People who do exercise regularly but used not ...

In My Humble Opinion
1

… what motivated you to start? And what kept you going once you had started?

I’m 1.4kg from goal. Done it all with diet because I hate exercise. I hate and am hopeless at all forms of sport. In the past I’ve tried going to the gym but I’d be there on the exercise bike, just looking at the clock, wanting it all to be over. I loathe the treadmills and detest the step machines.

I’m too old and too dodgy of knee to consider taking up running, even if it did hold some attraction for me, which it doesn’t. People tell me to walk but it just seems so pointless, walking three kilometres around the block every evening. I don’t mind walking if I’ve got somewhere to go or something interesting to look at on the way but walking for its own sake? Boring.

So, I know I need to be more active. Not to lose weight or even to maintain it, although I’d hope that would help. But for my general health. I’m told exercise has untold benefits. I can’t tell you what they are, of course, because I’ve never been interested enough in exercise of any sort to find out.

All my recreational pursuits are sedentary or almost so: reading, piano, faffing about on the 'net, photography.

How do I get motivated to start? What do I pick and how do I stay motivated to continue?

No poll.

2

Does Australia have Curves for Women circuit places? If not, some kind of machine circuit exercise place for just women?
Diabetes and hypertension run in both sides of the women in my family so when I heard my mom talk about how much she enjoyed going to Curves, I figured I’d give it a go.
It’s awesome. You lose weight, tone up, you have to buy new pants but in a GOOD way and the ladies there are usually really nice and make you glad you came in. It’s terribly convenient and cheap compared to a real gym as well.

3

FCP (Former Couch Potato) here.

First , the truth. The first 10-15 minutes of exercise really sucks. You can’t breathe. Your lungs don’t work right. Your knees don’t work right. Your heart is pounding like crazy and you’re only doing the baby warm-up stuff to start. Anyone who says the first 15 minutes is easy is lying to you. (Or possibly, in their twenties.)

But, also the truth…somewhere about minute 14, you kind of get in the groove. Your body surrenders and goes, “Oh heck, I’m supposed to do this. I guess I should start ramping up the ol’ exercise system, maybe mobilize some glycogen, loosen up that cramped left calf now that it’s all warmed up, get that blood flow going to the right spots…”

And then about minute 16, you stop noticing everything that’s wrong with you and get interested. Maybe you CAN curl the 12 pound weights a couple of times. Maybe you can figure out a new dance step to that music you like. Maybe you can beat your time for a mile on the elliptical machine (great when you have a bad knee–NO impact, but lots of lower body motion).

And if you can keep it up, at first to about minute 30, and then later to about minute 60 or even (gasp!) 90 (took me four years to do that), you get endorphin rush. Hard to describe, but it’s kind of like losing 25 years of chronological age. You feel young and powerful and capable and ready to slay the dragon, take home the treasure, and declare yourself The Winner. And the afterglow lasts for hours.

I hated team sports. I hated individual sports. I hated gym class. Heck, in college, I faked a finger injury to get out of archery–that’s how much I hated any form of organized physical education. But one day when I was about 55 I realized I couldn’t walk across the living room without being winded. So I got on the internet and found a local personal trainer and hired him to come to my house (God forbid anyone should see me at a gym!). And as soon as he showed up, I explained about all the stuff I really couldn’t do. He listened patiently and then he had me do some things he thought I could do.

And five years later( age 60), I did a full-plank-position pushup. Which I couldn’t do when I was 20. I was stunned! And elated! and my trainer had me do four more.

Now I do belong to a gym and I love it.

Here’s the last piece of truth: the hardest bit of exercise you will have to do is in three parts.

  1. Put down the novel.
  2. Look up “Personal Trainers YOUR ZIPCODE HERE” on the internet.
  3. Dial the telephone number and ask for help.

Help is on the way and it will not be snarky or condescending or critical.

Good luck. You should do this. You think you’ll hate it. but you won’t. You’ll like it and then you’ll love it, and then you’ll be addicted to it. In a good way.

Keep us posted.

4

5 years ago I started by setting aside 20 minutes to just move. Didn’t matter how i moved so long as i moved. Wii fit, walking, dancing about in my loungeroom - just every day, I moved. 5 years later i am quite insane about the whole thing, I love all of it and that 20 minutes is now a couple of hours of hard sweaty and often grunty stuff. I worked up to it slowly. At the same time I improved every health marker and also (through diet) lost a lot of weight I have been able to keep off easily because I now have muscle forcing my metabolism into top gear.

Turn up the volume and dance about like a drunken teenager for 15 minutes, do a few push ups off the bench, throw in a couple of squats. Tomorrow go for a walk. Day after that swing some soup cans around for 20 minutes.

The benefits will show themselves and in a couple of weeks you will be quite used to it. Just do something with your body every day. No matter how slow you go you are still lapping everyone on the couch.

