I don’t think it’s easy to give universally-applicable exercise advice. If it were, there wouldn’t be such a huge market for exercise advice! There seem to be changes in how exercise physiologists think about certain exercises every few years. Separate abdominal strengthening exercises, for example, seem to be out of vogue with some trainers. So one piece of procedural knowledge is, you have to read about exercise, it’s not trivially obvious how to do it.
If I were going to try to give someone a universal piece of advice about how to get started, I wouldn’t say, “don’t bother with other things, try pull-ups and tricep dips,” because only a small percentage of new exercisers can even do those exercises. I’d probably say, “try taking a walk.” (But even that isn’t universally helpful, since lots of people have problems with their knees and ankles or hips or back and may need to start with something even lower impact, like swimming or yoga.) So a second piece of procedural knowledge is, everyone’s body is different, so the exercise you pick should reflect what you like and need.
Addressing the problem you pose here: Since walking is a low-impact cardiovascular exercise, why not try it for an hour every day instead of two hours every other day? That will help build endurance and make it less taxing. Or you could start with less and increase a little every day. There’s a third piece of procedural knowledge about exercise: you can increase your capacity if you add on slowly and sneak up on your body, even if your body is being recalcitrant.
I’m not sure what you mean by “immune to exercise.” Are you not experiencing endorphins from your walk? Is your heart rate staying below the target rate? Some good procedures are to walk with a friend and make sure you aren’t going too slow or too fast or bring music if you’re going to walk on a treadmill by yourself.
And if you think you’d enjoy Dance Dance Revolution, I’d say do it in your glasses—you can always wipe your face with a towel when you get sweaty. That’s what I do in the gym. I recognize that no one REALLY needs equipment to be fit, but—if you want to do that, why not? Isn’t fun one of the goals of exercise?
I don’t see a widely informed consensus about how to exercise and I don’t think it’s in the same category as some of the other questions on this thread. It’s not an ordinary skill—there’s a lot of mystique around it.
I don’t think it’s easy to give universally-applicable exercise advice. If it were, there wouldn’t be such a huge market for exercise advice! There seem to be changes in how exercise physiologists think about certain exercises every few years. Separate abdominal strengthening exercises, for example, seem to be out of vogue with some trainers. So one piece of procedural knowledge is, you have to read about exercise, it’s not trivially obvious how to do it.
If I were going to try to give someone a universal piece of advice about how to get started, I wouldn’t say, “don’t bother with other things, try pull-ups and tricep dips,” because only a small percentage of new exercisers can even do those exercises. I’d probably say, “try taking a walk.” (But even that isn’t universally helpful, since lots of people have problems with their knees and ankles or hips or back and may need to start with something even lower impact, like swimming or yoga.) So a second piece of procedural knowledge is, everyone’s body is different, so the exercise you pick should reflect what you like and need.
Addressing the problem you pose here: Since walking is a low-impact cardiovascular exercise, why not try it for an hour every day instead of two hours every other day? That will help build endurance and make it less taxing. Or you could start with less and increase a little every day. There’s a third piece of procedural knowledge about exercise: you can increase your capacity if you add on slowly and sneak up on your body, even if your body is being recalcitrant.
I’m not sure what you mean by “immune to exercise.” Are you not experiencing endorphins from your walk? Is your heart rate staying below the target rate? Some good procedures are to walk with a friend and make sure you aren’t going too slow or too fast or bring music if you’re going to walk on a treadmill by yourself.
And if you think you’d enjoy Dance Dance Revolution, I’d say do it in your glasses—you can always wipe your face with a towel when you get sweaty. That’s what I do in the gym. I recognize that no one REALLY needs equipment to be fit, but—if you want to do that, why not? Isn’t fun one of the goals of exercise?
I don’t see a widely informed consensus about how to exercise and I don’t think it’s in the same category as some of the other questions on this thread. It’s not an ordinary skill—there’s a lot of mystique around it.