Personally I find that I get way too competitive if I track my workouts. I bike for an hour around 3-4 times per week. I don't know which days I do it, I don't know how fast I go. I just go and ride wherever i feel like, take whatever turns I feel like. Usually my rides end up about an hour long before I get bored, but sometimes (especially in the summer months) they turn into 4 hours.
You'll find that your body changes drastically. Most people (me included) has this idea that the body will adapt relatively quickly. Maybe a couple of months. I've found that my body kept getting stronger and more efficient well into the 5th year of doing exercise. You'll be surprised at how much your body can actually do, and how much of that training carried over, even when you let it slip for a couple of weeks (or break your ankle and have to pause for 2 months).
Wow, thanks for this! I'll definitely use it.
https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/issues/1892
I must have pushed myself a bit too hard, because I ended up with flu-like symptoms for a week afterwards, which completely broke the intent of getting started on forming the habit again.
Or you can find an activity that you enjoy but that is also exercise. But then you need someone or maybe a team to do it with and a lot of them are seasonal like cycling, tennis etc.
I've noticed that both indoor rock climbing and bjj have gotten really popular in cities in the last decade and I think this is basically why. Active indoor activities that are enjoyable for a lot of people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMGbZFEZOM8
you can ride with a club/friends at any time of day, any season of the year, anywhere in the world.
still not a perfect solution, since startup costs are required, but if you've got a bike and can swing a smart trainer, it's pretty awesome.
This is objectively not true for me and nearly all of my friends who lift/run/swim/bike/etc.
Physical activity feels good [see OP].
And/or you feel better having done it.
My cyclist friends love exercise for its own sake. My judo friends mostly accept it for what it enables them to do. My board game friends tolerate it, at most.
But if you ask people if they like walking around a cute downtown full of little shops, or surfing, or exploring a valley looking for wildflowers, or going to a nightclub and dancing, gardening, etc., then you'll discover a world of activities that are physical and also enjoyable.
I don't know how true this is. When folks talk about things like a "runners high", an activity that even at my most fit was abject misery, I have to wonder just how differently we're experiencing these things. When I was lifting heavy, I also suffered from some pretty serious delayed onset muscle soreness. I know for a fact folks have varied experiences and tolerances for that. Some people's muscles recover much more quickly from heavy exercise, reducing the overall unpleasantness associated with exercise. With all of the variables and testimony from folks I've worked out with, I have to assume a decent amount of people who exercise regularly actually enjoy the exercise itself. For me it never became more than a means to an end. It's something I know is good for mind and body, but my mind and body consistently rebel against it.
I keep kicking myself for not being more willing to exercise, but I've also recently discovered that my body severely overreacts to stress, even what should be eu-stress, not dis-stress. For example, massage therapy aggravates my muscles and leaves my body more tense and less resilient. I finally started making progress on healing some physical anomalies only after I stopped the recommended massage therapy.
It's made me realize maybe I'll have better luck with "strolling" than "going for a walk," or making up interpretive dances to smooth music than "dancing" to up-tempo beats. Perhaps I just need much more movement, but a lot less intensity than most people.
After 9 months of sticking to it, I found myself enjoying it while doing it.
I had to use a personal trainer to get to that point though, due to how much I hated it initially.
Pay a trainer for once/twice/thrice weekly sessions.
It is easier to skip a workout when no one else knows. I found it simply easier to just go rather than to make an excuse for the trainer.
It was worth the cost for me.
(Just don't get a Husky. They're high-maintenance and not very affectionate, and will get depressed and act out when left alone all day.)
After a decade of nothing else working, this is what stuck.
My brain greatly dislikes 'purposeless' physical activity.
For example, I can stock an entire store, no problem. I will gleefully put the right thing into the right spot. That accomplishes something. Take a quarter of that physical energy and put it into a jog or walk? Hate it. Yes, I am technically accomplishing something, but try and tell my bored-to-tears lizard brain that.
I do the same, slightly shorter distance. There's even an exercise that people put rocks into their backpacks and walk around, they call it rucking I think. I could never do that, but bringing the groceries, sure!
Time spent in the car is wasted, time spent walking for groceries is well spent.
Moving back to my hometown of 400k people, I found I don't even need a bike: I can get almost anywhere in an hour's walk!
I've taken to forcing myself to walk to the convenience store when I want a single unit of junk food instead of hoarding and binging. Gives me purposeful exercise and limits my spending on crap.
"Anything worth doing is worth doing POORLY." aka, ANYTHING is better than nothing.
I feel like that's the biggest barrier for a lot of people. One push-up is far better than zero. Walking outside to your mailbox and back is better than none at all.
Signing up for a gym and going once every two weeks, for about 15 min, is WAY better than not at all. Etc.
I promise, really believing this makes things a LOT better.
Walking is huge. This is definitely in response to "my brain hates it, etc" type stuff.
My gut is that this is pretty much never true for "walking." We were "designed" to do it, lots of it. Not walking is not even our "default" state I imagine.
I couldn't run for a couple months because I sprained both ankles, and I sure missed it.
Lifting, though, I just don't enjoy it.
Something that isn't discussed whenever this topic comes up, though, is how unbelievably hard it is to get started when you aren't active. I had to force myself to go to the gym, take walks etc for six months before I felt like I actually enjoyed those things.
For those of us who default to couch-potato it's a massive barrier that is often ignored (at least, from my experience, by medical professionals).