5

Every time I take a break from walking and then start up again, I experience itchy legs. Actually, itchy body is more like it. My understanding is that it’s triggered by exercise-induced dilation of blood vessels. Whatever causes it, it absolutely sucks.

So I try to walk every day to keep the blood vessels open.

(In addition to the more common motivations).

6

Yes, we do have Curves here. Sadly none convenient to me. If I was really, really keen, I would go out of my way to go to one but I think I’ve demonstrated that keenness to exercise isn’t one of my traits. I wish it was.

7

Maybe walking with a purpose? I walk a lot playing the phone game Ingress. Also geocaching, bushwalking and bird-watching.

8

Then why not “create” tasks that you must do by walking?

Walk to the shops to get a bottle of milk. Explore your local nature trails on a Saturday.

Volunteer to walk dogs at your local dog shelter

Don’t make exercise something separate that you must do - see how you can change your current routine such walking is something that must be done in the natural course of your day.

9

AuntPam Your five years ago self sounds just like me, even up to being 55 five years ago. I have gone to gyms in the past but I honestly never found myself getting into the groove at all. I found the entire process tiresome. I did rather like the effect on my wellbeing but, as evidenced by my regaining any weight I lost last time around, going to the gym (or, indeed, doing any gym type stuff) just never took with me. My most recent weight loss endeavour has come about because I was getting breathless walking up three flights of stairs to collect my car at the end of the shift. I hated the way I looked and I hated even more the way I felt. Pain in my hips and knees was keeping me awake at night and I wouldn’t have been able to run for a bus to save myself.

Having said all that, I forced myself to go for a “walk” (i.e. a proper walk, not just strolling to the library) three times in nine months. Yes, I feel better for having lost the weight and my blood results are, in the main, quite good. BP is up and I’m hoping to correct that to a degree. If only I could drag myself away from this computer, that book, the television or piano.

Thylacine dancing around the house is definitely something I can see myself doing. Not so much of the sweaty grunt stuff but dancing does appeal to me.

Monstro your itchy leg syndrome has intrigued me. I’m on my feet for eight hours a day (I’m a nurse) and I quite often find myself scratching the bejesus out of my legs in the car on the way home. Could be dilated blood vessels, eh?

Weedy Whenever Sculpture by the Sea comes around, I love to walk. Doing the Bondi to Bronte walk is a piece of cake for me because I love being beside the ocean and taking photographs definitely adds to the enjoyment. It’s not something I’d do on my own and being a shift worker means that there is usually no one to join me on photographic outings but your suggestion has definitely made me think this is something I could work into my days off routine.

bengangmo I have started forcing myself to walk to the shops most days. I live close enough that it’d be insane to drive (10 minutes’ walk from my house) but I had got into the habit of calling in to the supermarket on the way home from work for the milk, bread, fresh fruit top up which might be needed. I guess 10 minutes there and 10 minutes back is better than nothing. Not much better, but a bit better, I suppose. I live in suburban Sydney: I don’t think we have nature trails. More’s the pity. I agree, I should make more of an attempt to work some extra effort into my everyday tasks.

10

Check out Jonathan Bailor. You can get all his stuff for free, and he explains why dieting and ordinary exercise don’t work long term. He recommends less exercise, just very specific, and painful exercise. But he will also tell you that checking your weight isn’t very smart.

11

A combination of two factors:

Motivation 1. : Back problems at age 30. I thought :“If it’s like at 30, what will it be like at 60?” Losing some weight and moving around some definitely helped. My back very rarely troubles me nowadays.

Motivation 2. : My ex. And I’ve recounted this before as an example against fat shaming and I’ve got some skeptical reactions, but for me it worked like this. My boyfriend (who is now my ex) fell madly in love with my overweight self. Never ever judged, but totally adored me. This made me feel that my body wasn’t hideous, that it was worth taking care of. Which I did, and losing weight was one of the consequences of that.

12

You’ve heard, ‘Everything’s walking distance if you’ve got the time’? I’d have my husband drop me at Curves on his way to work at 6am and after I was done I’d have to walk home - a little over 2 miles. I didn’t like it, but I decided I’d rather do that than become insulin-dependent. I hate needles so that’s very motivating.
And in a small way, my husband was a partner in my accountability; he’d ask if I he was dropping me when he got up and that would spur me to want to go, even just to have an extra 10 minutes w/ him.

13

I live in NYC and I usually park my car about a mile away from my apartment so it forces me to walk to and from. It works for the city, I guess it would look pretty silly in the suburbs.

I also ride my bike on my two work from home days a little more than 15 miles and then once during the weekend. I like bicycling because it’s a great way to see the sights and do some miles and it’s pretty low impact (unless I fall off it). It doesn’t seem to be a great way to lose weight, though, unless I ride for hours per day.

I find I stick to it better if I keep my rides relatively brief so they don’t seem so much like a chore. I’m not training for anything, just making my heart and lungs pump a bit.

