I have only successfully had Regular Workout for two unrelated six month periods of my life but in general: - don’t overdue it when you’re just getting back into it - at least one personal trainer session very helpful - video game boss themes
- doing short stints repeatedly is more impactful than doing fewer, longer sessions. this one is real hard for me as a person who is used to like ILL WORK DOUBLE HARD TO MAKE UP A SKIPPED DAY bit that doesn't actually do anything
I've been off and on forever, but one thing that really helped me a lot was doing small group training for about a year - it taught me good technique and foundational knowledge of basic exercises / breathing that are easy to repeat at home or on my own when I was trying to do the gym thing
partial-assing is better than no-assing. if you don't feel like doing something (me, right now, this very moment), then determine the Least Possible activation energy for you / the things you like doing the most and do that, even if it's like, 10 reps or whatever. often once you get into doing it it'll be easier to do more
I personally often need help deciding what to do, so for a while I used an app / body bands with prescribed workouts, and lately I swapped just to their card deck so I can have a library of things to pick from if I don't feel like free-forming
also mega +++1 to doing what you like. I hate hate cardio. I will never do cardio routines or exercises on my own again. they make me miserable! I like my resistance bands and free weights. sometimes I put on music that puts me in a dancing mood and just freewheel dance for a few songs. it's a good warmup, """cardio"""
the most important thing for me is the sustainability of the activity. if i don't enjoy it i probably won't keep it up, so it's very important that I will regularly show up for it.
and when you've gotten it to be your routine it is way easier for it to stop being a Thing To Do, and it's more like oh, this is the time when i do this thing, ok then
For walking, I started paying attention to my step counter on my phone and decided I wanted my weeky rolling average to always be above 5,000 steps, which has got me walking a lot more than that sneakily because now I am paying attention to number and want it to Go Up
ash mentioned once that walking at least four times a week helps and my doctor confirmed it, so like. I go for a mile walk outside and do two days on, one day off. sometimes the one day off changes depending on schedules.
Yeah, routine and enjoyment. +1 to those. I hate running and weight lifting bores me, but i really love to swim. Every time life has kept me from it, I always wanted to get back in the water. That matters a lot.
treadmill in sight of TV, area to put phone or laptop nearby, watch videos or play games while on treadmill, have games that are step-based (pokemongo egg hatching), audio books
But also, start now. The older you get, the harder it is to get the body in good shape, or to get back to it. Getting back in the pool after 3-4 years at 41 hit waaaay different and harder than the same gap at 33.
- don’t overdue it when you’re just getting back into it
- at least one personal trainer session very helpful
- video game boss themes