When I’m fit, I enjoy exercise. I love swimming, hiking, weights, riding, the stairmaster. I like being fit and I have fun maintaining it, or pushing it.
However. Big however. I became disabled several years ago. I was unable to do most of what I like. Now I am most definitely unfit and I hate it.
To the OP, I think if you find something you don’t hate vehemently and do it long enough to get good at it, it won’t feel like work anymore.
I already am on asthma medication, and carry around an inhaler. I’m not sure how I could control the humidity in a public place. As for an easier pace, the whole idea of exercise is to get your heart rate up. Even walking should be vigorous in order to do any good. If all I did was shuffle around and flap my arms a little, I might as well not exercise at all.
I took a more physical part-time job. For everyone else its work; for me its my gym. And I’ve stuck with it for 5 years which is 4.5 years longer than any other exercise routine has worked for me. Its not an option for everyone but it is worth considering.
I don’t think it’s all or nothing. Moving around is good for us. Even fidgeting or changing your position in your chair regularly is better than just sitting still all day. Also, as some others have suggested, you might start slow, and be able to build up to more exercise.
As for humidity – you have some control over that by what and where you choose to exercise. If you swim, the humidity will be high. “Hot yoga” probably has low humidity (because they heat the air) unless they take steps to increase it. If you do calesthenics in your living room you might be able to change the humidity to your liking. I have no idea if that would help you. I was just trying to think of things that matter when my lungs are cranky.
I think most people, if they admit it, hate the gym - it’s boring and hard work. Hardly surprising most of us don’t stick at it.
For me, it’s about variety - yoga before work gives me a great start to the day, walking to and from work gives me an hour’s exercise every day, playing squash is fun, and knackering. I also have a dog that needs walking.
I’ve always been a hater of exercise. I have arthritis so most movement hurts at various times. It’s very inconsistent, which frustrates me, not to mention it sounds like I’m just finding excuses when I describe it to people. For example, last Saturday I did a long walk with the dogs because I felt good. But there are also days where even a leisurely walk is uncomfortable. My feet hurt or my hips hurt or my overall energy level is just not there. It makes it hard to get exercise on a routine basis.
And sometimes my body just decides to flare up. Like I’m another person who found that yoga didn’t agree with me. It caused my lower back to flare up so I had to stop. Ugh.
That being said, there are some things that I’ve enjoyed. I love deep water aerobics, especially classes that really kick butt. But it’s really hard to find a class where my fellow students enjoy a really good workout. Water aerobics seems to attract people who just want to be leisurely or just socialize. So the classes I’ve enjoyed the most end up being cancelled for lack of attendees.
In the past I’ve also enjoyed bike riding, but I can’t deal with hilly terrain or traffic so I rarely do it. Right now I’m really enjoying indoor rock climbing.
What I would REALLY love is some kind of group sport thing. Like the previously mentioned kick-ass deep water aerobics class, or physical games played by adults. When we were kids we’d all come together for pick up games, but adults rarely seem to do that. I think that’s what we need as a society in order to get more exercise. It needs to be fun!
I agree with this. I had a membership to a workout facility over 10 years ago. I’d stop and do my workout on the way home from work. It was ok for the first few months but then I started dreading it so much that I’d make excuses to not go.
After I decided the workout wasn’t my cup of tea, I started to walk 2 miles with the dog every morning before work on a wooded trail. I met up with another woman my age and her dog one morning and really hit it off (the dogs did too!). So we made a point of meeting up every morning. Then I added another 2-mile walk with the dog after work. A few months later I added a 2-mile walk during my lunch break. In the first year I lost 25 lbs! That was 10 years ago and I haven’t quit that walking routine yet. In fact, I’ve added a half-mile more in the morning and at lunchtime so most days I walk about 7 miles. It does become devotional. I can’t stand the thought of not doing it. Of course, there have been times I’ve had to miss a walk here and there for various reasons. But when I do, my day feels incomplete or just wrong. If I’m not walking with my friend or husband, I’m listening to an audio book.
I can easily understand why people hate the gym. I hate every form of organized exercise (with the exception of horseback riding, which I haven’t done in years but loved when I did, whether or not it was in an organized form.)
And I can understand why people who hurt whenever they move, and/or can’t breathe right if they move, don’t like moving.
And everybody isn’t me. So maybe there’s some reasonably healthy people who don’t like doing anything but sitting and/or lying down.
But I think for most healthy people, and many not very healthy people, there’s some form of movement that does actively feel good – the stretch and pull of the muscles, the deeper breathing. Our bodies have evolved to do this, after all, just as we’ve evolved to eat – why wouldn’t it feel good? Of course overexertion doesn’t feel good – that’s telling you that you need to rest. And for people not in the habit of moving much, it may not take much to hit that point; but going slightly past that point each time will move it further out, if it’s habit that’s the issue.
What feels good to a particular person isn’t necessarily calesthenics, of course; though those feel good to some people – didn’t you ever see a little kid doing jumping jacks for fun? We get told to sit down and be quiet so much, I think a lot of us lose that. But jumping around for the fun of it can feel good to adults, too – if we get out of our heads that it’s childish, and also get out of our heads that it’s something we Ought to Do, which gets in the way. Hard to enjoy something you’ve been taught is a chore. And if that’s not fun, there’s swimming, walking, dancing, bicycle riding, horseback riding, gardening, skateboarding, ball games, non-ball games, playing with a dog or cat or child, playing on the swings – I’m certainly leaving things out. Don’t think of it as exercise, think of it as playing.
Most people don’t all that much enjoy house cleaning or carrying the shopping around or washing the car or mowing the lawn or painting the house or whatever, but some do. And all of those things, and many more, involve moving around.
For many years I have enjoyed hiking and bicycling and can do either for hours. I appreciate them both even more since having my hips replaced. I don’t believe that either activity caused or even contributed to the arthritis.
My favorite form of exercise involves a swimming pool. If available, a water aerobics class is best. If not, I find a part of a pool where I cannot touch the bottom and tread water. Upper body, lower body, core, aerobic, resistance from the water (all if you do it right).
Sadly for me, the pools in our complex are outdoor, so soon I will have to go back to the fitness center and walk on a treadmill or use a recumbent exercise bike.
I have an exercise bike. It’s pointed right at my TV. I try to convince myself to ride it. It wouldn’t be unpleasant. I take it really easy.
I usually don’t end up on the bike.
Not everybody likes exercise.
I go dancing once or twice a week. I do it because I enjoy it immensely. The fact that it is good cardiovascular exercise is just a bonus.
I do yoga which I also enjoy and some exercise classes which are fun. The social aspect is part of the appeal.
I lift weights two or three times a week because it’s good for my health, but I don’t really like doing it. But I have never been strong, and it’s really a necessity.
I think, as others have said, that it’s really about finding an activity that you like that happens to have a health benefit.