The leading reason why people give up on exercising at home or in the gym, is nothing more than boredom. Some people just love working out and my wife is one of those people. She says it gives her more energy for the rest of the day and the whole experience works for her. Me? I’m one of the rest of the world who loves the idea of keeping fit and staying in shape for the benefit of my health…but I just wish it wasn’t so boring!

Treadmills by themselves are, let’s face it, dull. Walking or jogging in one place for an hour is never going to be the most thrilling experience which is why, if you are one of the majority of treadmill users like me, you will need a lot of distracting to ensure you keep up with your fitness goals. Treadmill boredom is a massive demotivator but we can fix that.

Treadmill makers know you are probably not going to love their machine as much as they do and that’s why the best treadmills feature lots of different training and workout programs to keep things interesting. The more varied the workout is, the more stimulating you are going to find it and the less chance there is of boredom sneaking in to ruin your plans.

Generally, the treadmills with the best fitness programs built in to the console are also going to be some of the more expensive ones. Entry level treadmills tend to skimp on the programming to keep the costs down and on the most basic treadmill machines, you’ll not find much at all. A good brand to look at in the budget range for a treadmill with interesting and varied exercise programs is the NordicTrack T7 which not only comes with 16 preset programs but is also iFit compatible giving you a great selection of interchangable work out programs and goal based exercise training programs for under £600 if you shop around.

Preset work out and training programs go a long way to shaking up a plodding workout routine and also offer great feedback to help you reach your fitness goals. They also help shake up your routine and stop your body getting used to performing the same actions over an again by adding in things like interval training or workouts designed specifically for cardio fitness or fat loss.

It’s still plodding on a treadmill however, and again, people like me and perhaps you, are going to get bored with that over time. Here are some work out tips featuring some of the things people do to keep things more interesting during their gym time:

1. Use Your Laptop – whether it is for watching movies, following some fitness videos, browsing around you tube or whatever else you can think of to make your time fly by, the Treadmill Surf Shelf is perfect for keeping you entertained. You may have heard of a treadmill desk, which is either something you can jerry rig out of an IKEA desk or build yourself with many of the existing plans online for cheap, or buy built for a rather inflated price. These are great, but you can get many of the same features with this £40 attachment which fits securely over your console.

Invalid xml response.


SurfShelf Treadmill Desk and Laptop Holder for Treadmills, Exercise Bikes and Elliptical Trainers List Price: Amazon Price: This is the cheapest and easiest way to mount a laptop on a treadmill, exercise bikes, elliptical trainer any any ther similar piece of exercise equipment with a console. The SurfShelf treadmill desk is a treadmill laptop shelf which securely fits over your machine’s console to provide a stable platform on which to mount a notebook or laptop computer. If you have seen or heard of a treadmill desk then you known how much one of these will cost you, and how much space you need to install one. This treadmill laptop holder is a great cheap alternative and is the ideal way to watch movies, browse the internet, check out youtube or even Skype with a friend or loved one for a joint workout even if you are miles apart. The SurfShelf treadmill laptop stand is available from Amazon for a great price.

2. Listen To Music – many modern treadmills come with built in speakers and an audio dock point for plugging in your iPod or other MP3 device. The Reebok i-Run treadmill range is a lost cost example of this, and most of the more expensive treadmill also have this feature. I expect this to become a standard feature in future designs for most brands. You can of course just by-pass the whole plug in thing and just go with a sports armband to safely secure your iPod and just go the traditional earphones route.

Tune Belt Sport Armband For Smartphone Devices List Price: Amazon Price: £15.00 This is a versatile sports armband and smartphone holder ideal for your keeping your phone or MP3 player hand whilst working out without worrying about it getting jostled out of a cup holder or knocked onto the floor. It is perfect for listening to music on your smartphone while you work out. It fits multiple larger smartphones and mp3 devices including to date the HTC Desire HD, HTC EVO 4G, Droid Incredible, Droid X and the iPhone including the iPhone 4. This is very comfortable adjustable sports armband made from neoprene which is the same material wetsuits are made from and adjustable to fit arm sizes from 8 inches to 20 inches in diameter. Many of these armbands are made for single device use but this one is designed to fit multipe devices so should you change your phone, there’s a good chance you’ll not need to buy a new sports fitness armband to go with it. There is also an armband extended you can buy should your arm diameter increase with all that gym time.

Invalid xml response.


iGadgitz Neoprene Sports Gym Jogging Armband for iPod Touch List Price: Amazon Price: £15.00

3. Reading A Book or Magazine – one of the old favorites is to read a book or thumb through a magazine whilst you do your morning cardio. This works best for treadmill walkers of course, runners are going to prefer one of the more hands free alternatives. Most treadmills feature a reading rack or magazine holder for just this purpose. If yours does not, or if the treadmill book shelf is too narrow and restrictive (as many are) then there are very cheap alternatives. These are remarkably hard to find in the UK but can be bought for under £20 (which includes shipping) from the Amazon store.


4. Listen To An Audiobook – reading can be hard can be harder to do on a treadmill than it looks. I’m not much of a successful reader and if you are jogging, it’s a little annoying with all that bouncing up and down…made worse if you are on a cheap treadmill and it is swaying around too. Audiobooks are a great alternative to listening to music, allowing you to go hands free and immerse yourself in a book. The first time I tried this I actually extended my treadmill workout because I wanted to hear what happened in the next couple of chapters. Now that’s motivation! Again, if your treadmil lhas a docking station or audio plugin you can use your MP3 player to play these back or buy an armband. You can find thousands of FREE audiobooks online at Librivox.org which features out of copyright classics from authors like Jane Austin, H. G. Wells etc. or an audiobook rental service can save you money if you listen to a lot of books.

Audiobook have always been expensive but there are some great places to buy cheap audiobooks online if you now where to look. One of the best places in for cheap audiobooksin the UK is Listen2Online where you can find audio books discounted up to 70% off retail price all the time. This site is a great way to find loads of speaking books to listen to while you work out without spending a fortune.

5. Use Your Ipad or Other Tablet – Modern innovations in tablet computers are ideal for beating treadmill boredom. Treadmills with built in television are expensive, high end health club machines but you can simulate the exact same thing with either a treadmill surf shelf for mounting your laptop on a treadmill, or by using an iPad treadmill mount. At the time of writing, these (amazingly) do not exist, or I’m yet to find one, but there are easy ways to make your own very cheaply. My favorite is to take a cheap iPad case, attach velcro to the back and to the console and just press it on. it’ll hold perfectly and now you’ve got access to your entire streaming movie library, Youtube, even skype if you want to work out with a buddy across the world. The world is your oyster.

Here’s how one inventive guy turns an average iPad case, a couple of metal rings and a sports bottle into a treadmill iPad stand: