3 x 6
C2) Heavy Dumbbell Holds – 4 x 15 seconds
Minimalist Fun
Pick 1-2 exercises and perform 5 sets of each, varying the rep ranges.
A1) Barbell back squat to box – 2 x 3
A2) Barbell bench press – 2 x 5
B1) Barbell back squat to box – 2 x 8
B2) Barbell bench press – 2 x 10
C1) Barbell back squat to box – 1 x 20
C2) Barbell bench press – 1 x 15
Survival Fun
Set a time limit (5-30 minutes is a good range) and see how many rounds of an exercise circuit you can perform.
Example:
A1) Pushups – 10
A2) Burpees – 10
A3) Dumbbell Row – 5 each arm
A4) Single Leg Hip Thrust – 5 each leg
A5) Jumping Jacks – 15
SMASH!
Smash stuff over and over again until you feel like stopping.
Food Funjections
There can be only one!
Eat one nice, hearty meal for the day – that’s it (don’t go out of your way to try and eat as many calories as possible, though).
Treat yo self!
Have a food that you absolutely love…everyday.
All day
Eat a food that you love…with every meal
You nailed it, Rog. I’ve heard tons of “How do you find the energy to work out so much?” or “You have such dedication!” (frequently when I’m about to go run in the dead of cold MN winter) comments, and really, it’s not a commitment to fitness. It’s not about burning calories at all. I’m lifting and running and doing yoga because I happen to LOVE IT. My workouts are not a chore to make myself into; they are a fun activity that I’m excited to do, that I’ve probably been looking forward to all day long!
Amen Sabrina!!!! That is exactly how I feel!!! If your workouts are not fun, why do them? To me easy workouts are not fun, they are boring. If my trainer or I make my workouts easy then I am bored and I won’t want to do them! My trainer makes my workouts fun, challenging, and pretty much butt kicking and I make my own workouts that way too…and people do ask me all the time why I like workouts that do just that, kick my butt, and of course I tell them what I said before… the challenge part of the workout is what makes it so much fun. Because being able to do those challenging workouts and do my long distance runs and come out feeling stronger than ever and the feeling afterwards of knowing that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to and having a hell of a fun time doing it, is what life is all about. Living life and having a hell of a lot of fun doing it!!! 🙂
You too nailed it in your awesome comment – I’m glad that you enjoyed it!
ROG SMASH!
Great article man!
Thanks Chris lol. Love the website name.
This is an absolutely awesome post Rog Law and I am very honored and very touched you included me in your post! The part about the exclamation points made me laugh so hard, because many of my good friends joke about and tease me about my abundant use of that form of punctuation. LOL!!! You have definitely it the nail on the head (or the sledgehammer on the tire :)) when you say, if you are not having fun you are doing it all wrong. If I was not having fun doing what I have been doing this past 27 months with my workouts and my running, I would not be where I am today, living life strong and healthy and having the best damn time of my life!!!!!!! You too, Rog Law, are one of my absolute favorite Facebook friends because not only do you post some very solid information, but your Facebook posts and comments to posts make me fall on the floor pee my pants laugh out loud every single day!!! You are the best!!! 🙂
I cannot be held responsible for falling on the floor OR peeing your pants.
Love it. I couldn’t agree more on how important it is to do the things you love to do. I tend to find myself in the minimalist fun category whenever I need to spice things up.
And nice brogramming! Haha. Definitely looks like a group I would find myself in.
Word up! If you’re ever out here in MA we’ll definitely get a brotacular lift in.
You are brilliant!
One of these days I hope to hit that level lol, thanks!
Hey Rog!
Love this post. Dieting and training can be a long boring road but it definitely doesn’t have to! Love your philosophy on fitting in favourite foods into your diet on a regular basis. Traditional dieting sucks and gets people to give up certain foods which leads to failure.
