Should You Do Workouts You Hate? The Truth About Motivation & Results
Be Honest—Do You Actually Enjoy Your Workouts?
If you’ve ever forced yourself through a workout you hated because you thought it was the only way to get results, you’re not alone.
A lot of women—especially over 40—believe they have to do certain workouts, even when they dread every second. Running, HIIT, barre, Pilates… if you’ve ever thought, “I need to do this because it burns the most calories”—you’re not crazy. But you might be setting yourself up for failure.
So let’s break it down: Should you do workouts you don’t like? Or is there a better way to reach your goals?
The #1 Reason People Think They Have to Do Certain Workouts
A common belief in fitness is that more pain = more progress.
That’s why so many women force themselves through workouts they hate, thinking:
✅ “Running is the best way to lose weight.” ✅ “HIIT burns the most calories, so I need to suffer through it.” ✅ “If I want to tone, I have to do Pilates, even though I hate it.”
But here’s the reality check: You don’t need to do workouts you hate just because they’re trendy or seem ‘effective.’
If you force yourself to do something miserable, how long will you actually stick with it? And more importantly—is that workout even helping you reach your goal?
Should You Force Yourself to Do Workouts You Hate?
The real answer? It depends.
Not all workouts are created equal. Some will give you the best results, even if they aren’t your absolute favorite. But others? If they’re making you miserable and they don’t align with your goals, why bother?
Here’s a simple 3-Category Framework to help you decide what’s worth keeping:
1️⃣ Workouts You LOVE (Keep Doing These!)
These are the workouts that make movement natural for you. They may not be the most ‘efficient’ for fat loss or muscle-building, but they keep you consistent.
✔ Dancing, hiking, swimming, group classes ✔ Anything that makes exercise feel fun ✔ If you love it, it’s keeping you moving—so don’t stop!
2️⃣ Workouts You DON’T LOVE (But Give the Best Results)
Strength training falls into this category for a lot of women. You don’t have to love every rep—but you should respect the results it gives.
If you want to lose fat, build muscle, and reshape your body, skipping strength training is NOT an option.
3️⃣ Workouts You HATE (And Don’t Align With Your Goals)
If a workout is both miserable and ineffective, it’s time to let it go.
Hate running and only do it for fat loss? You don’t have to run. Dread HIIT but feel like you ‘should’ do it? Not necessary. Avoid lifting because you think it’ll make you bulky? You’re missing out.
Bottom line: You don’t have to love every workout, but you also don’t need to suffer through something that isn’t serving you.
The Real Reason You Might ‘Hate’ a Workout
Before you ditch a workout completely, ask yourself:
❌ Do I hate it because it makes me feel weak or inexperienced? ❌ Am I avoiding it because I don’t understand why it’s necessary? ❌ Am I doing it wrong (bad form, wrong weight, poor pacing)?
Sometimes, it’s not the workout—it’s how we’re approaching it.
Example: The first time you lift heavy, it might feel uncomfortable. But in 3 months? You could feel strong as heck and wonder how you ever lived without it.
If a workout is giving you results, give it 4-6 weeks before deciding it’s not for you. But if it’s miserable AND unnecessary? Ditch it.
How to Make ‘Not-So-Fun’ Workouts More Enjoyable
You may never love every workout, but you can make them more bearable (and even fun!).
✅ Pair it with something you love → Listen to an audiobook, podcast, or hype music. ✅ Make it social → Train with a friend or join a community. ✅ Focus on progress, not just the workout → Seeing yourself get stronger is way more motivating. ✅ Switch up the format → Hate slow strength training? Try circuits, supersets, or functional strength moves.
Sometimes, you don’t need a more fun workout—you just need a smarter way to approach the ones that work.
Final Takeaway: Do You Need to Love Your Workouts?
No, you don’t have to love it. Yes, you DO need to do what works.
The key is balance: ✔ Do the workouts you love for consistency. ✔ Do the workouts that get results, even if they’re not your favorite. ✔ Let go of the ones that make you miserable AND don’t serve your goals.
