Using a simple exercise coloring page can help you stay motivated with your fitness routine, and encourage you to keep track and celebrate your amazing progress! A coloring page is a simple, beautiful, and fun way to increase motivation to get your sweat on! It’s also fun to spend a little time coloring as an adult!
30 Day Skipping Challenge
Recently inspired by seeing people participating in a 30 day skipping challenge, I wanted to do something similar for myself. I wanted to start small and create something that would be sustainable during a hectic work week! It had been a few months since I kept a consistent exercise routine and so I knew I needed to be gentle with myself and work up slowly to increasing my stamina.
I feel most happy when I am connected to my body; it brings me peace and energy. I generally hold tension from the day in my shoulders and neck. Whenever I have been neglecting to exercise I feel disconnected from my body. I feel discomfort as if my emotions are limited by my lack of movement.
Exercise Tracker Printable
Whenever I have the most success with a fitness goal it is when it comes with a cute calendar that I can print out and put on my fridge. I love coloring in the little circles or checking the boxes. There is something so satisfying about achieving your daily goal and marking it down on an exercise tracker printable.
There is a common method of habit tracking called ‘Don’t Break the Chain.’ It involves drawing an “x” on the calendar each day a task is complete. This concept works on the satisfaction we get from seeing the chain get longer, that we simply don’t want to break the chain and miss a day. You can read more about it here: [Workflow Guide] Accomplish Your Big Goals With Don’t Break the Chain
I wanted to build something that involved aspects of this method but also allowed for days of rest. I wanted the finished calendar to be beautiful even if there was a day that exercise was not completed.
Why a Jump Rope Themed Coloring Page
My husband is really into jumping rope. One day he surprised me with a new jump rope. I was super excited. As I am new to skipping, so I have no wonderful skills (well no wonderful skills yet), but I love watching the pros!
After a busy day, I can just head to the garage and get a few minutes of jumping in. It resets my body. I love a good excuse to merge art into everything, and so before I even began skipping I made a coloring page for myself to use when I jump rope! I like to keep a record of my progress, but prefer to do it in a way that is fun and cute!
How to Use the Exercise Coloring Page:
I will give you some tips on how to use an exercise coloring page to help keep you motivated. However, I am not a fitness expert or have any medical training. What I do love, is to find ways to motivate myself to keep on track with getting in my daily exercise.
In the past, I have noticed a huge difference in my mental well-being when I am taking time to exercise. I am sharing my tips with you, but please seek medical advice from professionals!
Record the Month
- First, pick your favorite pen to write with. A beautiful pen can make all the difference.
- Next, on one of the handles write the month that you are going to use the exercise coloring page for. I wrote November for this page. You do not have to do a new one each month. You could span over two months as well and write each month on the handle.
- Lastly, number each of the beads. I drew 31 beads in total. Simply pre-color one or more beads if the month has less than 31 days. Or challenge yourself and skip double one day and color in 2 beads!
Record the Year
On the smaller part of the handle record what year it is. It is fun to look back and see how far you have come. I didn’t pre-write the year directly on the exercise coloring page because I wanted you to be able to continue to use this page as often as you like!
Decide your Target Goal
Decide what target amount of skipping you want to achieve to meet your daily goal. Pick something small if you are new to jumping rope, or running, or whatever activity you are choosing to track.
Csikszentmihalyi (1996) encourages us to “Wake up in the morning with a specific goal to look forward to” (p. 349). He explains that starting with something small allows us to build a habit before moving to more challenging or time-consuming tasks. He says that the benefit of starting small is that then you will look forward to each task rather than viewing it as an overwhelming burden.
This idea coincides with the idea of micro-routines that Hankel (2018) explains are key to achieving goals. He encourages creating mini-goals first because the success of completing them will create a positive feeling and drive more focus, efficiency, and attention to the goals in the long term. He stresses that it is important to build routines extremely slowly.
For my first goal, I wanted to skip for one minute and then take a minute rest. I repeated this 6 times. I noticed that as the month progressed I no longer needed a full minute to recover, but sometimes would start my next skipping minute after just 30 seconds of rest. Again, I am not a health expert, this is just what felt like a good challenge for my body.
Pick your Colors for your Exercise Coloring Page
Choose your color palette for your exercise coloring page. I wanted to go with fall colors, oranges, reds, and pinks. Pick colors that inspire you!
You can always use the same coloring page each month and just change up the colors. I will most likely make more of these, so be sure to check back if you are wanting to switch it up!
Plan for Rest on your Exercise Coloring Page: A Day Off is Not Failure
Decide on your Rest Days. I sometimes overdo it when I am excited about a new exercise regime, and I don’t want to take any breaks. This enthusiasm sometimes leads to injury. Other times I set my expectations too high, and then I feel disappointed and want to give up when I don’t live up to the standards I set for myself.
I find it helpful to plan rest days ahead of time when I know what days will be busy. Pick a separate color to plan your rest days. If your schedule is unpredictable you can always just color the rest days in as you go!
Writer Gretchen Rubin (2015) created a year-long endeavor which she named “The Happiness Project” where she tackled monthly goals in an attempt to analyze and improve various sections of her life in order to optimize her happiness. She came across the idea that positive and negative effects are not opposites of the same emotion but are each different and therefore each moves independently of the other.
Focus on “Feeling Right” Rather that Being Happy
This new understanding freed Rubin from her previous notion that all that is not labeled as happiness is a failure. She changed her focus to “feeling right” rather than focusing on being happy (p. 65). Rubin redefines her definition of happiness: “To be happy, I need to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth” (p. 67) Rubin’s new definition of happiness is another powerful depiction of what it means to be mindful.
I decided to take this idea to heart when planning my monthly fitness goals. I set goals, but I need to make sure that I remember that tough days are not failures. If I end up skipping one set less, or not as fast, that is all a part of the journey. Keep checking in to see if your goals are feeling right.
Read more about her journey on her website: https://gretchenrubin.com/
Transitioning from Work to Exercise
Choosing to begin an art practice or other activity after working a full day is what takes the most effort, not the task in which you will engage. This is important to remember; I know I have a hard time getting to a dance class if I am tired, even though I know I will have fun once I am there.
This understanding also acknowledges the effort required to transition between work and other activities. The knowledge that when in a state of mindfulness there will be a positive reward is the reassurance I need to coax me through the difficulty of transitioning from work into exercising.
Create a Workout Playlist
What helps me get going is to create a playlist of music that will motivate me to get moving. I start playing the music before I get ready to exercise. That way I get lost in the music and forget how tired I am. It helps get me to change into my exercise clothes, throw my hair in a ponytail and tie up my running shoes. It pulls me through the tough transition and I begin jumping!
More Coloring Pages
I hope you have tonnes of fun with this exercise coloring page! I would love to see how it goes for you and what other themes you would love to see if I make more of these! Feel free to tag me on Instagram or post it to my Facebook page! To see more of my coloring pages: Coloring Pages
Like this Exercise Coloring Page? Surprises to Come
I am in the works of starting something new in 2022! Follow me on insta or facebook to be the first to hear about it! I am so excited and I hope you love it!
Animal Coloring Pages
In the meantime, while you wait for the surprises to begin, check out some of my coloring pages. They are great as a way to relax after a busy day. I love to make coloring pages of animals, plants, and fun holiday themes. Check out my shop to see my work!
References:
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention (HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.). New York, NY.
Hankel, I. (2018). The science of intelligent achievement: How smart people focus, create and grow their way to success. Hoboken: Capstone.
Rubin, G. (2015). The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun (HarperCollins Publishers). New York, NY. (Original work published in 2009)
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