To have to admit defeat - I hate, hate, hate exercise. Can I change?

[Naturalbornsloth]

I love the idea of exercise. I crave feeling strong and having energy and my body feeling fit and healthy.

However, I'm just so unbelievably shit at any form of exercise. I get so demoralized in classes because everyone else can handle it and even if they're struggling they can do it. I can't. Today I bounced into my yoga class full of enthusiasm, and then after 20 minutes I was feeling like shit. My wrists hurt. My head felt like it was exploding, too full of blood. I then got shaky and nauseated, and finished by having a diabetic hypo and had to guzzle sickly sugary fizzy drink to get back to normal in order to travel home.

I really want to be reasonable at exercise. I've attached so much shame to it - it's just another fucking example of how my body isn't good enough and doesn't work right. But paradoxically, if I could get fitter and stronger I'd feel so much better about my body, by feeling healthier and tougher.

I've noticed I feel happier about exercise when totally alone and not comparing how massively shit I am to everyone else, but I really want to become good at yoga and could never afford private lessons.

Can anyone relate to this? What do you do?

Digging the garden burns about 700 calories an hour, so I do that.

I found 10 minute exercise videos on our cable On Demand system. The first one I have is with a young woman in slacks and rubber shoes doing a walk yourself fit one, it is clearly aimed at the less fit bracket as she continually says 'If this is too much, don't move your arms, or slow down'.

DH bought us an Erg rowing machine. I could manage 30 seconds to start with. After three weeks I was up to 20 minutes per session, it just took time to get there.

I can't stand classes either. We have Hot Yoga in our area. If I want to exercise in 105F heat (not in UK here) I'll go outside and weed. If I tried yoga in those conditions I'd pretty soon be leaping around the room attacking people like The Wolverine (or a wolverine), heat does horrible things to my temper.

I know exactly how you feel. I do like dancy aerobics but I am too old for the subtle competitiveness of a class

I don't like yoga. Slow, farty, difficult. I like cardio.

Bought myself a machine (I know). 20 minutes 3x week with DVD.

I agree that swimming's good if you don't like getting sweaty (like me) but it's a faff (wet hair etc)

Yoga with Adriene on YouTube!

I'm doing her 31 days of yoga thing, though not every day. I do it in my pyjamas after everyone's gone to school in the morning, in the privacy of my own bedroom. Nobody to see me or compare myself to. Just me.

I've been doing it two/three times a week for a month and I think I'm getting stronger, though still as inflexible as ever.

I totally understand how you feel, but don't give up. You just haven't found the right exercise for you. I'm 50 and feel fit for the first time in my life. If I can do it anybody can do it.

I hated PE all through school, can't bear the thought of going to the gym (I'm convinced it would be full of young, thin, fit people) and have always avoided sport.
Because I don't drive, I've always walked a lot and walked briskly. But that's it.

The things that worked for me:

Going on the wii fit.

Exercise dvd's (if I can kick dp and dd out of the room so they aren't watching me - I can't cope with an audience)

Fitbit - trying to up my steps, active minutes and calories burned

Fitstar - a workout app linked to my fitbit. There's a big variety in terms of difficulty and duration. The programme I use has workouts that are only about 7-10 minutes long so easy to fit into the day. You can grade each exercise as too easy, fine or brutal and it adjusts it for the next time.

Couch to 5K app on my phone. It starts off really gently. The first week you do a warm up walk followed by 1 minute running and 3 minutes recovery walk (repeated 8 times so 8 minutes running in total) and then a 5 minute cool down walk at the end. Each week gradually builds on what you've done before.
I was completely knackered after the first session, but uninstalled the app after 6 weeks because I no longer needed it: I could run to work in the morning (just over 2 miles) and do a 3 or 4 mile run at the weekend without getting particularly out of breath.

If you like the idea of yoga then I'm sure there are apps and youtube videos that would help. There are also yoga exercises on the wiifit. I know that you can get wii games (including wii fit) on ebay and you could probably pick up a console there as well if you don't have one.

If you get demoralized in classes and feel happier when you exercise on your own then that's the way to go. You'll definitely start to feel happier about yourself as you feel your fitness levels increasing.

