To not want to exercise

[beewaspfly]

help me out here. Wrong side of 40, in the thick of perimenopause. All of my friends, and I mean all, have started exercising like crazy in the past few years- even the ones I’d least expect. My GP keeps telling me I HAVE to start strength training or I’ll have an unbearable later life.

but…I don’t want to. It’s just so tedious. I hate the gym, hate PT even more, hate classes (have tried several), hate home work outs, even the short ones. I don’t get any endorphin rush from it or whatever. The prospect of doing it ruins my day - it’s better if I do it first thing but even then I hate every minute.

id rather just be walking somewhere nice, meeting friends, working, napping, catching up on tv and eating amazing food with my family, reading and enjoying my life without the sense of impending dread.

im size 10, love to walk for HOURS every day, slim but not really toned (ok, a bit flabby in some areas), feel pretty healthy on the whole. Can’t I just keep doing what I’m doing? Please??

my mum is in her 70s and fine doing what I do, although she has had some falls lately. Dad says he wish he’d worked out as he’s such a weedy skinny old man now (his words). But they’re fine. My grandmother is in her 90s and going strong.

why do I have to do this? Why is everyone else doing this? Someone tell me one good reason and I’ll stop moaning

I was exactly like you! I used to exercise and feel really pissed off afterwards. I think it was a
mixture of feeling like I had better things to do, and not actually enjoying the exercise that I’d chosen. I was always wondering why people would harp on about endorphins when I thought it impossible to release any inside of me. It seems quite funny thinking about it now. Well, then I found step aerobics on YouTube and my life has been completely different for the past 6 months. I’ve lost 30lbs, I’m now in the normal bmi range, and I actually feel so good! I find step aerobics really fun, I think it’s mainly the instructor, but I really do enjoy it! I am terrible at doing weights. I’m very on and off with that as I still don’t enjoy it, but it’s a start at least. I really hope that you find something you enjoy!

no. American College of Sports Medicine and the Arthritis Foundation recommend resistance training as part of arthritis prevention and management.

@WearyAuldWumman I would totally work out even more if I had more time!
One of the gyms I go to has a special seniors program and it's just amazing to see, crowds of people in their 70s and 80s, showing up every day - not only are they fit and healthy, they are having so much fun socialising. Loneliness certainly not a problem for that crowd.

Well that certainly is a pretty negative view of things

I had to see a consultant last year (not for my arthritis, mind you). He told me that the best thing for a woman of my age was to do weight/resistance training.

That's all covered in the Senior Flex classes I attend - there are specific balance exercises and a bit of core work as well as all the rest. However, I'd say that the Pilates class I attend is probably the best for core, pelvic floor and balance.

Have you read the whole thread? Strength training and lifting weights might sound scary to you but I can assure you there is nothing scary about it. I’m scared of quite a lot of things, but not lifting weights.

Strength training makes arthritis less likely, not more (Google it!). Doesn’t mean you have to do it, if you don’t want to. But you’ll miss out on the benefits.

You'd better let him know that according to MN it's just a fad

All right, calm down. 🙄
I haven’t had time to read the whole thread but I can still express my thoughts on a thread and respond to initial question the same as you or anyone else.

I think it's actually such a disservice to women that we have been actively discouraged from lifting weights. Light weights only, you will get bulky, omg you don't want to look like a man!
Even here whenever someone asks about exercising, 90% of comments will discuss either running or walking. Both good, of course, but resistance training benefits are just amazing, but it is still something most women won't even consider. And then there are a bunch of fanatics who have experienced the benefits and will constantly try to recruit other people into our cult 😂

I’m perfectly calm (I’m on a campsite in France in the sunshine- bliss!) You sound a bit less calm but that’s ok. Yes, do read the thread it’s very interesting!

😂 Whatever, have a nice day.

I have patella alta and a bit of arthritis in my knees. My mobility has certainly improved since I started resistance training. (Started with bands for the legs and then moved to using free weights and the gym apparatus.)

One day, I was heading downstairs at the gym and realised that my knees were no longer locking. Also, the thigh work has been really beneficial: at one point, I had to use my arms to get out of a couch - now I can stand up using legs only.

I don't talk to anyine at the gym about thode things except my best friend. More chit chat, life stuff with other people. The chat is mainly before a class,,in/around the pool, in the spa, the cafe or chsnging rooms, not while actually lifting weights or doing cardio on the machines.

All my instructors are committed to safety. We warm up carefully, and cool down. The instructor demonstrates and monitors each move. At the start of every class we are asked to report any injuries and accommodations are made. There is no pressure on an individual to push harder and stopping at any time in not a problem.
strength classes must be one of the safest things that you can do.

Thank you, I will. I’m going to be enjoying some cider and moules. I hope you have a good day too.

@WearyAuldWumman, it’s great that you’re noticing such benefits- good for you. Injuries and health conditions can put a lot of people off exercise altogether, but quite often exercise will help. My husband had back surgery and his consultant was in favour of him weightlifting (once he was recovered from the surgery) because the benefits are huge. I have people in my fitness classes with arthritis who tell me how much it’s helping.

