People who say that exercise is boring

[lljkk]

People who say that exercise is "too boring": my prejudice is to guess is they spend a lot of time watching tv or scrolling social media or watching paint dry... Things I would find too boring. I'm wrong, right? Tell me about how you find exercise "too boring" and what purposeful or constructive activities you are doing instead with the same time you could have exercised.

Or maybe "too boring" actually means "too tiring and I need brain dead time instead" (xx) which I could completely understand needing. But too tiring is not what some posters say. They specifically say "boring."

(xx) or some other thing that doesn't mean too boring but people choose the wrong words.

Or.

Well done OP for not having ADHD and a fuck up of a brain like mine. I'm so inferior to people like you.

Abelism 101 right there.

Its repetitive and monotonous and the gym costs a small fortune. It also makes you sweat like a pig and it hurts. It was just about the most boring and annoying thing I did until I switched to swimming, which is OK, just.

But quite frankly being out of bed by 5 and on my feet all day from 6.30 am to 7 pm is all the exercise I need. Oh, and I may get time to grab coffee and a sarni, if I'm lucky.

For me exercise is unpleasant. I don't enjoy it at the time and afterwards I feel a rage and I want to smash plates and punch people.

I enjoy going for a walk in the park or hiking with fresh air, lots to look at and birds singing. A nice thing to do that happens to be exercise.

Years ago we cycled as a family on a disused railway line in Derbyshire. That was fun. Going to a spin class was bloody boring, nothing to look at and awful pounding music.

Back in the day, clubbing with friends, dancing and having a laugh was fun. Prancing around at an exercise class, boring.

Now I have friends (and DC) that love the gym, spin and fitness classes, but each to their own.

That's the word I was looking for, " unpleasant".

I can't understand the appeal of driving to a sweaty gym to run on the spot and cycle nowhere while looking at myself in the mirror. I find that boring. Walking the same route year after year along a busy the street by heavy traffic I also find boring and unpleasant. My preference for excercising is hill walking adventures out in the open but it's not always practical to do this for a number of reasons.

It's a bit rich to come on and slag everyone off for finding exercise boring and then go on to say that you're a runner OP. There's nothing interesting about running.

Thing is it's not the exercise, it's how you feel afterwards. Exercise is repetitive and dull sometimes. You don't actually "enjoy" it while it's happening.

I think it’s reasonable to find some exercise boring - especially the steady state “putting the miles in” base training, especially indoors on an erg or treadmill or bike trainer. Hours of zone 2 does my head in. But functional training, circuits, intervals, and actual competitive events (races, matches etc)? I wouldn’t have the headspace to be bored - or to have any other thoughts other than complete focus on what I’m doing at the moment. Once you’re working at or near your max I don’t think it’s really possible to think about the activity in the abstract - you’re just in the moment, trying not to die.

Blimey that's a bit of a goady OP. "If you don't see the world in exactly the same way as I do, justify yourself!"
I do quite a lot of exercise and enjoy most of it - it's helped me lose a lot of weight recently so that's enhanced the pleasure. Running's been good because I've improved my times. Swimming lengths is boring but it has obvious benefits so it gets done. And I'd recommend long country walks to anyone.

It seems contradictory @lljkk that you feel you are more productive tive at work if you listen to music....but you can't understand a similar effect when people are exercising?

I am wasting time on MN but planning to run. I won't take music but I can say that I won't find some aspects hard or boring. It's a beautiful day snd daylight means I have lots of choices of route which helps.
My favourite runs are with friends, and we chat all the way. At Christmas me and a friend have a "Christmas lights" routes which we designed to look at the best Christmas lights

@lljkk there are many studies out there that show music increases exercise productivity. I'm more interested in even after many posts saying people like different things you still keep your view that they are wrong and you are right..

Do you often struggle to hear and understand other people's perspectives?

Why is someone like me content enough with my own thoughts and the outside views while running, while others find themselves bored witless without the music in their ears. I wouldn't listen at all if I tried to run with music in my ears.

See, I can either read this as you having a rather superior attitude @lljkk, or I can assume that perhaps your tone does not come across well in writing (you have to be a skilled writer to convey tone, don't you?) I will be generous and assume the latter and agree that it is indeed interesting that some people need to have something to listen to while they run and others do not. And that perhaps you recognise your inability to listen to music and run at the same time as a possible defect.

I guess it could be boring, but personally I like to use it as thinking time or just my mind wander wherever it fancies.

I think these days screens give our brains immediate stimulation and external interaction, and when exercising you normally don't have the phone. Therefore lots of people find their own thoughts, what's in their own heads, boring.

I like the old phrase 'you're not bored, you just lack inner resources'.

“Maybe most people don't know what are their own feelings, is all I'm figuring out.”

Fuck off, OP. I am old enough to have identified my own feelings and name them. When I exercise I am not tired, lazy, inferior or weak. I AM BORED BECAUSE I FIND EXERCISE BORING.

Nope, I happily meditate every day for 20 minutes. No guided meditation/Headspace/music for me, just me and my thoughts.

Still find exercise pretty boring.

I hate running. It's beyond boring. I used to run 5k every day for several years, I've done half marathons, the Great South Run and all the CRUK races etc and it's so DULL.

Not once in the years I spent running did I get a runners high or enjoy the exercise. I did it through a misguided sense of being required to run to stay fit.

My 40th bday present to myself was chucking all my running gear in the bin or charity shop.

If the exercise sufficiently distracts me so I get into that flow state then it isn't boring and you don't even notice the time ticking by. Reformer Pilates, Spinning, climbing, martial arts and the right type of circuits class do this for me.

Running is deathly boring and all I can think about when I try is how much I hate it.

Oh I disagree. Exercise teaches you masses.
Teaches you discipline, focus. You learn about how to engage parts of your body. You become way more aware of what is out in your system. It reconnects you with your body.

I would have thought the older you get the more you realise that the things we should be spending our time on are the basics. Good nutrition. Good health. Exercise, good friends. Rest.

"Teaches you discipline, focus."

If it was fun, you wouldn't need discipline to do it!

“Maybe most people don't know what are their own feelings, is all I'm figuring out.”

This statement further adds to my concern over the absolute narcaism in the op. I'm neurodivergent as fuck. But increasingly as I get old I do worry about people in the world thinking like this and assuming it's totally normal. Ops just being a parent and working etc but actually is this narcissistic and unpleasant. Like how many other people are like this out there?

It's actually quite fucked up.

I job and frankly I have seen every street where I live. It's only interesting to look at the scenery if I'm on holiday.

It depends what sort of exercise. Cycling or running through fabulous scenery isn't boring. Running on a machine can be.
Sparring at karate is anything but boring. Riding horses or canoeing aren't boring.

I chose to live somewhere with fab scenery so I have lots of choice.

Exercise IS often boring. I weight train, it is really fucking boring and repetitive sometimes. I do it because I am menopausal and want to remain strong and healthy. I walk a lot too, which is sometimes boring and sometimes not. Walking, weight training and yoga are all good for me because they fit around my schedule. I don’t have the time or money for more exciting activities and I hate group classes and team sports.

So, I accept the boredom and get on with it because I like the results and am always glad I’ve done it.

No doubt my other hobbies are boring too: reading, sewing, painting. I guess I’m just not gifted with the ability to be as marvellous as the OP.

No, I have ADHD.

I think we're more interesting people than her. We need mental stimulation while she doesn't.

Absolutely this.