I hate exercise. I don't understand 'The Zone'. I spend all the time thinking 'will this boredom/torture never end?' and then after about an hour in the gym or pool it does and I can go home. I run too but I hate every minute.

I work hard but I only do it because I like the results. I wish I didn't have to do it.

OTOH walk home from work which is a beautiful route along the Thames on either the north or south embankment - south is nicer but it's a bit longer - but about 70 minutes in all. I keep meaning to walk to the office but I can never get myself organised to do it without being late.

Though it's lovely and heartlifting to see the sights and be with people and does me more good than sitting on the tube, I don't push myself hard enough for it to be a useful workout in terms of weight loss or toning. But it's better than nothing and is enjoyable, as opposed to being in the gym or slogging round the roads and parks.

Op try different forms of exercise,
what is your aim ?...to get fit...lose weight...or just find something that you enjoy and feel good after?

I do like yoga but you sometimes need to shop around to find a class that suits you. The class I currently go to is mostly populated by over-60's who have limited mobility in differing forms. I'm the youngest, but I'm not the most flexible. However, I have noticed that nobody else cares what you're doing. If you can't do something you don't do it, or you ask the instructor on alteratives that you can work on to build up to do other things.
Having said that, I once went to a step fitness class and it was hell. Never again will I set foot in a place like that. Far too loud, hot, competitive and full of fit and healthy people.

Dance can be fun, but again, you need to shop around and see what you like. Ditto martial arts.

I've just started running. I go with an equally unfit friend and we spend half an hour trotting around the local area, spurring each other on.

I'm the same, OP. I try to do one of the following six out of seven days a week:

• 10k steps (I have a very sedentary job so have to actually go for a long walk after work to achieve this!)
• Swimming for 40 mins
• Stick on a good playlist and dance about like a loon in my bedroom for 45 mins (this is probably the one that gets my heart going the most because I LOVE dancing and really throw myself into it!)
• T-25 in my living room

It works for me because a) it's flexible, b) it's helped me get into the habit of moving my body every day, c) it's all done privately (though I usually walk and swim with DH), d) it's all adjustable for if I'm feeling a bit rough.

The T-25 is quickest and easiest but I HATE it, whereas the swimming is faffiest and longest but I LOVE it - so I do T-25 when I just want to get it over and done with, and do swimming when I have extra time and it feels like a treat!

I usually feel like doing at least one of the options every day - I think having a choice makes the difference! It also means that if DH and I go on a day trip or something we can easily work in a long walk - and then I've done my exercise for the day.

Swimming and walking. Easy peasy lemon squeezy (but still proper exercise), and it really works. Addictive once you start too. I feel bad if I don't . (Formerlyfatgirlwithabsoloutelyzerochocolate).

Here's the other thread.
Main points people made - there are so many various forms of exercise out there. You will probably find something that you like better than what you've tried so far.
And once you're fitter, it will of course get more enjoyable

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2899120-To-think-you-cant-enjoy-exercise-if-you-just-dont

Other suggestions -
Climbing stairs. This is great exercise and is something you always see on fitness/weightloss programmes on TV. If you normally get a lift, try using the stairs for all or part of the way.
Buy some dumbbells (not the little pink ones), look on you tube for exercise routines. You can achieve a lot in 15 minutes or so.

I realised quite early on that no one else gives a shit about what I'm doing (unless I crash into them ) and that makes a big difference in my self esteem.

I do lots of different things. I'm hideously inflexible, but actually although I'm deeply unimpressive at yoga, I'm actually good in that I work with my limitations and get my alignment right. Many other people who look like they're doing it "better" are actually compromising significantly on their form.

When I started at a circuits class, I only chose it because of the time slot. 5 months post natal after being significantly affected by SPD and then a EMCS and slow recovery, I was by far the weakest and slowest. But I've stuck with it and got faster and stronger and now seem reasonably competent.

I've really got into running because it's me time alone, and fresh air and scenery, and I'm only being competitive with myself. I can measure my progress and see evidence that I've improved. That doesn't mean that all of it's enjoyable or a pretty sight, but somehow that gets forgotten in the glow afterwards.