> But all kinds of exercise bore me to tears and there's always something more interesting for me to be doing.

Oh so this.

I try to do activeish things: walk places, stand up desk, water/snow ski, walks with wife to catch up on the day.

But I just have no staying power when it comes to repetitive motion to build up a sweat. I’ve tried swimming (I love to swim), treadmill/elliptical (I like to walk!), spinning (because I like to ride a bike), but it just does not last. I always grow to resent the time lost to doing other things, even if the “other things” are lazy pursuits.

Have you tried running or biking outdoors? I personally hate excerise where the environment does not change but love walking which made running a perfect fit for me.

I found out that competitive sports are great to eliminate the boredom.

I'm taking weekly tennis lessons with my girlfriend and casual basketball matches with friends and neighbors. It's good cardio while you also catch up with friends and essentially play something.

I'm sure it's not perfect, but I think the saying applies here: "imperfect action beats perfect inaction".

It sounds like you’re already active and you have a common theme in what you don’t like to do: you’re not going anywhere/changing the scenery. I’m the same way, I hate treadmills and stationary bikes but love running and biking outside.

I have the same feelings about exercise that seems like a grind. Sports which have some technical element like rock climbing, skiing, skating are much easier to stick with, I find.

This is why I weightlift. It's one of the few exercises that doesn't get boring. If it does, add more weight.

I was that way with my cardio, super boring to the point where I dreaded doing it. I got an iPad and started watching Family Guy - which is something I would never do outside of cardio because I don't have the time, but watching it while doing cardio seems okay because I don't feel like I am wasting anything.

Point being, if you have a guilty pleasure - stuffing it into exercise can make exercise not so boring, and your pleasure not so guilty. Two birds with one stone.

This is me... I live in an apartment without space to securely store a bike (bikes left in the parking have been stolen) and I really don't like running. I try to walk 10,000 steps each day - around 5km or 1 hour in total - though.

Vertical bike stands are great if you don't have a lot of indoor space.

I had this exact problem, and then Beat Saber happened to me.

Not only is it the Tetris of VR, it also gives you a pretty good workout if you play on Expert or higher.

+1 for Beat Saber. I played this a lot when our 1st was born since I could play it quietly during naps while keeping an ear out for him (he constantly sounded like he was dying, so we were on alert 24/7 hah).

I was thrilled about Beat Saber initially but I felt more and more depressed when after a few levels, I couldn’t pass any more levels, no matter what I did. It got so difficult and frustrating that at one point, I stopped and never played Beat Saber again.

Edit: One major contributing factor was that I never figured out how to get Sony’s VR glasses to calibrate correctly.

This funny. After getting my son a VR headset for Christmas I’d say my cardio level has gone up dramatically thanks to beat saber and super hot.

Something that got me back into daily running was to listen to an engrossing audiobook[1] that you only listen to while walking/running or whatever other exercise you can manage.

I couldn’t believe that I was looking forward to my run just to progress the story. Sometimes the book was getting so good I would spend an extra hour meandering around before returning home.

Worth a shot. Also, bluetooth headphones are a must (I use Jabra Elites). Accidentally karate-chopping some wired headphones out of your ears makes them insufferable during exercise.

It’s a good habit because you can also parlay it into listening to things while cooking and doing chores around the house, things I used to avoid as wastes of time until I hacked myself with audio content.

Good luck.

[1] Sci-fi by Andy Weir and Blake Crouch would be examples of the sort of fun and light-hearted listening that make sense here.

Have you tried martial arts? I've found myself bored with most exercise outside of martial arts and running.

Yes. Many years ago I did about 5 straight years of kung fu, found it fun (but a bit too hard for me), and stopped when my tsuzao stopped giving lessons. Then I found it impossible to motivate myself to start somewhere else.

This was the last time I did any kind of exercise.

I count walking. The question didn’t specify VO2max or heartrate, etc. Deep, full-torso no-pause breathing is exercise, too, and might be a good fit for anyone bored by exercise that isn’t for travel (I feel same as you; if I’m not going somewhere I tend not to exercise unless to stretch like other mammals do), in part because it gives the body more oxygen, which I find helps me decide what to do next.

I mountain bike and ski (backcountry + resort). I find these really fun and exciting and find it hard to _not_ do them.

If I lived in a place with nice scenery and where biking doesn't endanger my life due to cars, I would definitely do this. At least I think so.

Trekking I'm 100% sure I would do. But I live in a concrete jungle :(

Do you listen to audio books, podcasts, or talk radio? I listen to audio books while running, so I get an hour of running and an hour of literature for the price of one, every day. Also motivates me to go for the run because I want to hear what's happening next in the book.

I don't, maybe I should try this. But again, the pull of actually doing something sedentary (I have multiple hobbies) is always stronger...

