Exercising is good for the body – plus, it produces mood boosting hormones. Everyone enjoys the benefits of keeping fit but sometimes, burnout happens. Usually, this burn out is something as simple as just not wanting to exercise for that day and you’re able to get right back on track.
Sometimes, however, the reluctanc6e lingers, and you just can’t make yourself get going with your fitness routine again. When you experience burnout, it usually happens because you’ve been going at it too hard and too long.
You don’t give yourself enough of a break. When you push yourself to the max continually, eventually, you do reach a point where you want to stop and your enthusiasm wanes.
That’s one cause of fitness burnout. Another is boredom. Just as your body doesn’t enjoy eating the same foods for days on end, it doesn’t enjoy doing the same exercises for weeks on end, either.
When you reach the point of burnout, it can cause you to feel fatigued, make it more difficult to regroup and cause you to lose the strides you’ve gained by exercising. You might even reach the point where you find it hard to care about keeping fit.
You’re exhausted, sore, your muscles are overworked and your strength is lacking. When you feel this way, the best thing to do is not to make yourself exercise against your will, because burnout is different from just not wanting to exercise.
If you push yourself, you’ll only hate it more. To get back on track with your fitness routine, go back to when you did enjoy it. Stop pushing yourself for the time being. Don’t compete with yourself to reach the next level or to do more repetitions.
Slow down and find what you liked about exercising. Stop setting do-or-die goals and set your routine up only with exercises that appeal to you such as cycling, jump rope, dancing or swimming or whatever you find fun.
And lose the clock while you’re at it. Stop forcing yourself to stick to a certain length of time for your exercises. If you exercise for 10 minutes, great. If it’s 20, that’s great, too.
Stop working out so often or as long and make sure that you take time off from exercising.
When you skip time off, your body doesn’t get the benefits it needs from a recovery period. Beat the boredom by doing new things or switching around your routine. Boredom is the death of exercise.
Who wants to get fit when it’s a snooze-fest? Your brain needs to be excited by your routine just as much as your body needs the fitness. So exercise outside. Go hiking or swimming outside or join a fun fitness group. Use different music or take a dance class. Exercise at different times of the week if you can. You don’t have to stick to the same schedule every day.