The fitter and more flexible you are the faster you recover from any injury/illness/operation/accident too. So while I'm not exercising necessarily to prolong my life, I saw my mum become unable to tie her own shoes from the age of about 60 and determined that I wouldn't get like that. When I was hospitalised a few years ago and had an operation, I managed to bounce back much more quickly than would have been the case if I hadn't had a decent base level of fitness.

I'm just back from Run Club and Senior Flex. A few of the folk at Senior Flex are recovering from knee, hip and shoulder ops.

Given the topic of this thread, I've tried to remember what we did today.

On Fridays, more of the exercises involve chair work, but we're still doing some balance exercises. One of today's chair exercises was chair star jumps to work on flexibility, but then weights added to improve on strength as well.

Cardio at the beginning had standing or chair options. Some seated abdominal work, for the sake of the core. Arm punching exercises holding weights (plate variety).

Sit to stand without and then with weights.

On Wednesdays, I'd say there's a bit more emphasis on weights with those who need it being given seated options.

In all the Senior classes, there's also focus on mental agility - responding quickly to instructions for change of direction, etc.

Interestingly for me, Run Club is now focusing on balance as well as cardio and our homework includes weight work for arm strength and correct posture and movement. Stretches for agility etc (as well as warm-up/cool-down purposes) included in both classes.

The social side is definitely important. The instructor at Senior Flex has started using 'Good morning' stretches with us and has been challenging folk to chant responses in as many different languages as possible. Today, there was a "Fit like?" and "Nae bad!" as a response.

I guess you had to be there...

Honestly, though, doing your arm exercises to "Sweet Caroline" is fun.

Oh - I'll just add this: after Run Club, I found myself blethering to some of the other Senior Flex wifies in the café and then when I'd already gone upstairs for the Senior Flex class, realised I'd forgotten to print off my ticket.

I nipped downstairs to get the ticket to hand in and then realised that I had run downstairs without breaking my neck.

I can tell you for a fact that I haven't run downstairs for 8 years...a fortnight before I retired I was in a hurry to get to a photocopier and found myself lying in a heap at the bottom of the stairs...so that's a big improvement, 8 years later.

I'll never run like Liz McColgan or have muscles like Linda Hamilton, but if I can keep mobile for as long as possible I'll be happy.

I think that I would have been around 63 when I was first referred to the gym's Active for Health class by my physio.

I was started off with band resistance work at first and doing sit-to-stand with a 2 kg medicine ball. Once the trainer reckoned I was doing okay with the 2kg medicine ball, he grinned and handed me a 5 kg instead.

So far as arm exercises are concerned, he started me off with 2kg weights for side raises and biceps curls. I've gradually increased that to 6kg (sometimes 7kg weights) and the trainer added shrugs with 12 kg kettlebells. (Very good for shoulders and grip strength.) I'm now up to using 16kg and sometimes 18 kg kettlebells.

According to the Inbody grip strength test I did, my grip strength is now better than good for a woman more than 20 yrs my junior - very useful when handling a hedge cutter!

@WearyAuldWumman that’s really good to hear, and describes so well the practical benefits of working on fitness

Impressed

My grandmother, great aunt and both parents-in-law struggle with some if not all of the above.
I've worked in elderly care and see the rapid decline of people who don't maintain their strength from their 60's.
You won't usually make it to 80, as fit as a fiddle, if you're not doing something to help it.

I agree about the rapidity of decline, @Dressfinder . My friend worked until she was in her early 70s and continued to be out and about and active after she retired. But I could see her getting weaker and having more and more falls. She didn’t have the balance or the strength to ‘catch herself’ when she tripped. When she did fall, all it needed was for her to land on a kerb, a backrest on a bus or a bannister at home for her to end up in A&E. When she was diagnosed with cancer she initially coped well, but the side effects of the treatment floored her.

My mum did not die when she broke her hip. The hip was fixed but she never walked again as she simply didn’t have the strength. The last 16 months of her life were utterly miserable. So miserable she stopped eating.

This is the reality of being unfit and getting old. Granted, not everyone who chooses not to exercise ends up like this - but I’m not going to chance it. And that’s before we get to the fact that being fit hugely enhances quality of life at any age, long before we enter the last decade of our lives.

My mum has made it to 88, but she has broken the following in the last 5 years:

3 broken arms
3 broken ribs
2 fractured vertebrae
1 hip
1 hand

Osteoporosis. Her neck and lower back are also crumbling.

It's osteoporosis that I fear. Mum was always much fitter than I ever was, but didn't exercise apart from going to tea dances in her early 60s. Lived to 90, but had umpteen broken vertebrae, ribs, fractured pelvis, eroded neck... She was eventually bent over in half with her internal organs squeezed.

That's why I'm exercising. I had to retrieve something from under an armchair last night. I was able to get down on the floor, scrabble about for the lost object and get up easily. I couldn't manage that 3 yrs ago - I had to make sure that I had a cushion to kneel on and something to hang onto while I hoisted myself up.

I know that I wont necessarily escape osteoporosis and other problems, but I'm doing what I can to mitigate it.