• Mix up your fitness routines as well as your music.exercise at the beach image by Pix by Marti from Fotolia.com
  
  Physical fitness requires discipline as well as a commitment to kicking up a sweat. With some imagination, keeping in shape can seem more like fun than hard labor. Some great exercise tips include adding easy steps to your daily routine and introducing variety into your workouts. Another idea is to convert the great outdoors into your personal fitness center instead of always exercising indoors.
  
  

Simplify

• Keep your routine simple so that you can exercise wherever and whenever you can, says the online article "3 Great Exercise Tips To Live By" on the Best Quick Weight Loss Diets website. Walking your dog for 1 mile is a good way to get moving. Strolling away from your desk so you can stretch your legs is another easy method to incorporate movement into your daily grind. Find more reasons to use your workplace stairs instead of the elevators. Simplify your goals as well, suggests the Life Tips website. Saying that you want to tone up or lose weight is too broad, says LifeTips.com. Instead, focus on dropping 20 pounds or running one mile without stopping. Set further goals once you accomplish those steps, such as shedding another 20 pounds.
  
  

Variety

• Mix up your exercise schedule, says the Life Tips website. Sprint along on a treadmill, but switchover the following week to another piece of equipment such as a stepper or an exercise bicycle. Go ahead and resume your pace on the treadmill after a week away, and keep alternating so that you continue burning the maximum number of calories on each fitness device. Another way to toss some variety into your routine is to exercise to classical music one day and then work out to a jazzy beat the next time. Or, insert some yoga, tai chi or Pilates into your schedule for low-impact activities.
  
  

Outdoors

• Swap your indoor gym for the outdoors. Bicycling, hiking and swimming are popular open-air exercises, and the natural scenery lends a refreshing touch to any fitness program, according to the Best Quick Weight Loss Diets website. People living in heavily populated areas should jog, walk or bicycle in the morning when auto exhaust fumes are lowest. Life Tips website advises exercising before 10 a.m. or after 3 p.m. to avoid overexposure to sun. Rainy weather might temporarily chase fitness buffs indoors, but Fit Watch website lists easy routines to fall back on during inclement conditions. Dashing up and down stairs with a laundry basket or doing jumping jacks can replace an outdoor workout. Jogging in place while watching television is another rainy-day suggestion.