For many of us, avoiding the dreaded dad bod is a full-time preoccupation. We’d love to have chiselled abs, but beer, business and sloth get in the way.
But what if there was a way to trick yourself into shape? What if there was some way you could rig your life to give you the physique you’ve always wanted, but without all the time and conscious effort?
Fortunately, there is. Try these hints and tricks.
Take Up A Thrilling Activity
Doing exercise “for the burn” gets old pretty quickly. You feel fired up for the first couple of weeks of January, but after that, it starts to grate, and you ultimately wind up throwing in the towel.
But what if there was a way to get thrills out of physical activity? Then you’d be in business, right?
For a lot of dads, the only sports that do it for them are those that involve a mountain bike or surfboard. Everything else just feels like going through the motions.
Do A Mini Workout
The prospect of spending 90 minutes in the gym, pounding away at the weights, is enough to put anyone off exercise. But if you just do a mini workout, you can make the whole thing a lot more manageable. All of a sudden, the fear goes away and you can see yourself getting through it alive.
Working out hard when you’re out of shape is a bad idea. Not only do you risk hurting yourself, but you also train your brain to expect pain every time you leave the house wearing your jogging shorts. You don’t want that. To avoid that, start with a small five-minute stint and work your way up from there.
Manage Your Goals
If you think that you’re going to get the body you had in college back in a couple of months, you’re sadly mistaken. Time probably hasn’t been kind to you.
Where possible, manage your goals and expectations. Be realistic about what you can achieve, and by when. It’s possible to get into the shape of your life in your forties or fifties, but it takes a long time, clever training and a lot of hard work. Don’t go for gold immediately when a red rosette will do.
Go With The Flow
Trying to go against your body’s flow is like paddling upstream. You can try it, but you’re going to feel exhausted pretty rapidly.
That’s why many health and fitness gurus recommend that their clients just “feel” their way to fitness. Getting in shape isn’t about “mental discipline.” It’s more about just enjoying physical activity and transforming it from a chore into something you actually want to do.
Try Different Types Of Workouts
Trying different types of workouts is a great way to get fit and keep things interesting. Challenging your body in new ways is a fabulous way to build an all-round physique and build your functional strength. For instance, on Mondays you could go cycling, on Tuesdays, you could hit the gym, on Wednesday you could go climbing and so on.
