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I think if people are honest, these are the biggest reasons (particularly 1 and 2). I exercise daily, and #1 is still true. Though not so much the boring part a
by vannevar 10y ago
I think if people are honest, these are the biggest reasons (particularly 1 and 2). I exercise daily, and #1 is still true. Though not so much the boring part as the unpleasant and awkward part. If you're bored during a workout, you're not exercising hard enough.
It's hard to overcome #2 because it takes about 2-3 months of regular, vigorous exercise to see results, if you're just out-of-shape. If you're very overweight, it'll take even longer to see much difference.
#3 really isn't much of a barrier, since you don't actually require any equipment to get in quite good shape. You certainly don't have to join a gym.
The way to overcome #1 and #2 is to develop a habit of exercising. You do lots of things in your life that are unpleasant in the short term but give you long term gains. You don't do them because of the gains, but simply because after awhile they become habit. Commuting to work, for instance. You don't consciously think about driving in to work so you can get paid in two weeks; you do it out of habit.
You can build an exercise habit slowly, by creating a set of rituals around it (e.g., putting on your workout clothes first thing in the morning, doing a short warmup, finishing with a short cooldown) and starting off slow to minimize #1. This will also minimize gains initially, but that doesn't matter much---you'll get enough gratification just by building up a string of successful completions. Keep your early sessions to 5-15 minutes. Once you've been able to do that daily for a couple of months, extend a couple of your workouts to 20 or 30 minutes. There are a ton of great, free workouts on YouTube (Yoga with Adrienne, Fitness Blender, Millionaire Hoy, and on and on) of various durations. Once you get to a point where you're working out at least 15 minutes every day, with a few 30-minute workouts a week, you will start to see results. By three months in, you should have a fairly strong habit going, and by six months it will seem like second nature.
- Broken_Hippo 10y agoI'd say I'm moderately out of shape. I honestly exercise more than it appears, but that is mostly because walking in a mountain city is my main mode of transportation. A 45-60 minute commute, despite the mountains, cold, or rain doesn't phase me too much (the cold, maybe.. I'm an immigrant in Norway, it's cold). The main issue right now is that I no longer have a daily destination so it becomes quite a bit more tedious. I used a car in the states, so I get the length of time with the gains - but in a sense, it was a habit tied to other habits that are temporarily out of commission. And I didn't really realize that until your comment. I'll have to find something else to tie it to.