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I find any form of exercise extremely boring. I go on these multi-hour bike rides which are borderline untolerably boring to me, especially at night. They do se

I find any form of exercise extremely boring. I go on these multi-hour bike rides which are borderline untolerably boring to me, especially at night. They do seem to have the side effects of stimulating the thoughts, reducing stress and better sleep, but to me it's just as bad as staring at the wall for a few hours, so a pretty big artificial effort.

mantas 3y ago
As an avid long distance cyclist, I talked to multiple people from, let’s say, conventional meditation community. All of them agreed that solo cycling is damn close to meditation if not the same. Especially road cycling, mountain biking is a different beast. On calm backroads, of course. Personally wall-style meditation is damn hard. But cycling makes it doable. My routine is to focus on cycling for the first hour or so. Which is also needed to get away from the city and suburb traffic. By the time I’m far away there’s enough endorphins and whatnot in the system to help and then sliding into my own deep thoughts is pretty easy. For some time till physical exhaustion kicks in. What I find crucial is pre-planned route and having already ridden it. No need for checking the map, no fear of missing a turn without navigation and no new sights to stare at. And pace is important. Slow & steady. Not too slow. Zone 3 is perfect IMO.
- jddj 3y ago
  I found swimming laps to be the same. Extremely repetitive in terms of scenery, breath, everything. The first few laps get into the rhythm and later ones are just you and your thoughts. Or, if you're lucky, just you.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
tayo42 3y ago
Do you just mean endurance sports? What about like boxing or skateboarding?
- hef19898 3y ago
  As a "boxer", my active tike is over and I do only for the workout by now, it isbsomewhere in between. It is not boring, especially sparring, but then the drills and general carduo is boring in the sense thatvit doesn't need a lot of concentration of the complete brain. You just don't think a lot, meaning while doing it a huge part, of at least my, brain runs on idle. Thinking of it, I need to go to the gym more. And I need some periodd of general boredom. Lately my brain had close to no occassion to run partially idle and I feel it.
- mantas 3y ago
  You need boring sports where you don’t need 100% attention to not get hurt. E.g. road cycling on backroads is perfect. Mountain biking… no chance.

mantas 3y ago

As an avid long distance cyclist, I talked to multiple people from, let’s say, conventional meditation community. All of them agreed that solo cycling is damn close to meditation if not the same. Especially road cycling, mountain biking is a different beast. On calm backroads, of course. Personally wall-style meditation is damn hard. But cycling makes it doable. My routine is to focus on cycling for the first hour or so. Which is also needed to get away from the city and suburb traffic. By the time I’m far away there’s enough endorphins and whatnot in the system to help and then sliding into my own deep thoughts is pretty easy. For some time till physical exhaustion kicks in. What I find crucial is pre-planned route and having already ridden it. No need for checking the map, no fear of missing a turn without navigation and no new sights to stare at. And pace is important. Slow & steady. Not too slow. Zone 3 is perfect IMO.

jddj 3y ago
I found swimming laps to be the same. Extremely repetitive in terms of scenery, breath, everything. The first few laps get into the rhythm and later ones are just you and your thoughts. Or, if you're lucky, just you.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

tayo42 3y ago

Do you just mean endurance sports? What about like boxing or skateboarding?

hef19898 3y ago
As a "boxer", my active tike is over and I do only for the workout by now, it isbsomewhere in between. It is not boring, especially sparring, but then the drills and general carduo is boring in the sense thatvit doesn't need a lot of concentration of the complete brain. You just don't think a lot, meaning while doing it a huge part, of at least my, brain runs on idle. Thinking of it, I need to go to the gym more. And I need some periodd of general boredom. Lately my brain had close to no occassion to run partially idle and I feel it.
mantas 3y ago
You need boring sports where you don’t need 100% attention to not get hurt. E.g. road cycling on backroads is perfect. Mountain biking… no chance.