But yes, working out is mostly unpleasant and boring as hell as we conceive of it and we need to stop pretending otherwise. Once we agree that most exercise mostly bores most people who try it out of their minds, we can work on not doing that.
I’m of the nearly opposite opinion: we pretend that exercise ought to be unpleasant. We equate exercise with elite or professional athletes and the vision of needing to push yourself to the limit, etc. In reality, exercise does include that but for most people should look more like “going for a walk” than “doing hill sprints until my legs collapse”.
On boredom specifically, I think strenuousness affects that more than monotony. When I started exercising, I would watch a TV show on the treadmill and kept feeling bored, but the moment I toned down to a walking speed to cool off, suddenly the show was engaging and I’d find myself overstaying just to watch it. Why wasn’t it engaging while I was running? The show didn’t change. Monotony wasn’t the deciding factor, but rather the exertion.
Later, I switched to running outside and now I don’t get bored despite using no TV or podcast or music. And it requires no willpower! If you’re two miles from home, you can’t quit. Quitting just means running two miles back which isn’t really quitting so you might as well keep going. But on a treadmill, you can hop off at any moment, so there’s a constant drain on willpower. So again, I think the ‘boredom’ here isn’t actually about the task being monotonous and finding ways to make it less monotonous won’t fix the perceived boredom.
I do agree with the comment of playing tag for heart health. But that already exists and is socially acceptable in the form of pickup basketball/soccer/flag-football/ultimate. Lastly, many people do literally find weightlifting fun, and it can be quite social.
I’m of the nearly opposite opinion: we pretend that exercise ought to be unpleasant. We equate exercise with elite or professional athletes and the vision of needing to push yourself to the limit, etc. In reality, exercise does include that but for most people should look more like “going for a walk” than “doing hill sprints until my legs collapse”.
On boredom specifically, I think strenuousness affects that more than monotony. When I started exercising, I would watch a TV show on the treadmill and kept feeling bored, but the moment I toned down to a walking speed to cool off, suddenly the show was engaging and I’d find myself overstaying just to watch it. Why wasn’t it engaging while I was running? The show didn’t change. Monotony wasn’t the deciding factor, but rather the exertion.
Later, I switched to running outside and now I don’t get bored despite using no TV or podcast or music. And it requires no willpower! If you’re two miles from home, you can’t quit. Quitting just means running two miles back which isn’t really quitting so you might as well keep going. But on a treadmill, you can hop off at any moment, so there’s a constant drain on willpower. So again, I think the ‘boredom’ here isn’t actually about the task being monotonous and finding ways to make it less monotonous won’t fix the perceived boredom.
I do agree with the comment of playing tag for heart health. But that already exists and is socially acceptable in the form of pickup basketball/soccer/flag-football/ultimate. Lastly, many people do literally find weightlifting fun, and it can be quite social.