how did you start to love exercise?

[SmithWood]

Nearly every new exercise I start, I suck at the very first time. It's way too hard! It affects an excessive amount of! The only real exception was boxing - I understood in the first punch that I'd found true exercise love. However for anything else I make myself provide a minimum of three honest attempts before abandoning ship. That always allows me find out if it's my usual potential to deal with something totally new or perhaps an honest dislike from the exercise.

[MissIndependant]

I go to classes at my local gym. I go three times a week ( started with one).

 

And now my week isn't complete if I don't go. I convinced a couple of girlfriends to give it a go and they love it to.

 

We all go in the one car, so even when I don't want to go I still have to. Once I'm there I find I enjoy it. So having that social side is a great motivator, and also knowing I'm letting the others down if I dont go helps.

 

After going to the gym we decided to join a charity run, we joined in Feb and the run is next weekend. So having that 5km run in the back of my mind was a great incentive to get my cardio happeining with jogging on my non gym days.

 

I really cannot stress enough that having a goal and something to look forward to really is important. It's especially important to have a goal that isn't results based, becuase if it takes longer to reach your goal than you planned it is very easy to become discouraged.

 

Best of luck!!

[TaxAHCruel]

I am curious though, for those of you on here that love to exercise, has this been a life-long love? How did it start? How did you find your exercising "niche" so to speak?

 

I was terrible. The stereotypical lad playing computer games and being a couch potato. Only getting up when I _had_ to go to college or go out drinking with friends.

 

I am not sure when things changed for me. A few things happened at once. Another post I wrote today spoke how in life I suddenly decided to make my goals more short term - in that I wanted to spend each day ever so slightly improving on the person I was the day before - including physically.

 

Around the same time I met the girls so the motivation to improve myself to impress them was a factor.

 

At that point I took up little things. A bit of this a bit of that. Nothing too specific or committed. As time went on I just put more and more time into it.

 

Then two things happened at once for me. I moved in with the girls and I obtained a pure bred wolf. The latter meant I had to excercise it every day. He has been a life changing experience and I learned quickly that if they get bored or frustrated they tend to eat things improtant to you. Including your walls - which seem to have no resistence to their teeth.

 

So over time I ended up going out with him twice a day. Now at 5am every morning I get up and run an hour with him. After work I get the bike and I cycle an hour with him to give him a full hour of full sprint.

 

The girls have always had a passing interest in Capoeira and BJJ so I got into that with them too. I do each twice a week, totally 4 classes. Coupled with the running and cycling I feel excercise is now a full and important part of my life and I love it too. Currently I am working on my swimming with the view to doing a triathalon next year some time.

 

Motivation has always been a problem in my life but I have come up with a few hints and tips which work for me - and which I have given others with great effect. Each of us over comes our motivation problems our own way - but I have found some hints and tips work well for people (and not at all for others).

[austyre]

What has keep me going for the last 9 years of running is that I had this dream that I would break a 6 minute mile one day if I keep training and enjoying my running well finally after running for 9 years I finally broke under 6 minutes this year my time was 5.20 minutes for the mile but the thing is I am getting consistent and really enjoying the faster times lately like 3 miles in 21 minutes so 9 years of running early mornings a lot of bad and good experiences has paid of I am finally achieving some of theses dreams and enjoying some of the success

long story short time is a big factor in life if you want to achieve things I started this running when I was 28 cannot believe that 9 years later I am still doing it because my daughter issued a challenge to beat her time over a mile:cool:

[Almond_Joy]

I want to start exercising regularly but am having a hard time finding motivation and time. I know it's good for me but I haven't found something that I like and that is easy. I think the initial pain/discomfort associated with starting exercise scares me off from things like running and yoga. I enjoy weight lifting to a certain extent but it requires equipment and/or going to the gym. I know that these are all excuses and I have to stop making excuses. Easier said than done.

 

I am curious though, for those of you on here that love to exercise, has this been a life-long love? How did it start? How did you find your exercising "niche" so to speak? When I was in Elementary school my mom had me sit out of gym class because she was afraid I would have an asthma attack. Note that I haven't had an asthma attack since I was like 2 and my school was right next to the hospital where she worked

 

Because of this exercising has always been a foreign concept to me, and even when I played sports in school it was things like golf that don't really require fitness. Growing up I liked baseball, hiking, and walking but I live in a horrible place for hiking (nature is hard to reach without a car, and i don't have a car) and I really want to partake in some more physically demanding activities to improve my overall fitness (cardiovascular health, muscle toning, etc). I have an amazing diet, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, raw vegan foods (not vegan though, but the only animal protein i consume is fish, eggs and dairy occasionally). Exercise is what's missing.

 

I also had trouble with traditional exercise. Couldn't stick with anything, and I HATE the aching that accompanied me for days after a hard workout.

 

I just started the Dance Central workouts on XBox Kinect. I first saw it at a friend's house where we were just doing it for fun. After the third song I realized I was sweating and flushed and out of breath. I didn't realize until after though because I was having so much fun trying to get the dance moves just right.

 

so for me I had to find something else I loved. It's dancing. For strength training I started kettlebell workouts. They're cheap, take half the time of other workouts and you can do them just about anywhere. I love them and look forward to my workouts in the morning.

 

After a while it gets hard not to exercise. I have so much less energy when I don't do my morning workouts and I feel like a bum for having less energy lol. So I make sure to get my full night's rest and do my workouts so I can be 100% the rest of the day.

[Maleficent]

I always hated going to the gym and couldn't really find anything to keep myself in shape while enjoying it.

 

Then I started playing roller derby.

Now THAT's a workout.

 

5-6 hours of on-skate training per week, add a few swimming sessions to work the upper body and balance things off.

Voilà.