3 Ways to Re-Spark Your Fitness Romance

If you eat the same thing every day, even if its your absolute favorite food, youll eventually get sick of it. Workouts can get that way, too. Interest in fitness will wax and wane, but if your love for working out has officially entered the friend zone.Here are 3 ways to re-spark the romance:  1. Introduce someone to the gym. - They say the best way to learn is to teach – and when it comes to the gym, teaching someone how to appreciate what used to be your favorite place in the world can quickly remind you why you fell in love with fitness in the first place. Put it all back into perspective for yourself by finding a newbie interested in changing their life through fitness. Explaining how to use the facility and equipment, why fitness is so important, and how its improved your life to get someone else excited about the gym is the perfect way to remind yourself why you love it so much.  2. Make yourself a beginner again. - You can try setting new goals, but chances are if whatever you are currently focusing on isnt sparking your fancy, a goal in that area wont be any more appealing. Focus on something new, like a modality or technique youve never tried before. Love the weight room? Focus on flexibility and mobility for a while. It will help you when you return to weights but is a completely different, but important component to fitness that, quite frankly, most of us ignore. Love running? Focus on strength training to cross train, improve muscle imbalances and rebuild that muscle mass your beloved cardio eats away. Or try something completely off the wall you never would have thought of before. Who knows – you might be an Olympic-caliber boxer, and youll never know it if you never lace up a pair of gloves. 3. Take a break. - You can force yourself to go to the gym when you dont want to, but that can backfire if youve already been doing that, like when your mom tells you to do something and you want to do the exact opposite. If you cant stand the idea of dragging yourself through those gym doors one more time, take a few days off. Absence can make the heart grow fonder. If you dont want to skip your workouts completely, focus on more mindful exercise, like yoga or meditation. If something is off mentally – that is, if youre stressed, youre depressed, or maybe you really have no idea why – checking in with yourself and your body for a few days can shine light on whatever mental block you are experiencing. At the very least, the time off may leave you craving your tough, intense workouts again.