Imho, anything you can do to increase overall bloodflow is beneficial to your entire system. One of the reasons caffeine makes us feel good is the increased bloodflow. If that can be increased without drugs, youre one up on the masses. Enjoy it dont hate it
If the effects were truly the same, I’d rather drink a few coffees a day than go for a walk. It’s faster and tastes better.
I feel like they are both bitter tastes people only like through aquirement. Have you tried sweetening your exercise with sugar?
… lol.
Started walking 10k steps a day after seeing myself in pictures and hating how I looked. I’d been fairly active in the past, but some injuries sidelined me. I found getting out and walking was much better for my mental health and creativity than staring at a screen. Embraced the zen of walking when it was cold or rainy out - I’m lucky to often see animals around me that I know most people near me are never seeing. Now instead of dreading exercise, I have the opposite problem of getting restless and pissy if I don’t get my walking or biking in.
To the people who dont feel better after excercise, maybe you just haven’t found a sport or excercise that you like?
For me it is biking but yours could be different.
People who try to start an exercise activity very commonly do too much their first time(s) at it, and end up injuring themselves or hurting too much which makes it hard to continue and even harder to start doing it again after they inevitably quit. The best thing to do is to start with something absurdly small - like biking a half-mile, walking (or running) 200 feet, or driving to the gym and then driving home without even going inside - and then very gradually ramp things up. The most important thing is to establish exercising as a regular habit, and then worry about turning it into actual physically effective exercise later on.
I dislike exercising, I often have to “parent” myself into starting, I have to fight the urge to stop several times during a session, and I almost always feel worse immediately after. Sore, tired, sweaty, or various other uncomfortableness, and I haven’t found a recovery activity that erases that temporary badness.
But, my life when I’m not exercising has gotten better, and it’s at least partially due to the exercise.
Well, maybe try something else. For example:
- swimming - can’t be sweaty of you’re surrounded by water
- cycling - do errands on your bike; you’ll still be tired and sweaty, but at least you also got groceries
- hiking - see nature and get the exercise for free
I have tried swimming and hiking, and while I can enjoy doing those activities, I fail to maintain an elevated heart rate if I’m enjoying them.
I live in a rural area, the Grocery store I use is 15+ miles up a US Hwy.with narrow/shoulders in places. I can’t do errands on a bike. I haven’t actually been on a normal bike in years, but on the stationary bikes at the gym, it’s another scenario where I won’t maintain my heart rate.
What about a local library? Fruit vendor?
I’m in a suburban/semi-rural area (some farms, and lots of single family homes), so I’m spoiled for choice, but anything that’s within about 5 miles is perfect for running errands on a bicycle.
As for elevated heart rate, I guess that comes down to personality. I’m very competitive, so I like to see how fast I can do things, and very much dislike doing anything slowly. When I hike, I pass other hikers; when I cycle, I set time goals; when I swim, I try to increase the number of laps; when I lift weights, I try to increase weight or reps (I target 5-10 reps with “one in the tank”). If you’re not competitive, I can see how motivating yourself could be difficult though.
There are places I could get to on a bike, but none that are currently in my routine errands. I suppose I could hit the post office on the bike.
I set time goals for my 5k treadmill sessions, but I only meet then by converting over to a pace and setting the treadmill there. I continue to increase my weights, too, though I generally don’t go up until I can do an “extra” set.
I get close to the NIH recommendations and I keep pushing myself to be better, and I still dislike exercising. It’s just non-optional maintenance for this shell until I can shed it.
Exercise for its own sake sucks, which is why I like replacing other things I need to do anyway with something that includes exercise. When I lift weights, I listen to podcasts or audiobooks between sets, and when I was in school, I would do pushups or situps as a study break. My first job was about 10 miles from home, so I would ride my bike 2-3x/week (we had a shower), which would take 35-45min, which was about twice what driving would take, but I’d get home and have already gotten my exercise for the day.
I honestly can’t just do exercise for its own sake, it needs to be accompanied by some other activity I enjoy or need to do.
