If there are such things as actively fun forms of exercise, I don’t know them. I have tried several different forms of sport and exercise, but I am still stuck in the “Thou Shalt Suffer To Stay Healthy” paradigm. Finding an actually enjoyable physical activity would be greatly helpful, but at the present time I am basically incapable of exercising with something other than guilt-based motivations.
The fact that I’ve sucked at every form of physical activity ever since I can remember surely doesn’t help; my mother swears that even at age 2 I strongly preferred to sit and read rather than running around like toddlers are supposed to do. At this point, whenever someone claims that exercise is funny or relaxing or immediately beneficial, my gut reaction is just “no it isn’t”.
I actually like doing things with my body.
This is the key insight. What would you suggest to someone who plain doesn’t like to do things with their body?
The fact that I’ve sucked at every form of physical activity ever since I can remember surely doesn’t help; my mother swears that even at age 2 I strongly preferred to sit and read rather than running around like toddlers are supposed to do.
Maybe an obvious question, but have you tried to find out if there could be some medical issue involved? An aversion towards all forms exercise going back to at least age 2 makes me think that there’s probably some physiological cause.
Why should people with “power saving mode” be sick?
If you were farmer in Northern climate and you had low crop yield it could mean starving whole winter with little food. Would exercising help then?
If you were in Southern climate and worked in heat all the time, and burned out all your calories would you call it smart? What if a flood came on the Nile and took your crop.
So I would argue laziness is a good survival strategy. Helps people stop from killing themselves by overworking.
On flip side body builds equilibrium. If person exercises since childhood exercise becomes the norm.
Stop exercising and in few months “power saving mode” kicks in and you won’t lift a finger.
Start exercising and the body will resist until exercise becomes the new norm.
For person who hates exercising this could take months before exercising becomes new norm.
For someone who exercises all the time a bit of lazy time does not stop them from exercising next time.
Body wants balance, but it integrates balance from the environment.
What would you suggest to someone who plain doesn’t like to do things with their body?
Not do things with your body?
Ok, that’s not a real answer. You’re asking the question (I am surmising) because you do want to do things with your body, but none of the things that you can think of are appealing.
I don’t know you, so I can’t recommend anything for you specifically. In another comment here I mentioned several teachers who all go beyond the idea of “exercise” as a duty or chore.
Here are a few physical activities that I do or have done that I have found rewarding: fencing, tai chi, playing taiko, and English-style change-ringing on church bells. All of these engage both the mind and the body. I also do long-distance bicycle rides, but if you’re not keen on “exercise”, that probably won’t appeal.
ETA: From Eliezer’s “Twelve Virtues of Rationality”: “The Art must have a purpose other than itself.” This applies also to physical things. The practice needs a purpose beyond itself, something beyond a vague desire to “be fit” or “look good”.
What would you suggest to someone who plain doesn’t like to do things with their body?
Maximize gains per unit of subjective effort! Turns out you can get a ton of benefit with very little time expended- like going from ‘nigh-bedridden arthritic old lady’ to ‘able to do deadlifts’ with 2 sets a day.
Strength training with progressive overload is probably the best for this kind of effort optimization. You won’t be running any marathons with this strategy, but you might find after a year that going up steps no longer hurts your knees, and that it’s been a while since your back felt weird.
Having a home “gym” helps a lot with sticking to this, because driving to an external gym to do <10 sets really doesn’t make much sense.
Equipment free bodyweight exercises can work for this, but they tend to be complicated and difficult to progress compared to ‘move progressively heavier thing’. It’s probably worth getting a decent adjustable bench (probably the kind that can roll, and that you can just stand up in a corner out of the way, like this one) and some adjustable dumbbells. Consider some padding for the floor too. This combo gives you a ton of options in very little space. Maybe add a pullup bar if you can manage it, but horizontal pulls (like bent over rows) with dumbbells will give you okay-ish transfer to vertical pulls.
If you pick a decent selection of motions that hit a wide range of muscle groups, and if you do just one set each time you come from the bathroom or kitchen, you’ll be able to do enough sets over time to get some serious strength increases.
(Just don’t hurt yourself; that is very anti-Gains.)
For me football (not with the egg-shaped ball) and running are the exercises I actually enjoy. I regularly strength-train, but I suffer through it even though that is a classic example of an activity people claim to be actually enjoying.
It is very important (and you don’t mention it in your comment) that while you are trying an activity out, you stick with it for at least a month, because the absolute beggining (when you have no idea what you are doing) will obviously suck.
Furthermore, I think It would help others in recommending you exercises if you wrote down the ones you’ve already tried.
> What would you suggest to someone who plain doesn’t like to do things with their body?
I’d suggest doing a small number of pushups every day. That small number could be 1, or it could be 2, or it could be 10. The point isn’t to enjoy it, at least not when you start doing it, but just doing it and getting used to the feeling of it. If it sucks, well, you’re just doing a small number, the suckiness won’t last for long. And after a month or two or so, you’ll begin to find that it’s starting to get easy, and maybe even fun.
