Exercising When You Don't Want To

I was tired too tired to work out. To psych myself into exercising, I decided to do something completely different from my usual strength training routine. I grabbed two different size weights and got to work.

The 10 x 6 (what?)

I made it up on the fly. I often do two or three sets of mid-to-heavy weights (until my muscles are tired, or anywhere from 12–18 reps).

I usually “superset,” working two muscle groups back-to-back with no rest in between (sounds exciting. “It’s getting hot in here.” Sing it, Nelly). The day in question I worked one body part at a time, 10 reps, with 5 seconds rest, for six sets.

Example: 10 biceps curls, 5 second rest, 10 more, 5 second rest, 10 more, etc. After four sets my arms were burning, and after six sets they (almost) fell off. I repeated this for the major muscles in my upper body.

Time flew by. It was different and didn’t take much more time than my regular workout. I was able to trick myself into exercising when I didn’t want to.

Even trainers grow bored with working out.

The moral of this story? When in doubt, shake it up. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you do something. So step outside your box and f-ing crush it.