Podcasts or music are not essential to my gym experience, but they are important. My pace on the treadmill certainly suffers if I forgot my headphones.
A few weeks ago some “commedian” decided he needed to get my attention (pause playback, turn off noice cancelling, “yes?”) twice for idiotidic jokes like “When are you going to be done with that machine, because there aren’t any others: gestures to empty gym with only He and I”.
He did pay me an appreciated comment during one of those interruptions, but overall his behavior was grating and made the session worse than average.
I haven’t yet found a combination activity where I still feel like I’m getting sufficient exercise. I think combination activities work better for many people and you gotta find a way that exercise works for you, or you really won’t get enough.
I’m not sure why but I find pretty much all excercise mind numbingly boring. I found that walking my dog in the park is a lot more stimulating mentally because you gotta look out for your little critter and she always does interesting things. The only thing is she gets cold easily so I can only walk her properly in the summer…
Dog tax: https://imgur.com/a/rEII2ih
Unfortunately it’s not that simple. :(
Can confirm. Health nuts dont seem so nutty anymore.
And then after some time, you come to expect your body to feel sore, and when your body doesn’t feel sore that feels weird. So you do exercise for no other reason than to feel sore again…
And then if you don’t go for a week or l for whatever reason you get a new kind of achey muscle thing. That’s weird
I’m one of those forever-exceptions to many rules. I don’t doubt that exercise is good for me, but it has never made me feel better or happier. Lots of people report pleasure from physical activity, but all I ever get is pain. Oh, and no, I’m not a disgusting slab of fat, my BMI is 21.
I used to exercise quite a lot, I know what the runners high feels like and how being sore and able to use motion and stretching to alleviate the soreness felt so good. I could easily lose myself when I exercised.
I don’t get that anymore. I have bad joint pains, I never get that high feeling anymore, and everything is a distraction. I want to go back, but whatever happy chemicals used to work no longer do and what’s left over makes the whole endeavor feel the opposite.
Counter-example: tried to exercise, ended up doing more harm than good. Walking always made me barely able to move for a couple of days and continued trying, even once every few days, still hurt me, got worse, and I think it’s responsible for how I am now (severe sciatic nerve damage).
Fuck exercise.
That sounds like a disability and definitely is not normal. Far from a “counter-example”, especially when the overwhelming evidence is that being sedentary IS harmful
It differs per person.
I can walk rather long distances even if sick, but that’s because I’ve been doing that a lot in my childhood. Not so often today - but the parts about correct posture and movements and breathing rhythm are still very useful.
Try with something so small that you don’t even get tired, just feel heated up a bit. Do it every day. When that effect stops being notable, increase the load so you feel it again. Keep doing that, and in 3 months your life should be better.
Of course, I’ve never been able to keep doing something regularly, so this is just repeating advice often heard (and correct in terms of your body, but not in terms of executive dysfunction and what it does to one’s ability to exercise regularly).
I’m sorry that your experience has been crappy. And yes, not all strong exercises are great for everyone.
Still, there are advantages for not being sedentary and being active, as in light exercises does not have to disable you for days. You should look into that as it is not necessarily common.
One of the many reasons I value living in a walkable city. I don’t have to go out of my way to walk. It’s just a part of daily life.
I biked to work every day as my only regular exercise and was relatively happy with my body and endurance - COVID taking that away by turning my job remote only really showed me how important that daily activity is - first time in my life signed up for a fitness studio after those could open again.
For me it’s the time. It takes me from 7am to 9pm to get my hours done at work, do the school run and get the kid fedded and bedded. I’m doing all the hacks I can: cycling during lunch and in the weekend, as much as possible, but it’s not adding up to enough. You just get a good routine going and then they throw in a school holiday to wreck everything up.
I’ve tried to find a nice balance of exercise. I always figured I was supposed to go to the gym and lift and run on treadmills and do push-ups. I’ve honestly found that a simple 30 minutes of walking is all I need
Yeah I hated the process of becoming one of the exercise people, but it really is the lowest effort to increase in happiness activity I’ve added to my life
Eating well is even lower effort, but inversively fun.
