“Decent” meaning “excluding those stupid flimsy daytime TV advertised gimmicks and the once-a-week leisurely one block stroll to Starbucks.”
Fitness folks like my old friend say it’s soooo important so you’ll stick with it, but I don’t see that it’s the way the world works for me. I do what I do four times a week despite the dread and complete lack of desire because I don’t want to die early. It’s like getting up early for work. Add that to my commute situation and my normal propensity for procrastination, and the idea of exercising because I want to is unfathomable for me.
Am I just being narrow minded? Do I just not know yet the “real” thing that would get me going?
I used to go out dancing about 3 or 4 nights a week and hiking usually one day a week. I really didn’t think of it as exercise until I quit doing it. My hikes were usually what I called reptile walks. I would look for reptiles and either photograph or just view and sometimes catch and release. It has been about 10 years since I have done regular dancing and now I get tired after 2 dances.
No, I don’t think everyone has at least once form of exercise they enjoy.
I know a lot of people who don’t exercise at all, or if they do, hate every second of it.
I think you are narrowing your range of prospects by trying to think of an “exercise.” It’s more about finding an activity that you enjoy that also happens to be physically active.
Usually when people do ‘enjoy’ exercise, its not the exercise they enjoy. Maybe they enjoy being out at nature. So for them hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, etc. are forms of exercise they enjoy.
Other people like to socialize. So a walking club, or bicycling club, basketball games, tennis with friends, walking the golf course, etc is for them.
I think the secret is finding an activity that you enjoy doing unrelated to exercise, but you have to exercise to do it. If you like being outdoors, or you like socializing, you find an activity that incorporates that that requires you to exercise to do it.
I stopped “exercising” (i.e. going to the gym, spin & other fitness classes) years ago. Now the only exercise I get is walking my dog, which we both enjoy.
I find I need to be already fit to enjoy much exercise. My preference is cycling and right now I do 1.5 hours of fairly strenuous effort maybe 5 or six times a week. I also walk 3 to 6 miles most days but at an easy pace so doesn’t feel like much of an effort at all. When I am fit I find I really look forward to my rides and can get all antsy if schedule or weather get in the way. However, being in my mid 50s, I lose fitness quite rapidly when I have periods of low activity. Getting that fitness back takes some effort and willpower, during which period I don’t enjoy the prospect of going for a strenuous ride and procrastinate terribly. After a couple of weeks, if I can persevere, it’s like a turbo kicks in and all of a sudden I am enjoying exercise again.
TL;DR getting fit is hard graft, being fit is fun.
I do but I suspect I am in a rather small minority.
Swimming. Go ~3 times a week. With an annual pass from a county pool it is quite cheap.
Mrs. FtG and I both have free passes to a local gym. I don’t go there much but she does quite often. She also likes the intense aerobics class at the pool, but only when the “good” instructor is there. (And you never know in advance who’s leading a session.)
No, there’s nothing physical that I enjoy. I used to go to a gym three times a week for two years. I hated every minute. I decided to reward myself weekly if I went all three times. No affordable reward was incentive enough, so I stopped the pretence of rewards and went three times a week out of sheer dogged spite against myself. It was a chore, just like all the other chores that made up my miserable life.
My hatred of it grew so bad that I quit after two years.
My workplace is offering some sort of gym membership plan now. I’m considering joining because I have to do something about my health. Maybe it’ll be different this time. But I doubt it.
I don’t think most people exercise regularly. However, I have a horse, so my social circle is made up of people who ride on a regular basis. During the 3 years between horses I did yoga which may or may not be exercise.
I think most people can find a form of exercise that they don’t totally hate, but that doesn’t translate into them enjoying it.
I walk six miles every day and I enjoy it. But I don’t think I would if I lived somewhere with 10-degree hills all over the place with no shade, sidewalks, or interesting buildings to look at. I hardly walked for pleasure when I lived in Miami because it was just too damn hot all the time. And I’m fortunate that I live just 2.5 miles from work. I still walked to work when I lived 3.5 miles away, but I dreaded it more.
I think for a lot of people,“decent exercise” requires putting up with a bunch of stuff that detracts from the enjoyment. Like, going to the gym requires enduring self-consciousness and dealing with irritating people. Those two headaches filter out people who might otherwise love working out. Or take yoga. Yoga is great exercise for the couch potato, even if it doesn’t necessarily get one’s heart racing. But the instructor and the type of yoga being practiced are important variables. A person who get stucks with a bad instructor or takes a class that isn’t a good fit for them may come away thinking they don’t like yoga in general.
I used to enjoy running nearly every week day with a good friend over lunch. Can’t say I really enjoyed the activity, tho. I remember us saying that we hoped the exercise was extending our lives at least as long as we were spending doing it!
I honestly enjoy excercising, much of the time. If I’ve been off the iron for a week, I really want to grab some dumbbells and hoist them in the air. Doing pushups next is actually immediately pleasurable. Sometimes I don’t feel like working out, but even then I get the payback afterwards, basking in the endoprhines.
I used to be a classic bookworm, who hated sports and didn’t do any of it. Boy would I be in trouble if I hadn’t changed my ways. Skinny fat with back problems etc.
I never feel any rush of endorphins, during or after a bout of exercise. I have, twice that I remember, hit a “second wind”, where suddenly, movement became much easier. As I understand it, that’s when the body switches from burning sugar to burning fat for energy.
It was an unusual enough of a sensation for me to remember it all these years later. But I wouldn’t call it all that pleasurable an experience. Certainly not something I would try to pursue again. Too much effort for too little reward.
Is my athsma and clinical depression the problem here? My breathing is painful during exercise, and my emotional state is usually anger at having to do stuff that I don’t want to do yet again. I’ve tried to change my attitude, but that’s how I feel and I know it. No amount of lying to myself about what I feel or focusing on the positive benefits of exercise makes the anger go away. And I hate being angry. But I always am that way.
I don’t think everyone has a form of exercise they like. But I think it’s worth it for everyone to investigate various options and try to find an exercise they like.
I dance. It’s social, and I enjoy the social aspect as well as the skill aspect. And it gives me a little aerobic exercise.
I also have started seeing a personal trainer. She’s very personable, which I imagine is a common trait in successful trainers. I don’t intrinsically hate weight-bearing exercise, but I find it incredibly boring. Paying this woman both gives me a “commitment” and also she talks to me and keeps me from being bored out of my skull, as well as pushing me to go a little longer and harder than I would on my own.
In the past I tried “aerobic dance” classes and yoga. I hated the aerobic dance, although I enjoyed some health benefits from it. I kept injuring myself in yoga, and decided it pushed me too hard. I’ve also tried just walking around where I live, which is okay but it’s hard to actually get out and do it.
And now I should put down the laptop and mow my lawn, which I don’t do explicitly for the exercise, but it is decent exercise. I have a hilly lawn and a heavy mower, and I typically end up covered in sweat even on cool days from having to manhandle the mower around.
Is there anything you could do to help with the breathing? Maybe work at an easier pace, or take asthma drugs, or exercise at high or low humidity or something? That doesn’t sound great for you, honestly.
