Fun Non-Traditional Workouts You Gotta Try
There are a lot of people in this country who hate working out. Typically, it is because they directly associate exercising with feelings of mental and physical pain, exhaustion, and stress. This belief is likely in part due to the fact that what they have tried in the past stressed them out more than it made them feel accomplished. In other words, they didn’t feel like their life improved in any way as a result of that workout.
Whether it was because they didn’t know what they were doing, they felt insecure being in a gym exercising around others, or something else, the reality is that they have now paired these negative experiences of their past with the idea that all types of exercise are stressful and not worth their time.
There is always some kind of exercise program out there for everyone that will make them happy and get the results they never got with the programs they tried in the past. Working out doesn’t have to feel like an obligation or a chore. You just have to be creative!
Here are some alternatives to traditional workouts.
Working Out While Watching TV
Let’s say you need to lose weight but hate going to the gym and would prefer to not leave the house. Instead of forcing yourself to go to the gym, you could invest in some at-home exercise equipment such as a treadmill or exercise bike for cardio and a set of dumbbells or resistance bands for strength.
After getting the proper equipment to do a workout from home, you could give yourself the ability to ride the exercise bike or do strength training exercises while also watching your favorite Netflix shows at the same time!
Here are some suggestions for how to make the most out of your TV Workout:
Commercial Intervals
This is basically a non-traditional version of an interval workout. Whether it be through an exercise bike or treadmill you own at home or through bodyweight exercises, the goal is to do some type of cardio every time your show cuts to commercials.
You do this by increasing the speed or intensity of your exercise of choice and then decreasing it back to a more steady pace once the show comes back on.
Bodyweight exercises could entail doing an easy jog in place during the show and then running more aggressively in place during the commercials.
If there’s several minutes of commercials, consider increasing the speed or intensity during every other commercial instead of the entire duration of the commercials.
Cardio/Strength TV Combo
What this entails is focusing on some type of low intensity steady state cardio exercise (a.k.a. LISS cardio) such as easy jogging in place or riding the exercise bike or walking on the treadmill while the show is playing, and then switching to strength training exercises during the commercials.
Here are a couple of examples of how to execute the strength training portion of these workouts:
Example 1 — Alternating lower and upper body exercises
Commercial 1 = Squats (body weight or with dumbbells)
Commercial 2 = Dumbbell Overhead Presses
Commercial 3 = Lunges (body weight or with dumbbells)
Commercial 4 = Dumbbell Bent Over Rows
Example 2 — Different body parts each round of commercials
First round of commercials = Upper Body Exercises
Second round of commercials = Lower Body Exercises
Third round of commercials = Core exercise
Repeat this order for as long as you’re watching TV
Working Out With Your Dog
If you’re a dog lover, you could get healthy while also having fun playing with your favorite little cute, loyal, and loving companion. You could do this a ton of different ways, but here are some of my suggestions:
“Go Fetch” Sprints
Throw the ball for your dog and then run fast to try and snag the ball before the dog does. Even though your dog might beat you every single time, that’s not the point (as long as your dog is willing to drop the ball so that you can repeat it over and over).
Keep Away
There are two ways to do this one:
One-Person Version: If you’re by yourself, your challenge is to keep the ball away from your dog for as long as possible while also tossing it in the air, bouncing it off the ground, bouncing it off walls, etc., so that your dog has the opportunity to try and steal it back from you. This is not only great cardio exercise, but also helps with hand-eye coordination at the same time!
Multi-Person Version: You and your workout partner(s) try to toss the ball back and forth to one another to keep the ball away from your dog and whoever’s fault it was for the dog stealing it (i.e. pass wasn’t catchable or person dropped easy catch) has to do an exercise chosen by the other person(s).
Multi-Person Example 1: Player 1 dropped a perfectly thrown pass from Player 2, so Player 2 assigns Player 1 to do 30 seconds of jumping jacks.
Multi-Person Example 2: Player 1 threw a terrible pass to Player 2 that wasn’t catchable, so Player 2 assigns Player 1 to do as many push-ups as they can without stopping.
Deck of Cards Workout
This type of non-traditional workout requires nothing but a deck of cards and any exercise equipment you desire (or just bodyweight exercises). This can be very fun and entertaining for those that enjoy the element of surprise or not knowing what is coming up next. Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Assign a different exercise for each suit.
Step 2: Shuffle the deck as best you can and then put the deck face down.
Step 3: Draw the card on top. Whatever the number is on that card is how many reps you have to do for whichever exercise was assigned to that suit.
Depending on how long you want your workout to be, you can either go through the whole deck or, if you’re short on time, take out all of the cards that are a 6 or lower. This way you don’t waste time doing exercises for just a few reps since that will limit how much of an effective workout you actually get.
Example Workout:
Assigned Exercises
Clubs = Push-Ups
Diamonds = Squats
Spades = Crunches
Hearts = Burpees
Card 1: 7 of Clubs— Drop down and do 7 push-ups
Card 2: Queen of Diamonds—You have to do 12 squats
Card 3: 9 of Spades—Drop down and do 9 crunches
Keep drawing cards for as long of a workout as you have the time for (or until you’ve gone through every single card in the deck!).
Remember: No matter how well you shuffled the deck, you might draw multiple cards in a row of the same suit. If this occurs, you can either put that card back in the deck somewhere and re-draw or keep it simple and just do that same exercise again!
Final Thoughts
When it comes to working out, traditional gym-settings aren’t for everyone and certainly aren’t necessary when it comes to improving your health and fitness. No one will ever get the positive results they desire if they dread every single second of their workout.
Sometimes you have to think much more outside the box to achieve your fitness goals. Whether that involves doing workouts while watching TV, playing with your dog(s), using a deck of cards, or something else, there are no laws out there that say you can’t be creative and come up with a non-traditional workout that you actually enjoy doing.