If only it wouod magically work mentally too
No amount of variety of exercise made it worthwhile MENTALLY
it never turned into something I looked forward to, to the point I slowly turned to a lot less than I started out with (over many months)
To me personally, things like runners high never once are something I even came close to
The idea that I could be doing less activity than walking 3 miles a week and not understanding how bad I’m feeling because of it… Is extremely depressing. I’m so glad I figured this out like 12 years ago!
Just the idea of not doing something that you are doing makes you depressed?
Yeah. I was super depressed then and it was worse because of being fat. Thinking about that is sad. Ya know, words aren’t always meant 100% literally
Literally is exactly how you take words. You just made a mistake. I understand what you mean now.
Literally is exactly how you take words.
Except for constantly, where the reverse is true
Specifically people say “depressed” to mean “sad” quite often. You’ve surely seen/heard it many times if you consume media in English
The initial comment resonated so much with me, that I feel the need to answer, even though I wasn’t even asked: YES
A few years ago I was in a really dark place. I lost 3 kg in 2 months and when I wasn’t at work, I was lying in my bed on the verge of crying, half-listening to YouTube just to scare the thoughts away.
But the thing, that finally got me out of the loop, was getting myself a houseplant, after watching a plant YouTuber for a while. And when I got home, rather than cry, I obsessively cleaned every speck of dust off the leaves, measured the soil moisture with a stick and just watched it be. And something just clicked inside me and I realized that I had found something I wanted to do; probably forever, if given the chance.
Still have the same plant; cut, repotted and propagated. And while I’m at a much better place now - physically, mentally, financially - just thinking about giving that (houseplants) up feels like going back.
Nice story but not the same thing at all. If you already had the house plant and watched a video about not having a houseplant and got depressed, that would be the same thing.
I love this story. I’m so glad you found something that made a difference for you!
This post inspired me to go play outside, thank you
Meanwhile I have a body that tries to kill me when I exercise.
“i bless the rains down in castamere” is a top notch display name
She’s also just top notch in general. Her and her ridiculously charming pet pig Rufus (pictured below) are two of main things I miss from Twitter…
There is only one Rufus and that’s not it.
A few years ago I went from 265 lbs to 195. I was amazed at how much better I felt overall.
Unfortunately, I have a relationship with sweets that is very similar to Charlie Sheen’s relationship with cocaine. I haven’t gained all that weight back but I have gained back some of it.
Getting the motivation and self control to eat right is incredibly hard work.
Damn I’m feeling you. I’m in the fall process (solidly down 15kg/33lb, approaching 20kg/44lb) with about 10-15kg to go. When my belly stops flapping I’m good I think. But I fear the rebound… Currently lots of my evening snacking have disappeared because of evening gym classes, so late home and even later dinner. So I don’t have time anymore to get snacky. Or if I do it’s almost bedtime anyway so I’ll just go to bed instead.
But once I’ve hit my goal and don’t need to hit gym that hard anymore… That frightens me. A little bit at least. Made some good connections there and got a routine going so i can probably keep it up.
But once I’ve hit my goal and don’t need to hit gym that hard anymore… That frightens me.
I’m pretty sure the notion of not needing to exercise as much after you’ve hit your goal is a misconception to begin with, if it makes you feel any better.
I personally disregard weight goals because I find it can be discouraging to feel objectively better, but then the number on the scale says you’re no different. So I just walk by the scale now.
Anyway, but that’s me. For snacking, I find drinking a lot of water after meals, and having healthy snacks that I like (chopped carrots, mixed nuts, chia seed pudding, really dark chocolate, etc) helps.
Also I personally don’t believe in “cheat days” but I like allowing myself to enjoy some junk socially. Like we have a local doughnut+coffee shop nearby, and my buddy and I will usually meet there on our dates. It’s fun, it’s local. I don’t feel bad about it.
Hopefully there’s a helpful tidbit in here and I didn’t come off as preachy!
Numbers fuck people up. You make a goal to lose 100, finally see the scale tick down by 2, “Damn! 1/50th of the way?!”
