To wish I enjoyed exercise

[iwant2cats]

I genuinely wish I did. I don’t; I never have and never experienced the endorphin rush.

Ha ha.
My garage gym is full of spiders, mouse poo, brambles that are pushing their way in through the wooden slats of the garage, dandelion fluff that blows in, and each spring, nesting swallows that fly around shouting above my head as I work out!

The best thing about a home gym is that I have been known to workout in my pyjama bottoms, then I shower before work and I haven't had to travel anywhere or see another human.

I despise exercising, I also get no dopamine rush, I just feel like a bag of shite after.

I also hate the feeling of sweating. I'm ND and don't like feeling the sweat on my skin, I don't like feeling my muscles aching or tingling and I don't feel energised at all afterwards.

I keep exercise gentle now, I walk my dog every day and do gentle stretching and yoga type movements every evening. I watch what I eat and try to keep healthy that way.

Unless I win the lottery and then I'll buy a house with my own pool, I don't mind gentle swimming but can't not stand public swimming pools - yuk!

Me too, I absolutely hate it the feeling of sweat clinging on to my skin, I need a shower as soon as I've finished exercising. The idea of sweating and letting it cool on my skin is really icky. My friend does circuit training then does her grocery shopping after, ewww.

It all requires so much time though and are all at the wrong time for working parents. If someone did a 4am pilates class and I could afford childcare to allow me to leave the house quietly I'd consider it. But only really if we all had cubicles and I didn't have to see or talk to anyone else in the class.

Team sports just don’t appeal. I know a lot of them say you can be a beginner but actually the people who go are halfway decent.

I am rubbish at Pilates, yoga etc.

I no longer believe there is something I will enjoy!

I like the gym as I can go anytime. I’m not having to commit to a class one day a week which doesn’t fit into my work schedule anyway. Yes I have to motivate myself to go sometimes but the benefits have been huge.

I also don’t want to be a falls risk when I’m old or be a frail old lady with broken bones.

I believe there are two types of people - those who inhabit their body', and actively enjoy moving it about, and those who inhabit their head and see the body as a way of transporting it about.

The two will never understand each other.

The former type say 'just find an exercise you enjoy', not understanding that for the second type there is no such thing. Exercise in itself - the getting breathless, the tedium, the sweat, the discomfort, the pointlessness - is what is not enjoyable.

My only motivation for doing it is to not be as immobile as my old mum was, and to maybe look slightly less repellent. However, these things are not measurable. I never seem to get stronger, or less repellent. So as I don't enjoy it at the time either, motivation is non-existent.

The thought of team sports chills the soul. The thought of park run makes me want to throw up. So, weights in front of YouTube - or at the gym as long as no one talks to me or looks at me - is the only way forward. And dancing in the kitchen.

Yes. Exactly!

100% find the right thing. I hated exercise all my life and saw it as boring and punishment. I got into lifting weights and now the gym is my favourite hobby!

I’m the opposite, committing to a class gives me the push to go. I do enjoy the gym if I actually get there, as I put on a podcast and just get on with it, but not having a set time makes it far to easy to put off.

I was going to do some strength work this evening. But DP has just poured a gin.

Oh dear.

I just get so bored, so quickly. The only thing I enjoy is walking and my tiny bladder makes that difficult.

I find I get bored after 25 minutes, each time. I can be in the middle of a set of whatever boring weights thing I'm doing, and I suddenly think 'sod this'. And it's always after 25 minutes.

I could not give the tiniest stuff about whether I'm lifting heavier than last week, so the concept of 'smashing goals' and all that is just bemusing. Who gives a shiny shite?

It might be the type of exercise that you're doing, e.g. I hated most sports that I was made to do at school, but loved windsurfing outside of school (the only extracurricular activity that I was made to do that I liked!). Liking the more niche ones has continued, so while I can't bear to go to the gym and wouldn't dream of joining the local netball team, I do like aerial silks, ice skating and trapeze!

FWIW I started with Lesley Sansome's Walk at Home videos on YouTube and then it suggested other people like Pahla B and Kat Gates-Buettner and Lucy Wyndham-Read. I found I actually enjoyed doing them and try to do one every day.

I hate exercise. I understand the benefits and importance, I just really dislike it. There are some forms I dislike less than others but none that I actively like/enjoy. And no- it isn’t a case of “just finding one that I like” 😂 Currently not doing anything after many years of trying many things. I do really need to though for my health and future health.

Running would be amazing if I could switch to dancing when I get a tunei really love. But I'd look insane.

I only get the mythical runner high if the song is right too. But then, lots of songs give me very physical reactions, so I'm not sure whether it's really that.

I HATE the thought of exercising and have to absolutely force myself.
The motivation for me though is feeling both mentally and physically good afterwards, rather than knowing I would feel crap if I'd just stayed on my backside.

You don’t need to enjoy it. You just need to do it. Do you enjoy brushing your teeth? Probs not but you still do it regardless. Exactly same with exercise.

Do I ‘need’ to do it? I need to be active but I don’t know if that is the same thing.

I am genuinely asking by the way. Is it ‘needed’?

Honestly I don't think I need it, if I'm walking a lot and very active at work. Others might disagree.

Walking and being active is great. But strength training is 100% needed, especially for women.

I lift and carry huge pots and pans and piles of crockery, boxes of veg etc at work, that'll do me. I haven't been inside a gym since 1999.

All the older women in my family didn’t do exercise as an activity in itself. They did a lot of housework, some did gardening also and they walked everywhere. None had any major problems in later life. So that’s what I do.

I think people need separate exercise more now because more people drive everywhere, they might have cleaners, they do a desk job etc. I tend to have one “lazy” day a week, usually Sunday. The rest of the time I’m very active but just living life.

I’m nearly 60 and the only issues I have are from a specific illness not caused by any lack of exercise. Will I wish I’d done more when I’m 80? Possibly, if I’m still around! But I’ll take my chances just doing what many women have done before me.

I never got the endorphin rush from exercise, got it when out raving as a youngster but assumed that was the E :-)
Never been able to run etc as lots of back problems ( I expect the raving didn’t help much!)
Then a few years ago I got a cheap exercise bike off Amazon so I could exercise during Hayfever season and discovered biking with weights while listening to old school ‘hardcore’ - lo and behold there is a brief endophin rush ( at least I think it’s that - euphoric and tingley). Sets me up for the day and no impact injury aftermath. It doesn’t work unless I do arm weights at same time.
I swim a lot which chills me out but there’s no rush factor.