It seems so many humans and dogs struggle with staying fit, but if you make fitness fun, it becomes easy to stay fit. Bailie and I got together to discuss what we find to be good tips to help humans and their dogs get and stay fit.
5 Tips To Make Fitness Fun
You don’t need to get frustrated, angry, and get your furry panties all in knots over getting and staying fit. Don’t force fitness either. Fitness is something you need to do over a lifetime, not just for a short time to lose weight. Hopefully these 5 tips will help make fitness fun for you and your dog.
1. Find Activities You Like To Make Fitness Fun
Bailie and I love to play chase. We chase in the yard almost daily which is a fantastic workout! Mom loves to run, so she runs with Bailie in the mornings and they both have a lot of fun on their runs. If you can find a workout activity which involves your dog, it helps keep you motivated as we love working out and make excellent fitness buddies!
2. Take Up Convenient Activities To Make Fitness Fun
Try to find convenient activities to limit the excuses you make. If you don’t like driving to your fitness activity, then find one at home you can participate in. Maybe start a neighborhood walking group? Bailie enjoys Frisbee games in the yard. Neither of us retrieve, so Mom has to chase Bailie around the yard to get the Frisbee back which is a good workout for them both.
3. Simple Activities Help Make Fitness Fun
Simple activities are often the most fun and the easiest to get hooked on. If you need a lot of fancy or expensive gear, or specific weather conditions, chances are you won’t stick with your program. Many communities have public tennis courts which are fenced in. Take your dog along and hit balls, let him retrieve or chase them. You don’t need much equipment and it is a fun way to workout together with your dog.
4. A Routine Will Help Make Fitness Fun
Establishing a routine is key to a successful fitness plan. Find the activities you enjoy and make a schedule. For example, maybe you want to walk for an hour Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, put it on the calendar and do it. Set reminders, make it a priority. Stick with your program for a minimum of a month. It takes the brain at least that long to start feeling like it needs the particular activity. Throw away the excuses and just do it. Your dog will come to expect the activity as well. We chase every night in the yard and if for some reason we can’t go out and chase, we are not happy. The same goes for walking and running every morning. Mom couldn’t say “no” even if she wanted to!
5. Make Fitness Fun By Having A Variety Of Activities
Variety is the spice of life and will make fitness fun! We alternate between running, and walking in the mornings. On all our walks and runs during the day, we vary our routes to keep from getting bored. Mom does most of her working out with at least one of us, but many people workout at the gym, go skiing, or other activities without their dog. The point is to get in the habit of working out and create enough variety to eliminate boredom.
Find activities you love, stick with them, vary them, and bring your dog along. You will succeed at making fitness fun and you will be likely to stick with your plan! At our house we all look forward to working out because it is fun, and that is how it should be!
Iβm co hosting the FitDog Friday Blog Hop with SlimDoggy, and To Dog With Love!Β Please join us on Fridays to share your fitness stories with others, find new ways to have fun, and new fitness ideas too! Tell your friends to stop by as well β fit dogs are healthier, happier dogs!
Those are some great tips! If it isn’t fun, we probably won’t do it! And we need to mix it up to keep things fun too.
It seems like many humans don’t have fun with their fitness and it is why they don’t stick with it.
Great post, Emma! I used to hate exercising until I got my girls! Now it’s way more fun because I have my two best friends to go with me and sometimes I can even convince other dog owning friends to come, too!
Thank you! Really, has anyone ever seen a dog say no I don’t want to exercise because it is not fun walking or running or playing unless they have a health issue of course. So glad you enjoy it now!
Don’t forget to meet up with your fur-iends to make fitness fun!!! BOL, see you soon!!! π
We definitely won’t forget!
Glad to hear that you are having fun with your mom! Happy Friday!
We are all fitness buddies and keep each other motivated and on the move.
I like that tips! Many thanks! It’s impawtant to stick with your program, as soon as you missed it or your furgot it, it’s not easy to go back to the plans you made once.
Gotta make it a habit to keep it.
it is always more fun when you have a buddy that like to play as much as your do – we are the opposite – we both love to veg π
My sisters and I love action, but Mom kills us. She always wants to do more stuff and we are pooped out!
We live in the city so we walk a lot but I can’t say we run. To old for that.
No one has to run, there is biking, walking, playing sports, many ways to keep active with dogs that are fun.
#6 Keep up with Bailie and Emma! No better way to exhaust yourself.
More like keep up with Bailie. We just got back from the park where she was in sprinting mode most of the time. It was too hot for me, so I hung back by Mom and let the little one run and get other unsuspecting friends to deal with her.
Such a good point you made Emma – fitness is a lifelong activity, not just a short term fix for bathing suit weather or whatever. All of your ideas are great!
