Having fun in training - How to facilitate it without going overboard

Making training fun is an important factor, but it needs to be within the context of all other important factors being taken care of. There is no point having a non-effective training program just for it to be fun. If you just want to have fun, play video games, hang out with your friends, go to the movies.

There is a certain amount of grit that will be endured with everyone through training, but, there is no reason that we can’t make training more enjoyable. Because if we don’t then no one would adhere. Find the bits of training that you enjoy. Whether it’s a particular modality, different exercises, or a specific style, and then take advantage of that when you can.

This can be done a number of ways, but one is changing exercises. You cant and shouldn’t have to do this with your whole program. But if doing back squats in stead of front squats for a block makes an athlete happy, I don’t see why not.

If giving athletes an option on a more “accessory” exercise regarding sets/reps/implement/tempo/etc. you’ll probably get 90% of the adaptation with more effort. By this I mean giving an athlete the option between a Barbell or Dumbbell bench press or one of a few rowing variations when these exercises are secondary on a program. This gives them the ability to have say in the program while still giving them the intended stimulus.

This makes it so that athletes are more likely to complete the rest of the program to a higher quality.

To me, that doesn’t even seem like a trade off, it looks more like a win.