They're called workouts, not funouts page 2

[Owly]

Yeah, For me it's the rep before the last rep. I slam it down and resetting thinking "Fuuuuuuuuuck, I got one more of these".

And then the next day, my adductors are killing me, so I feel like I'm walking like a cowboy in a cheesy western. That's when I repeat my personal fitness mantra, "It's good for me...it's good for me."*


*my other fitness mantra is pulled out during brutal metcons and is based in my Dory philosophy of surviving workouts: "Just keep swimming...just keep swimming..."

[Alex Good]

I'm confused... Do you believe that enjoying working out is wrong or using fun as an excuse to slack off is wrong? Because I decided long ago that summer is the time for fun, not boredom.

Of course I enjoy going as fast as I can and climbing trees so I guess I'm good anyway.

[Liam]

I'm somewhat confused as to your point but if you're complaining that "the #1 selling point of most any fitness program/idea is... fun" then I disagree. If a currently unfit friend was choosing whether to join a softball team (which they thought they would enjoy), or join a gym (which they know they won't enjoy), I'd say softball every time.
It's only a small % of people who have the willpower/motivation to go from zero to painful workouts and not quit. Better to do less, enjoy more and build fitness progressively over time than do a workout or two then quit (which is what most folks do).

I absolutely put my long term success and sticking-to-it of both my diet (primal), and exercise program (boot camp) because I enjoy them. No diet or exercise plan I ever tried that I didn't enjoy stuck.

So when marketing to the unfit, fun is absolutely the most important thing when starting out. But it has to be real movement and non Wii-fit fake movement.
If you're already active, then a pain/results equation becomes more viable.

[Ripped]

A simple workout and diet plan can work wonders. So marketing anything that perpetuates beliefs otherwise is only to make money, but unfortunately also contributes to the worsening of the obesity epidemic.

Aside from that, while fun isn't necessary for achieving a good body, it is really good for the mind. So for that reason I am becoming a big believer in play.

Workout efficiently and don't waste time. And go do some real playing on your free time.

[Coach Palfrey]

Working very hard and having fun are not mutually exclusive. It all has a lot to do with attitudes towards exercise and activity.

[UK Guy]

Working very hard and having fun are not mutually exclusive. It all has a lot to do with attitudes towards exercise and activity.

I think Coach that this statement needs to be qualified with the realisation that in saying it on here you are kind of preaching to the converted. I think the original post was reflecting on how society as a whole views exercise. From what I have read MOST people on here do enjoy their efforts. Many in normal society do not. It would be like us trying to fathom out what a trainspotter gets out of their particular activity, but quite a few get pleasure out of it, but most in society regard them as odd. Similar feelings are often expressed towards people who go to a gym or who go running on the road....Trying to explain the pleasure one gets from the "pain" of effort would probably be pointless. In that sense if the objective is to get the population moving, then more fun may just be the solution, and as Liam rightly said you might see a gradual progression by some towards the harder stuff when they realise that it wasn't quite as daunting as they realise.....

[Coach Palfrey]

I think the people that post on here might enjoy their efforts but there are hundreds (if not thousands) more lurkers that are still unable to get moving in one way of another.

I completely agree though that fun activities are a great option. And that there needs to be a shift away from traditional exercise options in most societies.

[jetta86s]

The mentality of treating it as a fun thing to do is for people who find it tedious to work hard on an intense workout. I AGREE to what this article says, being able to achieve what you usually don’t get is a SATISFACTION beyond that sense of having fun.

[UK Guy]

I completely agree though that fun activities are a great option. And that there needs to be a shift away from traditional exercise options in most societies.

Well we agree on something then. I'll be honest as a PE teacher by profession the rot starts to set in at school. There is too much emphasis on competition, and over analysis of performance in recent years especially. Schools should not be attempting to churn out future pro athletes or coaches. Instead PE should be the gateway to as many activity experiences as possible, ranging from various dance forms, playground games,to competitive team and individual sports and everything in between. I cringe when I see some schools make every child do some form of sports qualification or award. They often over educate the whole fun out of it all. PE should be where activities are explored in breadth, not depth. If someone discovers an activity they love in the course of a lesson then the school should then help them locate a club or group where they can then explore it further....
The emphasis on competition in this country, ( which has been fostered by successive recent Governments and the desire to create a legacy and prove the money spent on the Olympics to be worthwhile ) is only beneficial to those who are good at those competitive activities. It robs many of self esteem and discourages them from participating in future. Children can be healthily competitive....it's when they are pushed, influenced or directed by adults that the problems start....FUN should be the main driving force behind activity. The self motivated will then compete with themselves or others of the same ilk if they are so motivated to ( internally that is..not by adults or extrinsic factors such as trophies etc...)

[Owly]

I think that's what I was trying to say when I said that play is an active verb. We need to revive the idea of play as something we actively engage in and make the distinction between active play and more passive relaxation activities.

Which reminds me--older multiuse swimming/fitness facilities here tended to be named leisure centres. The new ones are called recreation centres or sports centres. I think that's an interesting linguistic shift that reflects our cultural ideas of what "leisure" means. We once viewed going for a swim or playing a game of racketball, for example, as a kind of leisure time activity, not some kind of painful moral obligation.

Also, I think school PE programs can help encourage activity, but I also think kids need good examples at home. Just like children who are avid readers tend to come from families where parents are readers and support and encourage reading, I think parental behaviours around activity definitely have an influence. I attribute some of my adult enjoyment of physical play to growing up in a family that went swimming together almost every weekend, did nature walks and hikes together, camped, played soccer at family picnics, and so on. My grandfather broke his leg while playing baseball with my cousins in his 70s. These examples of lifelong playful activity stick with people, and so we now carry a bag of various balls, baseball gloves and bats, and a couple of frisbees in the back of the vehicle to any sort of outdoor gathering.

But I don't think of that as workouts. I think of that as normal, healthy human activity. I think it's actually helpful to make those distinctions. Then maybe people will stop seeing a pickup game of tennis or a walk with friends as some arduous thing that they can't possibly do without fancy clothes, special shoes, and a full-on hydration system. If people see those things as fun and not formal exercise, maybe they'll play more.