Love the action shots, how fun for you guys. I have been hooked on fitness for years. Once you get it, it never goes away. Because of years of running, I now have to walk or bike, but it’s all good. And especially good for the dogs.
Mom and us girls are the same way. It is ingrained in us and if we don’t workout, we are all antsy and miserable.
This is a great post, Emma!! All of us love walking with our peeps and, since they have a hard time walking us all at the same time, sometimes they get to do 3 or 4 walks a day!!
Smileys!
Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo
LOL! My mom has to do everything double for us too because of Katie being so slow, but she doesn’t mind. More time outdoors getting some exercise.
Brilliant post! Fitness has to be fun!
We always feel bad for people who don’t enjoy fitness because it is so fun for us.
We love our walks and playing “Fence Ball” with the peeps. They throw the ball at the fence and we catch it. Pierre is like Bailie and takes off running when he catches it. Once Mom gets her bum knee fixed (again) we will be able to do more.
Didn’t know your mom had a bad wheel. Maybe you boys could pull her around in a wagon? I just look at tossed balls, would never think to pick one up, Bailie isn’t good at catching, but she gets them on landing and runs off.
Zoomies are the best
Lily & Edward
Zoomies are so fun! We can’t imagine any dog not enjoying them.
Oh Emma, you and Bailey sure have fun! My sister is too old now to REALLY give me chase, and I DO so love this game. I am trying to get my humans motivated to do ANYTHING that involves outdoors, but so far they just weed and pick tomatoes and cut the grass – boring stuff, but they sure seem to like it. I heard rumors that we MIGHT be getting a new four-footed housemate, but we don;t get to eves drop much and lots of other activities are going on and need to get finished first. Your friend, Chablis.
My mom does play some chase with us, but she is not good at it at all. Katie and I used to play all the time, but she can’t do it anymore, so it is Bailie and I. A possible fur sibling? Hmmm…hope it is a grand π
Thanks for the tips Emma. Mixing it up and trying something new is always a good way to put a spark back into your workout routine.
The same old thing gets old pretty fast!
I love these tips!!! That one photo of you in just priceless too!!
α¦ husky hugz α¦ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Thank you. We want everyone to be fit an have tons of fun doing it.
These are very sound and sensible tips! We do our best to stick to routines. Recently Sheba had been limping so we had to switch things around and couldn’t play like we always did daily. I think I was more upset about it than the dogs were! I can’t believe how much I’ve come to enjoy coming home from work and playing with them in the yard. It’s so great after sitting at my desk all morning. Sheba is better now, thank goodness, so we’re back to our routines. I have gotten much better about being flexible too though, I don’t let disruptions like that throw me off completely like I used to….the dogs keep me motivated.
Have you tried Rejenease with Sheba? Katie limped for several years, nothing helped but with Rejenease it stopped after a month and she hasn’t limped since February.
We love seeing your running photos, now’s that’s fun!!!
It is our favorite form of exercise!
Really great ideas!
Variety is key for us. We get bored walking the same routes so we switch it up.
We never do the same long walk more than once a week. We don’t want to get bored.
You are so right, Emma, we need to keep our activities fun and diverse! We couldn’t imagine just hanging around the house all day long..while we like to cuddle on the couch at night time, we are active every single morning, and incorporate several fun play & training sessions throughout the day.
When we didn’t have a house with a yard and lived in an apartment, we actually went to a tennis court in our neighborhood every now and then so that our pups could stretch their legs off leash π It was super fun!!
Mom went to tennis courts with her first dog all the time. They had a yard but it wasn’t fenced. We are a huge snuggle, cuddle family, but it is more fun after some good workouts!
That does look like fun! Now, do you have any tips on making it more fun to eat healthy?
For both dogs and humans I think it is tough initially, but if you slowly weed out the bad stuff and add in healthy stuff, you body loves it and over time you won’t even like the “junk” anymore. I know even things like bacon are hard for Mom to eat much of these days as it is just too fatty, and we love the all natural treats and our grain free raw infused food. Just like exercise, the transition won’t be overnight, but if you stick with it, it will happen.
Excellent tips. I will be glad when I can do stairs again without becoming winded…lol.
They say it takes a long time to get fit, but you can get unfit in no time flat. Doesn’t seem right! Hope you are able to do more and feel better soon.
Every day is a little better. π
those are some great tips and looks like you girls were having a great time!
No matter how much I walk, I can’t seem to shake this weight, BUT I do notice I can do more without being winded. It’s a good thing!
There have been periods when Mom only walked and didn’t run and she said it was not good. Walking is exercise but running burns more calories, so she usually runs 3-4 times a week with Bailie.