And if you’re ready for a structured plan that takes the guesswork out of what actually works, check out the EM2WL Training App—it’s designed to help you reset your metabolism, build muscle, and burn fat without wasting time on workouts that don’t work.
Are you curious about how our EM2WL clients are doing? In this video series, we’ll be highlighting one of our amazing success stories! This particular client has lost an impressive 20 lbs! Watch the youtube videos above to learn more about her journey and find out the tips and tricks she used to achieve such great results! We hope you find this information helpful and inspiring. Congratulations, Athena, on your incredible accomplishment! You should be very proud of yourself! Way to go!!! :)
Part 1: How to Cut For Fat Loss (Without Losing Muscle) – Kiki Reacts
There is so much conflicting information out there. One person tells you that carbs are the devil, while another claims that all you need to do is cut out fat and you’ll lose weight. Who’s right? And more importantly,, who’s wrong? In this episode, Rebecca Scritchfield and I debunk some of the most common diet myths, set the record straight, and give you the information you need to make healthy decisions for your body.. So put down that fad diet book, grab a donut (yes a donut!), and watch us on Youtube or in the podcast below!
Diet Myths Debunked: What You Need to Know
Dieting maintains its power because it creates a deep need. So “I’m not good enough as I am right now. This is a pain point, and it promises that life will be so much better if you do this, right? And we ACTUALLY believe that promise! We feel hope just from that visual of that imaginary better life or how your body would look after losing a certain amount of pounds on Whole 30 or whatever. That visual sends a dopamine reward to your brain, saying, “This would be good if this happened to me.” So we’re not thinking rationally. We’re emotionally sold on the vision of what I can’t have, as I am right now. I must work to achieve this by depriving my body. It’s very, very twisted.
What if I told you?… You don’t need to eat low carb, workout for hours a day, spend your weekend meal prepping, or even miss out on eating donuts with your kids. Did you know that you CAN lose weight WITHOUT cutting out the foods you love?
How to Lose Weight WITHOUT Cutting out the Foods you Love
In this Youtube video, we are throwing back to my interview with Amber of Biceps After Babies (@biceps.after.babies on IG !) as she speaks ALL about how she created a body she loves WITHOUT giving up the foods she loves!
In this chat, you’ll discover, how YOU can also be an example that ALL foods can fit into your diet and that you can eat the food you love while seeing the progress you want to see (rather than taking breaks from your progress to “enjoy life”).
If you…
Eat “healthy” but don’t see the scale go down.
Are overwhelmed with the thought of getting started counting macros.
Feel “stuck” or “frustrated” in your fat loss journey.
Start the day with such good intentions but then end it with a carton of ice cream and guilt.
It doesn’t have to be this way….
You CAN find food freedom AND finally make progress on your fat loss goals… …without having to cut out ice cream or pizza.
(Got a friend who is struggling, removing everything from their diet, and seeing no progress? Share it with them!)
And Great News!!!
My friend, Amber Brueseke from Biceps After Babies, will be holding a FREE 5 Days to a Fitter You Challenge starting March 21, 2022. Trust me, you will love it!
Want to get fitter WITHOUT misery? Nothing restrictive. Nothing off-limits. 100% customized to the body you want? THIS CHALLENGE IS FOR YOU! Daily Emails, Daily Training, and ALL recorded – so get in it, get on it, and invite a friend!
Although it’s common at the start of our journey, overcomplicating the process can stop us from progressing at all.
Overcomplicating the Basics
Overcomplicating is a procrastination tool for many of us – a way to avoid doing what we know we should be doing. Although society seems to place entirely too much value on more complicated tools, systems, and tactics for reaching goals, we tend to miss the obvious downside to having such values…
If the process is too confusing, we risk giving up before even starting. We spin our wheels, knowing what needs to be done, but refusing to actually start until we have “all the steps.” The ability to call yourself out when overcomplicating is crucial. In most cases, it’s not a matter of doing everything we need to, it is a matter of doing the first thing we need to do… starting now.