> the pull of actually doing something sedentary (I have multiple hobbies) is always stronger...

You need to make it an absolute red-line in your life. You wouldn't go a day without cleaning your teeth, and you wouldn't do another hobby instead of cleaning your teeth - make exercising like that.

I exercise every day, and I think that's actually a lot easier than exercising five times a week, allowing you to pick which days you exercise or not. You can't kid with yourself that you'll exercise tomorrow if your routine is to exercise every day. Sometimes I get back from work at 11pm and I'll still drag myself out for an hour's run.

I totally understand what you're saying and completely agree with you, but...

... you know the difficulty of telling someone "don't get distracted" or "don't procrastinate"? It won't work. It's the same with me and exercise, I agree with you on an intellectual level, and I'm well aware of the dangers of my unhealthy lifestyle. But I just can't find the motivation to do it.

Like I replied elsewhere, I would definitely do trekking or biking if I lived in a place more suitable for those activities. I enjoy trekking and walking when I'm on vacation (my vacations tend to involve lots and lots of walking).

What do you think about the teeth cleaning analogy though?

Do you ever get distracted from cleaning your teeth or procrastinate or put off cleaning your teeth? I guess you don't and it's a normal effortless part of your day that you hardly think about - why is that? Can you use whatever natural habit you do to get yourself to do that to exercise?

I guess the difference with tooth brushing, showering, etc, is that they take very little time (ok: not true with me and showering: I find pleasurable to let my thoughts wander, so I take a longer time than needed). But brushing your teeth? It takes very little time commitment, you don't have the chance to get bored!

I can even think about the stuff I'm about to do while I brush my teeth. Let's compare it with doing martial arts: most teachers require you to be "in the moment", not think of something else.

I suppose this is why I think I would like trekking if I lived in a suitable location. You can walk, enjoy the scenery, and think of something else.

My god, he's still going!

Have you ever tried going more than a day without cleaning your teeth? Have you ever had so little energy, motivation, or otherwise give-a-care to just not-do-it when going to bed at night?

Why do you insist on this being the baseline when you've clearly never struggled to do this?

> Why do you insist on this being the baseline

I didn't - that's why I asked - and then qualified my advice with it applies if that's the case.

> Have you ever had so little energy, motivation, or otherwise give-a-care to just not-do-it when going to bed at night?

Obviously this advice isn't going to be appropriate for someone with serious mental-health issues. It's advice for someone who wants to do some exercise and is struggling to get going, not someone facing more complex problems as well.

For what it's worth, I didn't find your suggestions bad and I appreciate them.

I don't suffer from depression or mental health issues, I just find exorcising boring and don't have the motivation for it. There's plenty of things I'd rather be doing, it's not that I'm a coach potato watching TV all day long :)

You've never had true depression.

My teeth are rotting out of my head due to poor dental hygiene from years ago. The road back up sometimes begins in a deep hole vertical-ascent, and that can feel daunting, even hopeless at times.

You wouldn't talk on the Internet unless you had experience. Everyone loves to brow-beat.

Simple advice from experience is obviously not going to be applicable to everyone. This is what works for me.

By the way did you know you've been hell-banned for five years? That's why almost nobody's been relying to your comments for the past half-decade.

Have you looked into kettlebells? [1] has a lot of information on training with kettlebells. You need to get past the whole comrade language they use and a few other mannerisms, but there is some useful information.

The main points I think might interest you are the idea of “grease the groove” training and “program minimum” plans.

They don’t advocate for doing multi-hour gym sessions. You can get a kettlebell and a chin up bar and exercise from home. You can do a couple of sets of swings and pull-ups (or push ups or dips) before or after work if you work in an office. If you work from home, you can do a set every hour. It will take 1 minute or less and can be incorporated into your daily tasks. Since it’s not overly strenuous, you won’t break a sweat and won’t need to take a shower to interrupt your day.

Anyway, if you don’t want to do it, then enjoy your hobbies!

[1] https://www.strongfirst.com/

I started to do this recently. It is amazing how motivated I am to walk/run because I want to know whats next in the book.

Walking is one of the best things you can do for your health, don't underestimate it. My doc told me to do 30 minutes a day for 3-4 days a week and I feel so much better.

My story is similar to yours, except that I love trekking and volleyball but I moved to a place where there are no mountains and no volleyball teams to join

Oh, I actually like trekking and would do it if there was nice landscape where I live. But there isn't, and walking in the concrete jungle is stressful (though less so than using public transportation!).

walking 30 mins/day or going up the stairs is surprisingly effective to avoid plenty of bad side effects of sitting.

Re: boring.

In my experience it's boring when you start but gets more rewarding as you start to see progress. But that's kind of true of everything new you try. When you suck you hate it. When you get hlgood you love it.