To not exercise

20k steps a day?? That’s bloody loads of exercise - you absolutely exercise.

Lots of people are similar, but it would improve your life in just about every day if you did

I never used to and would say the same stuff about being time poor and stressed and then I had to do some physio to recover from an injury and found that being more active actually gave me energy and felt less stressed and I could fit it in in short bursts while waiting for other things or taking a screen break.

I now know that exercise now is like saving into my pension - putting in the work now for the benefit later.

I think I’d go mental if I didn’t do at least a bit of sport each day.

The majority of mine is done outdoors, but the fitness/exercise part is a secondary perk to the actual sport, which I get so much joy out of.

Exercising for exercising’s sake would bore me though. Such as going to the gym or running on a treadmill/road.

The long and short of it, this.

And most people are time poor; they just have different priorities.

True, when I had dc I prioritised them. As they get older things will shift.

We all have the same 24 hours as Beyoncé 🤣

Many people are time poor and stressed

I'm definitely less stressed when I exercise. It's about the only thing that keeps me sane.
And most people are time poor; they just have different priorities.

stopped when she had dc!

@Pharazon my gran played a sport as a young woman but stopped as a dc, my dad never did. My mum played badminton once a week for a bit, aunts nothing but as I said loads of walking.

I think we all need to aim for an active life rather than doing exercise if we don’t want to or can’t. When we talk about relatives that are of previous generations who never exercised, they were likely active in ways we just aren’t.

im a bit disabled (spinal issues and I have just had a big hip operation) so I concede I probably take some short cuts. However, I get the shopping delivered, we have a dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer. I haven’t ironed in years. We have a lightweight Dyson (erm and a cleaner and window cleaner). We have a relatively low maintenance garden, though needs mowing and weeding and we do have an allotment.

if we go back to the 40s to 80s running a home and garden was a lot more active and people often only had one car, if that in some cases! I’ve had several older relatives who never learnt to drive or never saw the need to run a car.

That hidden level of activity I think then stood them in good stead in later life. Many of us grew up with parents who didn’t exercise so we didn’t have that modelled to us. However, our parents and grandparents were active and so managed without it. Then life changed and we now need to specifically exercise or look for opportunities to increase our activity across the day / week.

Add in bad experiences with school PE and I can see that people are going to have more unwell later life unless they build the bone density, mobility and muscle to see them through.

Most people I know don’t exercise, and that’s all different age groups. I started at 40 and wish I’d started earlier

And I’m sure at least some of them will have done a sport too. All my older relatives played football, rugby, tennis, badminton, hockey, cycled etc. Community amateur sport was huge in the post-war years, probably more so than nowadays when it has to compete with so many other forms of entertainment.

There's even stuff for kids that look fun to do with them. It doesn't have to be about the gym.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1KBVMgHVKY/

I think people get mixed up with health and mobility. Health is just a side effect of exercise, the universe can give our health a twatting whether we exercise or not.

Mobility however is finite if you don't. When you start sitting around more, lose muscle and end up not being able to walk far or get up out of a chair without effort, then come the mobility aids.

I'd prefer to be about to run up the stairs in my 80s than not.

Seeing the state of my own mother has got me exercising 7 days a week in my 50's. She never exercised and is heading for a wheelchair. Can no longer do basic household tasks, hasn't left the house on foot or alone for around 10 years, can't visit my sibling as they are up stairs. She's 75 and plagued with ill health. Comparing her to my aunt of a similar age who does yoga daily and looks after herself, it's like there's 20 years between them. With my mum it really was a case of use it or lose it. She stopped using her legs and now they can't carry her.
I start every day with a mobility routine followed by cardio then do strength workouts in the evening mixed with a bit of yoga and pilates. I do it all at home. I use bands, dumbbells, kettle bells. I like variety! Walking is great but it's not going to keep your upper body strong and your back flexible.
I want to be able to wipe my own ass as long as possible 😂

I went to classes particularly dance based all the time pre dc but i cannot fit them in now. School runs, extracurriculars, work, cooking from scratch, eating together, homework, socialising with friends and family & then one on one time with DH, Same for DH

Thank goodness for that

My mother lived to 93 and never did a day of ' exercise' in her life. She spent a good portion of her life considerably overweight too

My dad never in his life did any exercise if he could get away with it and he lived until 89 too

I know I know know it is all anecdotal but it cheers me up anyway

Looking at the state of the health of the nation it’s clear that many, many people don’t exercise.

Many people are time poor and stressed

Same. Most people I run and cycle with are. It trying to lose weight. They enjoy it, want to keep fit and sometimes compete.

Agree. It was a passive aggressive comment.

Anyway these sorts of threads tend to be skewed as people that do exercise are more likely to respond. Hardly anyone comes on to say they do no exercise yet stats show otherwise.

Edited to add: I just realised this is the exercise board so of course it’s mostly people that exercise 😂

I would love there to be a fitness class class aimed at over sixties locally and around six pm so I could go after work. A nice mix of strength and Pilates etc. However anything available seems to be daytime when I'm at work and I don't think there is even that much. I need the motivation of a class and the fact I've paid to go. I did try a bootcamp thing which I quite enjoyed but I don't like the face it's in a park in all weathers as I found that unpleasant and I was the oldest easily by fifteen years. I love walking but it isn't fun any more as the toes are too painful.

Looking at the state of the health of the nation it’s clear that many, many people don’t exercise.

You absolutely don’t need to go to the gym (I can’t stand them, too noisy and too many people!).

I third growingananas. Much easier than caroline girvan but still challenging and effective

I agree with this. I do my exercises from home in my lunch break, 5days a week as I work from home full time.

I have a few kettle bell weights ranging from 8kg - 25kg that I’ve purchased over the years.

i tend to do short sessions of between 15-30mins depending on my energy levels and how much of my break I want to use.

I mostly use Caroline Girvin as it’s super easy to find her 15min /20min /30min sessions and she also has a fair few “non equipment “ sessions too.

i know some find it tough to motivate themselves to exercise from home but for me I find it more of a slog to add in travel to and from a gym, not to mention its free! Of course the weights I have I had to buy, but in the beginning I would load up a rucksack with canned foods/ potatoes and hug it to my chest while I did squats and lunges etc. plus with so many routines that use your body weight as the “weight” it doesn’t have to cost anything!

as someone mentioned previously on this thread, building and maintaining muscle is really important for women, particularly late 30s /early 40s onwards