Avoiding Treadmill Boredom

Great article on SparkPeople this morning about ways to minimize boredom and maximize effectiveness with treadmill workouts.  The principles would work equally well with elliptical, bike, or any other cardio equipment, I'd think.    Short, sweet, and to the point.  Enjoy!

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=266

Karen

Thanks for sharing that.  I just got a treadmill for the house on Sunday!

Hard to spark a conversation with the person next to you if you're doing it at home alone - unless its me yelling at the dog to stay OFF the treadmill!

My personal fav for the t'mill and recumbant bike is MUSIC - I have dozens of playlists set up on my MP3 - am in the process of ramping them up all to an hour in length (most were at 30 mins for just starting).

I start with a nice tempo song for a warm up, then ramp it up with some good rocking music, then take it back down a notch until my heart rate is up then I keep it up thru 3 or 4 songs while adding hand weights (on the bike). Then I start backing off again or I'll increase the tension if I slow down the speed. Fini**** off with a nice slow song to get my heart rate back down. No reading, no TV, no conversation - just me, my music and lots of sweating going on.

My ADD gets really bad when I'm on exercise equipment especially treadmills. 5 minutes feels like an hour, my mind races thinking of what I want to do now. I actually found the Curves circuit training rather effective for my little ADD mind, I get to switch to something else before I have the chance to get bored or let my mind wonder.

Good for you for finding an exercise program that woks for you! You'll do fine at the post op meeting too! This is all about trying new activities and learning to be flexable to work for you.
Chris

I actually pay for digital recording on my tv in exercise room(aka - cramped guest bedroom)