Ask Lemmy

Knowing I won't feel like shit for the rest of the day.

Play is a good one for aerobics. Going for a run or bike? Try to find new routes or go places you haven't before. Maybe run an errand. Maybe try to study wildlife or plants around while running one to another.

For strength training IDK. just pop in some absurd music and know that later it will feel good either just post exercise or weeks later when the exercise itself feels nice. It's also going to be nice when you go to lift a thing or hike and recognize you're actually stronger. Always a rewarding feeling!

In either case, it's important to reflect positively on your progress. "Hell yeah i can do this thing now thanks to my effort!“ and not negatively e.g. "my goals are so far away I'm so weak".

I just do it until I physically cant

I like to bike, and my motivation is to see what is around the bend…. And so i needed to spend a week recovering after biking 50 miles, and hard bonking 35 miles from my car. But hey i absolutely had the motivation to do that to my self.

Now my next motivation is survival, because the Sun has totally gone down, and if i don’t make it back to my car, i might actually die. A very powerful motivator that one.

I've always loved sports; so that part's easy, personally. But I've also learned to kind of savor the feeling of using my muscles and getting tired. Whatever I'm doing, or even on days where I didn't have time to "exercise", I make a point to check in on different parts of my body, maybe tense them or stretch; just trying to notice what feels good and then really savor that feeling. I find that building that mental practice helps motivate me to seek out exercise, or power through when I'm not really enjoying a particular activity.

I try not to think about it as a punishment for what I ate, and more a celebration of what my body can do.

Experiencing the benefits of strength training day to day (being able to move heavy shit easily and not struggle with things that I used to) also seeing how I look in the mirror after I do it helps.

Fast speed hike incline on treadmill

Put in earbuds, drum&bass

Disassociate for 1-2 hrs while staring at the food channel

Dance

Dance

REVOLUTION!!

(That rhythm game with the arrows on the screen and ground that you stomp on)

Not sure if this answers the question; but, as soon as I learned about BDNF and how muscle building can increase the levels of it, I became a gym rat. I want my brain to keep working past 90 and be able to program well into my 90s (I wanna be yelling at everyone about my struggles with Rust).In all seriousness if you don't wanna have dementia a little too early in life. Lift. Weights. Don't ignore cardio though. But BUILD so you can reap the benefits of your lean mass into your elder years . Training also helps me improve my MTB performance, which I find really fun.

Sorry for the wall of text :D

I'm trying to do stuff that's quick that I can do every day. I do pushups before my morning shower and some squats whilst I brush my teeth. Do it every day, I feel better for it and it only takes like 3 minutes. You can do extra sets around the house if you have a spare 30-60 seconds too.

I got a kid but not a car. Just walking to the kindergarten and back twice a day is movement. We spend a lot of time outdoors at playgrounds or parks and I have to do all the grocery shopping by bike or walking. I don't do other physical exercise admittedly, but this kid is a fitness machine. We be running, playing, I need to lift her, carry her, carry her stuff, clean up, wrestle - for real having a kid made me the most physically fit and active I've ever been.

When I was younger I liked to dance. Trying to lose weight I'd just put headphones on in my room and dance for hours. A friend of mine actually lost a crapton of weight this way, think obese to normal weight.

Also, making a kid (and training for it and reenacting it) is great exercise.

Sports or recreational activities, as opposed to going to gym for the sake of exercise. The physical exercise is a part of the activity rather than the sole focus.

Flow arts

I put some vtubers when running.

Try different things until you find something that feels good even as an idea. Think about things you like doing and how you like them. For me, I dislike team sports and being surrounded by people in a gym setting. I like doing things on my own, preferably at home while not talking to anyone. I first start thinking about maybe enjoying a spooky story podcast while walking so I start thinking about the temperature and the things I like watching while I'm out, etc. Same for weight lifting, pilates and yoga (Those are my cyclical workouts. I get bored easily) I hype myself up in my head first and then use the "do it for five minutes" method.

