Exercise and motivation

I realized very recently that what gets me to exercise is whether it makes moving more of a pleasure, and, of course, if it’s a pleasure in itself.

Any hint of “prove you’re a worthwhile person by how much you can make yourself endure” or “not being fat is the most important thing in the world”[1] is apt to be demotivating.

It might be a good thing if being able to react well in emergencies[2] were a strong motivation for me, but the truth is, I’ve had a pretty easy life, and the only thing that motivates me in that range is wanting to be able to walk safely on ice.

So, what tends to increase your pleasure in movement? Do you know of any systems organized around enjoyment?

[1] I know they never say that, but if an exercise system has fat loss as the only or first reason listed for engaging in it, that’s how I interpret it.

[2] This interview with Scott Sonnon is absolutely the most rational thing I’ve seen on the subject. He’s focused very hard on doing things that work rather than things that seem as though they might indicate that something will work. And his emphasis is that the best exercise program is one that you will keep doing, both because you’re willing to stay with it and because it doesn’t hurt you is what inspired this post.

This was posted here and here—there are good comments in both places. It’s suboptimal to have more than one comment stream, but I’ve got friends who will only read at one of the sites, and I’d expect that you guys are more likely to comment here than at either of those.

And also, what are your actual motivations? Was it hard to discover them, and if so, did it help when you did?

A follow-up: I’ve been doing The Five Tibetans (a cross between yoga and calisthenics) for a while, and I’ve had a hard time with the fourth one. My arms are relatively short and my shoulders and chest are tight.

I tried taking pleasure seriously when I did it, and that, combined with “relax, breathe, feel the earth, do nothing extra” from Restore Yourself with Tai Chi made a huge fast improvement. Instead of struggling with the move, I was able to get a significant amount of weight on to my feet and feel a coherent stretch across the front of my body instead of separate parts making unpleasant efforts.

My reaction to pain was better—I could use it as a signal to change what I was doing instead of feeling as though the universe was out to get me or as though it was a hard problem that I might gradually be able to solve.

On the other hand, it’s been a week or so and I haven’t done the Tibetans since—I’m up against pretty serious akrasia. Finding one’s actual motivations isn’t a complete solution if doing things is too associated with anxiety.

Note: this was after not having done the Tibetans for weeks, so it wasn’t as though paying attention to pleasure wrecked a steady habit.

If you want to give advice about this, I’d appreciate it if you’d talk about what’s worked for you without assuming that it will work for me.