I’d like to run except all of my forays into running end in some sort of pain. I get overzealous.

I exercise, such as it is, to keep sort of in shape and for my blood pressure. I spend an incredible amount of time sitting on my butt between work and a long commute and hanging out at home. Plus I have two 10yo girls I need to keep up with.

14

Have you tried a class? Yoga, pilates, zoomba… anything that gets you with a group of women for a half hour or so. Gyms offer them but there are also private groups.

If you get bored walking, does reading a book (on the treadmill) or listening to a podcast help?

15

Riding a stationary bike is pretty easy to get used to and it won’t demolish your joints. Same with swimming and both are good workouts.

16

I was an utter couch potato until 8 years ago, when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. At that point, my motivation for starting to exercise was fear of the complications that can arise from poorly-controlled diabetes (blindness, kidney disease, amputations, heart disease, etc.), as well as a desire to avoid having to start taking insulin.

I started by walking – it was helpful that my commute to work was primarily by train, and that I could modify my commute slightly to give myself a brisk 20-minute walk twice per day.

Then, 3 years ago, once I’d transitioned from “really out of shape” to “in fair shape”, I started a more vigorous exercise program, primarily running. Same motivation as before, spurred on by the fact that I had already seen that the moderate exercise had made a positive impact, both on my diabetes, and my overall fitness.

One thing which has really helped me a great deal with staying on the program has been accountability. A dear friend of mine has become my running partner – she and I run races together, we encourage each other when we work out, and we call each other out when we’re lazy and don’t get out there to run. When I’m arguing with myself about getting out of bed at 6 a.m. for a run, knowing that I’ll be letting her down if I don’t go is a surprisingly strong motivator.

17

My wife is a nurse and like jabiru, on her feet all day. She also walks a lot for exercise and has walked about a dozen marathons and many more half marathons. In the last few years she’s dragged me into the half marathons even though I have a bad knee (from running) and hip. We are both 59 eyars old. Walking doesn’t bother them like running.

This year her goal is to exercise by walking 500 or more miles. She’s at 479.1 as of last night. She also want to set a personal best for the half marathon which she did. Having a goal or two is a major motivator.

Last week I bought her a Fitbit Flex and she likes it a lot more than any pedometer that she’s used in the past. It’s so comfortable that she can wear it to sleep. It actually measures sleep. She’s already used to to show her head nurse that assigning the same person patients on two different wings of the same floor is stupid by showing the number of steps and the time it takes to get from one side to the other.

I’m more of a cyclist myself. One important thing is to mix it up. Riding on the same trail or road can be boring. Same goes for walking the same place (especially around a short track or on a treadmill).

18

Exercise bikes and treadmills are pretty much the most boring way to exercise. The only reason people do them is because they are motivated by the results that exercise brings. But seeing as you’re not sure of what those results are, it’s not surprising you have a hard time completing your workout.

It’s like the way kids don’t want to brush their teeth. It’s a hassle and they don’t see any benefit. To them, it’s a big waste of time. But once you know and want the benefits of good teeth, you don’t even think about the hassle of brushing your teeth. It’s just something you do.

For now, try to find some form of exercise which you enjoy. That way it won’t seem like a bunch of pointless drudgery. Group classes can be fun in and of themselves. The fact that you’re working out is beside the point. Look for gyms in your area which offer Zumba classes. It’s a fun, easy form of Latin dance and all ages and abilities can do it. Yoga is a low-stress form of stretching and body movement that feels good. Water-aerobics is a class where you use the water for resistance to get a very low-impact workout that will get your heart beating. Try some of those classes and see how you like them.

19

As I wrote in the other thread: fear of blindness, amputation of a film, stroke, and death, in that order. Diabetes complications, in other words.

20

After moving to the US and putting on 50lbs, I just got sick and tired of how I looked. When I hit the 150 mark, I cried. After living in places where I basically walked everywhere, I had no real exercise option here that appealed to me. Cycling here is taking your life in your hands and there’s nowhere to hike within a couple of hours.

Finally I got tired of feeling sorry for myself and joined a women’s gym that opened up a couple blocks from my work. I went there four times a week on my lunch hour, then after a couple of months felt ready for a personal trainer.

I worked with her for about a year (there was a hiatus while I had shoulder surgery) and she weaned me onto Crossfit before she moved away.

I’ve been doing Crossfit for a few months and LOVE it. I haven’t lost much weight but I’ve dramatically slimmed down while building muscle. My trainers are awesome and the other members are a blast. It’s never a chore to go WOD. I’d like to bump up my sessions (I’m only doing twice a week) but I’m concerned about recovery and want to make sure my body’s up for it before I make that choice. On the off-days I’m taking the dog out and starting to run again.

(Glad to hear the good comment on the Fitbit Flex. I’ve been curious about it.)