I have NEVER said "Well I wish I didn't come to yoga. This class sucked" "That lifting routine was a total waste of time. Not doing it again"

Also, having cute/neat stuff for it helps, just beware of spending habits. Did I need to buy green yoga blocks? No Do they make me Happy everytime I look how they are the exact same shade as my pothos? Yes they do.

It became an addiction. It helps to relax. Not a gym rat. But almost. Need to go everyday. Far away to have those extra big muscles. But the "legs day" are..... horrible.... It hurts a lot...

Combine with work. Birds and stones.

None. I enjoy exercise itself. No music, no tech, no nothing. Just a program and a timer. When I'm running, I get runner's high. When I'm doing calisthenics, I look forward to doing advanced moves.

Find sports that you actually enjoy - try out different things. In my case:

• Cardio: running fucking sucks, swimming is boring as shit. Cycling, on the other hand, is pretty fun. Feels like flying when everything aligns.
• Strength: lifting weights at the gym is doable, but boring. Climbing? Hell yeah, give me more routes where I have to tie myself into a knot while pulling up all my weight with my fingertips.

It can be an exact opposite of it for you. Or you'll find out that team sports are the bees knees because support from other people is what you've been missing.

Apartment bike + watching something on a cheap 2016 tablet

Personally, I like a treadmill.

For years I planned to get one, and all the runners in my family would talk about how awful they are, how no one ever uses it once they have it, and getting outside is so much better.

I finally got the treadmill a couple months ago, and I use it several times per week. Some weeks I use it every day. It's convenient, I can control the temperature in the room, I can watch something on my phone while I run, and I like being able to set a consistent pace.

Work out watch star trek. By the season 4 you'll be made of steel

Honestly I find it quite enjoyable on it's own. The more I do it, the more I just enjoy the running itself. But I tend to have some music playing and dream away a bit

I chart my improvements over time and equate them to role playing game experience points

Do 20 crunches? that's +20 xp towards constitution

Really makes it a lot easier to reframe boring tasks

find an activity that you legitimately enjoy. that's it

I used to hate exercise. Then, I pushed myself to do it regularly and the benefits surpassed the negative side of it by a lot. For instance, almost all my chronic pain issues are gone, so I'm saving a couple hundreds yearly on healthcare. I also feel better physically (I can move better, I have better endurance) if I'm exercising regularly compared to when I'm not. Because, let's face it, I don't like it, so every now and then I stop for reasons and getting into it back again is very difficult. But it's always worth it.

For me keeping it quick helps alot. No need to be in the gym for 1.5-2 hours, especially if you can wrap up your workout in 50 minutes. I'm just there to get my reps in, no more no less.

To that end either find a split that doesn't target as many muscle groups in 1 session. Like Push Pull Legs. Or super set as much as possible.

For finding motivation to actually do it, I tend to workout after already being productive. So clean up your room/kitchen, or code for a bit. And when that productivity train is going, keep it going. Or go immediately when coming home from work, don't first "relax". Keep the momentum high and tackle things of your todo list; like working out.

A few variants I like:

• Weight lifting

I like the progression. It's cool to see the numbers go up

• Cycling

It literally just makes me feel like a kid again, just flying around at quite high speeds. I've recently discovered that this is also a lot of fun to do with friends

• Walking

This is the one that helped me the furthest in weight loss back when I was overweight. You can do basically unlimited amounts of it, and with a podcast or audiobook in your headphones, it doesn't really get boring either.

I got a recumbent exercise bike, a pawn shop tv, steam deck, and a steam controller. I play whatever is loaded on my deck while I bike, usually for about 30-45 minutes at a time.

Right now I am playing Fall Guys while I exercise, as it keeps me entertained on survival for ~10 minutes per game.

By doing physical activity that's intrinsically rewarding.

If you enjoy bike riding, go ride your bike, and don't even bother thinking about it as exercise. Enjoy, and get into it.

The fitness part is just a side effect.