Modify Your Workout to Make It More Enjoyable
It’s tempting to want to start your workout with the simplest workout and move on to more intense workouts by the end. But if you’re having trouble motivating yourself to return to another sweat session, rewinding your workout can leave you with better goodbye memories.
In a study earlier this year, published in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Physiology , this idea was tested when some participants were asked to start cycling lightly and increase the intensity to a high intensity by the end of a 15-minute workout. The other group had the opposite workout, starting with hard and ending with light. This means that over time, their experience has gotten better and better. People in this group are more likely to say they liked the exercise and are more likely to say they will like doing it again.
This is also consistent with my experience. The days when I end up feeling great are the days when I can’t wait to come back and do it again. I come to every workout knowing that the start will probably be terrible , but that it will get better after that. As long as you’re warmed up enough to feel comfortable increasing your pace, working hard forward may be the best way to make sure you come back for more.
Does a quick start make the exercise more enjoyable? | World of runners