5 Fun Tips for a Healthier Workout-Life Balance

Working out may stop feeling so much like work if you try some of these tips for a healthy workout-life balance.

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Do you struggle with motivation to work out?

Or are you tilting toward the other extreme and falling into workout-a-holism?

Whatever your case, if you feel that fitness is causing an unhealthy amount of stress in your life rather than relieving it, this may be the culprit:

Your workout-life balance is out of whack.

Corporate Training?

Workout-life imbalance is a common issue in these modern times because we’re conditioned to work out like we work:

  • ⌚️ Following some schedule, you,
  • 👟 put on the “appropriate” attire,
  • 🏪 head to some temperature-controlled building,
  • 🎟 scan yourself in, and,
  • 😰 alongside a bunch of other moaners and groaners,
  • 👉 do the work someone else tells you to.

Or something along these lines.

This conventional approach works for some people. If you’re one of them, great! But don’t leave this post just yet. Because I think everyone can benefit from regularly recalibrating their workout-life balance.

Here are five fun tips for doing so.

5 Workout-Life Balance Tips

Let’s re-jig classic, cliché work-life balance advice toward enjoying a better workout -life balance.

group following pink tape to the peak of anvil island
My friends and I enjoy loading up our bags for extra weight and hitting the outdoor StairMaster.

1. Mix fitness with pleasure.

If working out feels like a job you have to do, find a more fun activity you want to do (e.g., hiking, playing sports, gardening, walking your dog wearing a weight vest).

Nature pyramid illustration
Taking your workouts outside gets you onto Level 1 or 2 of the Nature Pyramid.

2. Work out remotely.

Why confine yourself to the stale air of a gym? Work out outside to reap the benefits of stepping onto The Nature Pyramid.

Chris taking a business call in his underwear from home wearing underwear
Improvised standing desks improve your work-workout-life balance.

3. Take your workouts home with you.

And everywhere else.

Move as much as possible. Do things the “hard way” (take stairs, carry groceries instead of a cart, carry babies instead of a stroller). Even sleep hard.

Kim doing a group workout at Kits Beach in Vancouver
Work out with friends who’ve got your back.

4. Join great company.

Surround yourself with co-workout-ers who you enjoy spending time with and who keep you on the right track.

Long term fitness goal cover image of centenarian racing in the olympics
Aspire to become this 100-year-old.

5. Prioritize

You’re not going to be Mr. Olympia or an Olympian, so prioritize becoming an “Old-lympian,” someone who stays fit enough to do fun stuff with their friends deep into old age.

How’s Your Fitness Diet?

Here’s another analogy to round out your perspective on workout-life balance:

Diet.

The “workout like it’s your job” approach is like eating pizza all the time and supplementing with pills, vitamins, and power smoothies to try to be healthy.

A workout-life balance is like eating a natural whole-food diet. The more you make movement an organic part of your everyday life, the less you have to supplement with exercise. 

Thought Starters

  • 🎒 Born to run carry? For a strength and cardio workout that, according to Michael Easter, burns 2-to-3 times the calories of walking with 1/6th the pressure on your knees of running, consider “rucking” – i.e., going for walks with a loaded backpack.
  • 🧱 Fidget fitness? Mayo Clinic research finds that having no couches to sit on or excessively soft beds to sleep on leads to the constant fidgeting our bodies are designed for, which burns as much as 400 extra calories a day.
  • 🧬 Exercise is no substitute. “In the same way supplements should not be the bulk of your diet, exercise should not be the bulk of your movement profile,” writes Katy Bowman, whose book, Move Your DNA, is worth checking out if you’re serious about improving your workout-life balance.
  • 🎽 Put on a different identity. “Lazy” is an identity you layer on top of your core personality. If you don’t like how it’s making you look, replace it with something else that fits your fitness objectives better: “Practical”? “Fun-loving”? “Socially responsible”?
  • 🧹 Give yourself more credit? Maids told they were already doing lots of exercise in their jobs started being more active while cleaning because “they were already halfway there” and lost weight while doing the same job and same lifestyle. (h/t Switch by Chip and Dan Health.)
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About the author

I'm Chris. Canadian, husband, dad, writer, investor, athlete, and obsessed explorer of the secrets to living a never-boring, always improving, unfollowable life story.

2 responses to “5 Fun Tips for a Healthier Workout-Life Balance”

  1. Stark Fitness Studio Avatar
    Stark Fitness Studio

    This is a great piece of writing with a lot of useful information! I really enjoyed the way the story was presented and the writing style was very engaging. I’m looking forward to reading more posts from you in the future! Cheers!

    1. Chris Avatar
      Chris

      Thanks! Subscribe here to not miss out and join thousands of others.

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