You May Never Love Exercise (but Do It Anyway)
There seems to be a general consensus that fitness is something to be loved. People will tell you that if you don’t like exercise, it’s simply because you don’t find something you like, or you don’t do it often enough to create a positive feedback loop . As a writer and fitness trainer who has trained consistently for over a decade, I can confidently say that I don’t like exercise and that’s okay.
The idea that everyone should get at least some enjoyment from exercise is silly. In fact, it is the same, that the stamp collector, which tells you that your lack of interest is probably due to the fact that you have not yet discovered the world of self-adhesive envelopes or octagonal brands. This is ridiculous. You don’t have the obligation to enjoy everything, and wasting time jumping with workouts in the hope of finding some magical workout that you enjoy is ineffective and discouraging. Your time can be put to much better use than repetitive self-torture.
But that doesn’t mean you should give up. Exercise has undeniable benefits beyond the fact that it “looks better,” as science has proven time and again. First, it can be beneficial for your mental health. Various meta-analyzes have shown that both resistance training and cardiovascular exercise can be as effective as drugs for treating mild to moderate depression and can be extremely helpful in reducing stress anxiety .
On a deeper level, it helps your body protect itself at its most basic structure: its cells. Exercise is stressful. Not only emotionally, if you don’t like it, but physiologically, because it increases the production of free radicals – particles that damage cells. But your body adapts to it. With continued exercise, your cells are hardened from damage by increasing the production of antioxidant enzymes (that is, protecting cells from free radical attack), which continue to protect your body at rest. It can help protect your body from certain types of cancer, heart disease, and various neurodegenerative diseases.
So there are real benefits to training that go beyond superficial improvements, but if you know them by heart and are still not enough for you to work out in the gym, here are a few tactics to make them as painless as possible:
- Keep your workouts as short as possible. There is no point in prolonging the suffering. Focus on complex movements that involve multiple parts at the same time, work on high – intensity cardio when you can, and try to train harder for maximum efficiency . This will make the workout smoother for your climb and also make it easier to incorporate into your schedule.
- Do this while doing something else that you enjoy. Extreme discomfort + higher satisfaction = indifference ?? But seriously, if multitasking is possible, use it as a distraction. If you love music, focus on a great playlist or hire a friend to chat at the same time. You can also download your favorite show and use it as a timer to find out when half an hour of your workout has elapsed. Anything that prevents you from thinking about how much you hate the elliptical trainer.
- Change “should exercise” to “will exercise.” This is just a small change in wording, but it can help a lot with your thinking. “Should” means that you feel obligated to do it due to external pressure, and gives you some leeway (for example, how I technically have to sleep eight hours, but I never actually sleep). “Will”, however, is specific. You fix it in your mind as a task to be done.
- Make it a part of your daily routine Set a time to exercise and stick to it. This can be difficult if you have a lot to do, but if you think you are leaving yourself the choice to “work on it when you can,” you are making a mistake. What inevitably happens is that the training is carried over to the elusive land of tomorrow and the cycle repeats again. Making it part of your daily ritual will help you do it without hesitation or delay.
- Instead, don’t exercise. It may be easier and less disgusting to increase your overall daily activity instead of doing more workouts in the gym. Replace car trips with a bike ride or a walk and climb the stairs. These are small options that add up to the same benefits as a full workout .
So if you hate exercise, take it and accept it, but do it anyway.