I personally love strength training and always will! Hitting PR’s on bench and pull ups rocks. With that being said cardio can be boring as hell. One of my favourite cardio/interval I ever performed was on a field with a buddy of mine. We took turns being the QB and wide receiver. If you were the receiver you had to sprint down the field, catch the ball, jog back and repeat. We did this 5x each and then switched roles. We continued this workout for about 20-30 minutes. The rule was that you had to catch all 5 passes or you would have to start again. This made things fun! Most awesome sprint workout of my life.
Greg.
Oh man that makes me want to throw up hahaha
Goodness Gracious, this was awesome. Printing. Thank you, Rog.
Oh damn, you’re using paper resources in such a paperless world – that says a lot =) Thanks, Kim!
Love the article and love your theory. I am a HUGE believer in doing what you love. If you dont like something, why do it? I can’t tell you how many people I have met with that ‘hate running’ yet do it because they think this is the only way to get in shape…this is when the education starts! Exercise should never be something you dread…it should energize you, fuel you, make you want to come back! Great sample workout ideas too!
Exactly! There are a million ways to Rome – choose the one that’s most fun and effective for yuo.
SO SO SO true! What you (and commenter Sabrina) said it dead on. When people say they admire my dedication and whatnot I’m just thinking “you have no idea how much fun I have!!” Granted, there are days I have to kick myself in the butt, however looking at the big picture, the vast majority of the time I am training with a big fat grin on my face. I’m a triathlete who is dedicated to the gym and strength training (my “secret weapon”). It is all done with intensity, focus, but MOST importantly, a sense of playfulness and fun. YES!!!
*high five* There we have it!
Too true…now how can I employ this in my housework!!!
Dance while doing everything….EVERYTHING!
LOVE THIS. You have nailed the essence of really why we do what we do. No one trains ONLY for swole biceps, a killer deadlift or to make the opposite sex swoon – we have fun too, we wouldn’t train if we didn’t love it, because no one sticks through something they hate that long. 🙂
WELL DONE!
Thanks Angela =)
Love this post !!!!!
I love this post too, and agree 100%…however…what about for those of us who don’t *naturally* enjoy weight training (or cardio, for that matter? 🙂 I do dread it, but I force myself to do it because it’s good for the bod. I have been searching for ways to reframe it in my mind into something fun. Has anyone gone from hating it to loving it? And if so, how? And, do you think there might be genetic differences in people that lead some to feel awesome and energized during and after exercising and others to feel, “Well, I’m glad that’s over!” My dad LOVES exercising for the same reason the commenters here do, but I have yet to find something (other than walking) that I actually look forward to. And I have *many* years of various forms of exercising under my belt… For anyone who can help me solve the mystery of reframing my dislike into like (esp. weight training), I will ship them a whole truckload of Cinnabons!
Hey Kah,
I’ll be honest with you: I don’t LOVE training. I love the effects mentally and physically, but the actual training aspect of it isn’t my bag. I love writing, reading, video games haha, so this is just a means to an end. That said, I make my only goal to get to the gym – nothing else. Once I’m there, then I find something to focus on and enjoy about it (I like the feeling of accomplishment after a set, I like the pump, I like being stronger than I was last week/month, etc).
I also look at my training and diet like a video game, relating it back to something I enjoy. Every time I’m in the gym or make a food choice that brings me closer to my goals, I’m “leveling up” in a sense, and that’s enough to keep me going.
Let’s keep this going…because hot damn I wanna earn my truckload of Cinnabons!
That is a *great* answer. It makes total sense, and I love the way you think of it in video game terms. Very clever. The last video game I played was Super Mario Brothers, so I’ll have to think of a more relevant reference for myself, but I like it!
I was thinking, “There’s no way I can just talk in a faux English accent and turn these loathsome prone Superman sets into a joyous occasion.” Although it would be entertaining to see people’s reactions of me talking to myself in a British accent, I’ll give you that much.
I also love that your only goal is to get yourself to the gym. I’m gonna steal that one. Thanks, and thanks for responding!
British accents make everything better! Sometimes when I’m feeling a bit down I go to the grocery store and turn it on and off randomly throughout a conversation and watch their face melt with confusion.
Please steal away and use it to make your life more awesome. Feel free to shoot me an email if I can help you in any way!