These simple fitness hacks will get you motivated to conquer the gym this week

The sun is shining and we're all feeling delightful pumped.

Okay... slight exaggeration, there was one and a half days of sunshine this month, but it has reminded us that summer is just around the corner. As terrifying as it sounds, it's almost time to dust off that bikini, so here's a few hacks to get you motivated.

• Pick the perfect podcast - we don't know about you but we're pretty obsessed with listening to podcasts while training. Here's a tip only allow yourself to listen to it while at the gym, this will have you on the treadmill 7 days a week. Some of our favourites: Serial, This American Life, Here's the Thing with Alec Baldwin, My Dad wrote a Porno, and of course, The Capital B with Nick Webb is constantly in our ears these days, head over to Joe.ie to catch up.

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• Find a fitness buddy - it's a whole lot easier to workout when you have a pal with you, it motivates you to get to the gym because you don't want to let anyone down, and then you can go and have all the grub and maybe a cocktail after (reward).

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• Pack a gym bag and have it ready to go - keep it in your car or in the office, even if you have NO intention of working out you never know how your day will go, you might get some divine inspiration and you should always be prepared.
• Get the cardio out of the way - Find me someone who enjoys cardio and I'll eat my own hat, get it out of the way the minute you step into the gym. A quick twenty-minute interval session, then you can work on strength and all the fun stuff.

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• Make a plan - Stop refilling that water bottle and pottering. Know exactly what you want to do, get in and DO IT. We prefer jotting down our workout plans on a piece of paper so we can keep our phones free for podcasts/selfies etc.
• Mix it up - Try something different, the gym can get a tad monotonous so try a new sport with a friend, how about squash or CrossFit or dare we say parkour? The fitness world is your oyster. Have some fun with it.