My Fun Cardio!

I gotta tell ya, getting on a treadmill or exercise bike is not my favorite thing. In fact, I can easily talk myself out of it. It can be boring! It's hard to keep going when all you have to occupy your mind is the ticking of the timer, right? 5 mins...5 min, 1 sec... 5 min, 2 sec....and on and on, ticking away....holy boring! Sometimes I can bring a book and distract myself reading on the recumbent bike, but then I find myself slowing down because I'm paying more attention to the book than my heart rate. I can sometimes run on the treadmill at the gym while watching tv with headphones on, but I have the same attention problem...plus I am always looking at the timer, ticking away.

Like me, you make not be the kind on person that enjoys the mundane. If it's not fun, I don't want to do it. BUT, cardio is soooooo incredibly important to our health. Our hearts need exercise, but do all cardio workouts have to involve a piece of stationary machinery?...NOPE! Let me tell you about the way I LOVE to get my cardio in...and it's fun!

I weight train 4 to 5 days a week. Sometimes at the gym, but in a lot of ways I prefer to do it at home...because I can't dance between sets at the gym :). ... A.) I am not a very good dancer and B.) unless you are in a Zumba class, no one there is dancing. At home, I crank up music that gets me moving, and if I am not doing my weight set, I AM DANCING! I normally try to do 3 sets of 14 reps of each weight lifting exercise, then rest that muscle for 30 seconds between sets, and during that 30 seconds I dance... Energetic, probably goofy looking (though I think I am a dance goddess in my little gym) dance. cardio is all about keeping your heart rate up and dancing surely does that. If I dance between my weight sets, I have accomplished weight training and cardio all at once.... Plus if my dance involves that of the Latin variety I have also worked my abs!

So what's your cardio exercise of choice? What do you do to make cardio more fun? I'd love to hear your ideas!!!