If there are such things as actively fun forms of exercise, I don’t know them. I have tried several different forms of sport and exercise, but I am still stuck in the “Thou Shalt Suffer To Stay Healthy” paradigm. Finding an actually enjoyable physical activity would be greatly helpful, but at the present time I am basically incapable of exercising with something other than guilt-based motivations.
The fact that I’ve sucked at every form of physical activity ever since I can remember surely doesn’t help; my mother swears that even at age 2 I strongly preferred to sit and read rather than running around like toddlers are supposed to do. At this point, whenever someone claims that exercise is funny or relaxing or immediately beneficial, my gut reaction is just “no it isn’t”.
This is the key insight. What would you suggest to someone who plain doesn’t like to do things with their body?
Maybe an obvious question, but have you tried to find out if there could be some medical issue involved? An aversion towards all forms exercise going back to at least age 2 makes me think that there’s probably some physiological cause.
Why should people with “power saving mode” be sick?
If you were farmer in Northern climate and you had low crop yield it could mean starving whole winter with little food. Would exercising help then?
If you were in Southern climate and worked in heat all the time, and burned out all your calories would you call it smart? What if a flood came on the Nile and took your crop.
So I would argue laziness is a good survival strategy. Helps people stop from killing themselves by overworking.
On flip side body builds equilibrium. If person exercises since childhood exercise becomes the norm.
Stop exercising and in few months “power saving mode” kicks in and you won’t lift a finger.
Start exercising and the body will resist until exercise becomes the new norm.
For person who hates exercising this could take months before exercising becomes new norm.
For someone who exercises all the time a bit of lazy time does not stop them from exercising next time.
Body wants balance, but it integrates balance from the environment.
Not do things with your body?
Ok, that’s not a real answer. You’re asking the question (I am surmising) because you do want to do things with your body, but none of the things that you can think of are appealing.
I don’t know you, so I can’t recommend anything for you specifically. In another comment here I mentioned several teachers who all go beyond the idea of “exercise” as a duty or chore.
Here are a few physical activities that I do or have done that I have found rewarding: fencing, tai chi, playing taiko, and English-style change-ringing on church bells. All of these engage both the mind and the body. I also do long-distance bicycle rides, but if you’re not keen on “exercise”, that probably won’t appeal.
ETA: From Eliezer’s “Twelve Virtues of Rationality”: “The Art must have a purpose other than itself.” This applies also to physical things. The practice needs a purpose beyond itself, something beyond a vague desire to “be fit” or “look good”.
Maximize gains per unit of subjective effort! Turns out you can get a ton of benefit with very little time expended- like going from ‘nigh-bedridden arthritic old lady’ to ‘able to do deadlifts’ with 2 sets a day.
Strength training with progressive overload is probably the best for this kind of effort optimization. You won’t be running any marathons with this strategy, but you might find after a year that going up steps no longer hurts your knees, and that it’s been a while since your back felt weird.
Having a home “gym” helps a lot with sticking to this, because driving to an external gym to do <10 sets really doesn’t make much sense.
Equipment free bodyweight exercises can work for this, but they tend to be complicated and difficult to progress compared to ‘move progressively heavier thing’. It’s probably worth getting a decent adjustable bench (probably the kind that can roll, and that you can just stand up in a corner out of the way, like this one) and some adjustable dumbbells. Consider some padding for the floor too. This combo gives you a ton of options in very little space. Maybe add a pullup bar if you can manage it, but horizontal pulls (like bent over rows) with dumbbells will give you okay-ish transfer to vertical pulls.
If you pick a decent selection of motions that hit a wide range of muscle groups, and if you do just one set each time you come from the bathroom or kitchen, you’ll be able to do enough sets over time to get some serious strength increases.
(Just don’t hurt yourself; that is very anti-Gains.)
For me football (not with the egg-shaped ball) and running are the exercises I actually enjoy. I regularly strength-train, but I suffer through it even though that is a classic example of an activity people claim to be actually enjoying.
It is very important (and you don’t mention it in your comment) that while you are trying an activity out, you stick with it for at least a month, because the absolute beggining (when you have no idea what you are doing) will obviously suck.
Furthermore, I think It would help others in recommending you exercises if you wrote down the ones you’ve already tried.
Best of luck in finding sth you enjoy!
> What would you suggest to someone who plain doesn’t like to do things with their body?
I’d suggest doing a small number of pushups every day. That small number could be 1, or it could be 2, or it could be 10. The point isn’t to enjoy it, at least not when you start doing it, but just doing it and getting used to the feeling of it. If it sucks, well, you’re just doing a small number, the suckiness won’t last for long. And after a month or two or so, you’ll begin to find that it’s starting to get easy, and maybe even fun.