Association between physical exercise and mental health: a cross-sectional study

Re:Association between physical exercise and mental health: ... by Broken_Hippo on Friday August 10, 2018 @11:46AM (#17734384)

See, this is some of my own problem. I personally despise going for a walk for the sake of going for a walk. The same for a bike ride. The only times I've enjoyed such things is when part of my unhappiness was at home and it was one of the few escapes available. I don't find these fun at all. Doing actual exercise sounds dreadful and embarrassing. Not to mention that finding basic gear is expensive and hard to find (I'm just talking about a sports bra here - unfortunately, if you are thin with breasts, these get incredibly hard to find and expensive and often must be mail-ordered, which makes them risky).

Yet I'll walk to anywhere within a half an hour's walk. I'll do that daily. Grocery store? walk. I'll go longer at times. I'll take the stairs. I'll go out hiking and walking to see something or do something.

Unfortunately, if I have nothing to see or do - no work or lack the means to do something - I rarely do these things. These have generally been the times when my mental health is worst as well (though that trend has changed the last few years). It makes me despise these sorts of reports.

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Re:Association between physical exercise and mental health: ... by smileypete on Friday August 10, 2018 @04:58PM (#17736689)

I like walking to town though the park and listening to a good podcast (through the phone's speaker, I don't bother with headphones.)

Also sometimes when I've spent time indoors on the PC/internet I realize that sitting outside with a book would have been better.

I s'pose that access to nearby walking routes and some sort of garden can be a big help here and I'm lucky in that respect.

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Re:Association between physical exercise and mental health: ... by phakding on Friday August 10, 2018 @12:09PM (#17734589)

I totally agree with you. I go to gym and weight train 3 days a week and I spend one day running as far as I possibly can (8-10 mile range). If someone asked me to go for a walk, I would just slouch down in my sofa and ignore them. I hate walking without purpose and as an exercise it does pretty much nothing.

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Re:Association between physical exercise and mental health: ... by devilshaircut on Friday August 10, 2018 @02:33PM (#17735719)

Personally, I hate exercising but I do about 90 minutes of high intensity cardio every day (with no end goal like grocery shopping; just for the sake of exercise). It's masochistic and I wish I were the type of person who actually enjoyed it.

For me, it just took having the self-control to commit to an exercise regime. Eventually it became easier because I track my exercise and having a break in it (even if I am traveling or on vacation) feels really bad.

I doubt it would work for everyone, but I think it was necessary for me because I live in a city and even if I walked everywhere (which I do), I would never get enough exercise to offset 8-hour days of sitting at a computer desk writing software.

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