Instead of trying to envision exactly how everything will look when you can execute each step perfectly, put whatever step you CAN do, into action – now.
For instance, many dieters will refuse to begin a workout routine because they have no gym membership. Or they will say a focus on protein is impossible because of their budget. Or that they need to research and read every little detail before knowing what to do.
Stop.
Or rather…START!
Right now. With the information you have. The ability to just BEGIN lies with you. Work with what you have right now, rather than spend another month worrying about every possible piece of the puzzle that you can’t control in this moment. You do not need a gym membership to be active. An extra $100 in your grocery budget to eat more protein is not mandatory. You do not need to read every last article on building muscle. Do not allow analysis paralysis to cripple you from moving forward. Walk in the direction you want to go in, with the info you have in this moment.
Call yourself out when you let too many thoughts take over.
Stop overcomplicating things that don’t need to be complicated.
Concentrate on mastering the basics and being consistent in them. Work on getting your calories up, getting your protein up and moving your body more. Any progress forward in these areas are a projection forward. Increasing protein by just 15 grams a day is progress. Using bodyweight exercises, exercise videos, or get a set of dumbbells/barbells to workout at home until you can get that gym membership. Look for the little things you can add to help propel you forward. The time will pass anyway – so let it pass while you keep moving forward, making each day a success in it’s own right.
Allow yourself to be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking. You do not need to have every little detail worked out before you start. Just Start!
Diet mentality has pushed the boundaries of how long fat loss should take in the journey. It has forced us to believe that quick fixes, instant results and massive scale losses are required almost immediately for us to consider ourselves a success. Believing this, dieters tend to feel like they have failed if they don’t attain a drastic transformation in unrealistic time frames.
Love where you are right now
Easy thought, right? Dieters frequently go on quick fixes in order to achieve a look from their past (or in their head). They believe that happiness lies in when they could wear a size 6 instead of a 14. However, many forget just how hard it was to be that size 6, or how unhappy and critical they were of themselves at that time. When we take a look back, sometimes the struggles are forgotten. What was eliminated from your life in order to be a size 6? Where you really happy back then, or were you still looking further into the past for happiness?
The need for quick fixes or the crash diets is a red flag that you’re struggling with the diet mentality (DM), making it nearly impossible to love yourself in THIS moment. DM makes you believe that you have to be a certain size in order to be happy with yourself – therefore we find ourselves “rushing” the process (read: quick fixing) to get to the happier times.
For many of us, loving yourself where you are right now comes way too late in life. Think about how many times you’ve skipped doing something, because you felt you had to be smaller or thinner.
How many parties have you chosen not go to because you’re larger than before?
How many pictures did you not allow to be taken because you didn’t want this reminder of what you looked like?
How often have you stared in the mirror and hated the woman looking back at you every morning?
At some point, you have to realize that what you are seeking, has nothing to do with how you look, but rather how you want to feel about yourself. When that blindspot is finally uncovered and the mental shift takes place, we can start to move forward and enjoy who we are right now, even if we aren’t the size we originally wanted to be. That’s when the rest just comes to you, and you can really work on what is important.
Your body can’t go where your mind won’t go
DM is obsessed with a time frame. Time is something we feel like we can control, yet it’s speed that kills our progress every single time. This is not a fast journey and it takes time to allow the natural progression of things to happen. By allowing the longer journey, you can slowly uncover what it is you are really looking for in your life and chances are it has nothing to do with what pant size you wear.
You can be happy with yourself as you are now, and still be a work in progress.
Although it’s common at the start of our journey, overcomplicating the process can stop us from progressing at all.
Right now. With the information you have. The ability to just BEGIN lies with you. Work with what you have right now, rather than spend another month worrying about every possible piece of the puzzle that you can’t control in this moment. You do not need a gym membership to be active. An extra $100 in your grocery budget to eat more protein is not mandatory. You do not need to read every last article on building muscle. Do not allow analysis paralysis to cripple you from moving forward. Walk in the direction you want to go in, with the info you have in this moment.
Your body can’t go where your mind won’t go
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