I read a HN comment a while ago wrt running that said that motivation might come from saying "I want to see this beautiful place again" (where the running leads to.) instead of saying "I need to run because I want to lose weight" (or whatever). I'd like to say it works, but actually what was even more important for me was to change my thoughts about running. If you feel like running is a chore, you will never motivate yourself (that's where external motivators can help), however running itself can be fun. If it's fun, you will WANT to do it. You will go out and seek it.
I've found that I always pushed myself way too hard while running. The goal is not to be fast or have the best time. The goal is to enjoy the journey. That's why I always tell myself now the first few minutes: Don't go too fast, run slow! Slow. Enjoy it. If I start as slow as I can arrange, then everything else follows. Also, how your body feels after a run, is one of the best motivators to do it again.
Sure, these thoughts won't work for everyone, but what does? It's worth a try, anyway :)
For a month now, I've been getting up at 5am every day to go cruising around my empty city on a skateboard, as a complete noob. It's changed my life substantially for the better. I've been very interested to figure out where I found this implausible level of... motivation? self-discipline? I'm not the sort of person to expect such from myself. Where did this unexpected success come from, and how can I attempt to continue it -- what does its forward extrapolation look like?
Your comment resonates with me as very plausible. All the places I skate, for practical reasons, happened to be nature-rich parks that are the most aesthetic and pleasant places to be around. The sort of places that I'd lounge all day in, if I had an *excuse* to, if it made any sense to sit around all day on a park bench in the autumn chill. The sort of places my phone is stuffed with random photos I take of. (God-rays through the tree leaves! Cool squirrel!) Maybe I shouldn't discount these minor psychological factors, this atavistic familiarity with nature? Maybe it does have an outsized influence on my actions. I wonder.
I've been waiting for the end of a long, wet winter to go and explore some new places on online skates - been working on various braking and slalom techniques indoors to learn the skills needed to do outdoors more safely (for myself and others).
Need to get one of those stabilising selfie sticks for recording the adventures - holding a phone by hand results in a choppy nausea inducing clip.
It's amazing how much fulfilment I get from riding around natural spaces on an electric unicycle (also works for bikes or whatever but that's what I use now), taking the occasional picture of things I find interesting. I sometimes wonder if it taps into hunter instincts and exercises normally unused parts of my subconscious brain.
This is known in the running community as the MAF method or Zone 2 training and it is key to sustaining an injury minimizing habit of running.
Think about it this way, do you enjoy a nice long walk? Most people do. You also don't have to mentally prepare yourself to go on a walk. Do you enjoy a nice long sprint? Probably not. If you tried to do it every day you would have to mentally prepare yourself for the upcoming suck. That's a huge hurdle to making it a habit.
So why not try to find a sweet spot in between a walk and a sprint? Just build up speed gradually from a walk. Once you have days where you have to psyche yourself up to go for a run, you know you are going too hard. Going for a walk and going for an easy run should not be any different for you mentally, although you might have to take a shower after a run.
Hope anyone who has struggled with running in the past is able to regain confidence with this mindset
> I've found that I always pushed myself way too hard while running. The goal is not to be fast or have the best time.
This was a key point for me. Like many, I started with Couch to 5K. During my run intervals, I ran too fast. Had to make up for that 2 minutes of walking.
Eventually, after much reading and trial and error, I finally figured out how to run and how to program running. My standard is to keep my 1 mile time right at 7 minutes. I test it once a month. If it is creeping up, I’ll add in more running/cardio. Otherwise, I keep everything the same.
It took a lot of months of “slow” 11 and 12 minute miles to build up my body to be ready to start doing the tempo runs and speed work. I think too many new runners start right off with tempo and speed work because they “gotta feel the burn”, and they get embarrassed being passed. There were times I was going to quit running because I’m maintaining a 12 minute pace and people walking their dogs were passing me.
I don’t remember where I heard this (or read it), but depending on when you start your fitness journey, remember you spent YEARS getting yourself to where you were. You’re not going to turn it all around in months much less days.
I’ve exercised probably 90% of days for the last ten years. Days when I don’t are just rest days or travel days. To be honest, I think it’s best just to make it a habit like brushing your teeth. Working out is just what you do, and it’s a weird day if you don’t. Being highly motivated is kind of fleeting and just boring routine is more important.
I worked out in the morning because "It's Monday, and Monday is a weekday, so that's why" is far more sustainable in the long term. Sometimes less thinking is better.
This said, for many people with jobs/kids/other commitments, regular workout is more of an exercise in scheduling than willpower. For that, the only advice I could offer is to use the mornings, and be done before anyone else in the house realises.
> Also, how your body feels after a run, is one of the best motivators to do it again.
Not everyone feels like this. I hate running, and hate the way my body feels afterwards. I just want to go to bed or sit down and do absolutely nothing. It wrecks my productivity for hours. I tried to get into running a few times because of the supposed "high" that you eventually start to feel. Never once felt it, even after several months of forcing myself to do daily runs.
Maybe the problem is that your are pushing yourself too hard. I think you will feel significantly less fatigued if you cut the intensity of your running workouts in half. From here you can work on slowly increasing your speed and endurance.
You need a significant base level of fitness and a long enough run at a good pace to feel a runners high. However, it’s not limited to running cycling, swimming, and rowing can provide the same rush.
Anyway if your feeling exhausted after a daily run then slow down, it takes more than one day to recover from heavy exercise so daily runs should stay casual.
I've never gotten a "runner's high" from running. After decades of not experiencing it, I started doing circuit workouts in my basement due to covid. Strangely enough, finally experienced the "high" from circuit/HIIT workouts that combined weights & bodyweight movement. A pleasant surprise.
I recently started experiencing this for the first time, earlier I believed the same you do. It’s funny reading the thread here because it echoes a lot of my experiences - what made the difference was seeing it as “I’m going for a walk but will run any parts where I feel like it”. Now I’m not too tired afterwards and while I’m outside I’m able to think and observe nature around me. I tend to go around my lunch break, and have also had quite some work problems dissolving while I was out (a bit like how you sometimes come up with solutions under the shower). That’s another thing that helps me see this as useful time rather than a chore.
Genuinely curious, why would you force yourself into daily run for months when you feel bad after it? I mean, there are many sports, chances are one of them you will like. So why forcing yourself into obe you hate?
I don't hate distance running or jogging in the slightest. Despite the fact that it works against all my natural talents, and would be a great way to injure myself if I did it. So I don't.
Sprinter's build is a real thing. If I ever run more than 200 meters at a stretch, I'm probably dodging bullets.
For me, running was a chore. I had to really make my self go running. My body simply did not want to run. But after a year of 3x a week, a funny thing happened. My body started wanting to go running. I'd look forward to it.
I've been lifting for 20 years now. My body still hates it. Oh well :-/ what can you do.
P.S. I never time the runs, I never push it. I just run and don't worry about it. If someone passes me running faster, I yell at them for cheating :-)
I found running to be more enjoyable once I stopped using run-tracking apps like Strava.
Now I just use my phone's built-in pedometer. A run is just a way to help me hit 10k+ steps per day. During my runs I can be spontaneous without feeling like I'm going to ruin my Strava pace, and running isn't this overt start -> finish ordeal anymore.
Great story. I have a similar one with swimming. When I started swimming laps, I'd always come at it hard, and I'd sometimes panic, lose my breathing, and feel like I was going to drown, and have to stop completely. And it was terrifying.
Eventually I learned to a) slow down at the start, and b) to recognize when I was inching toward the redline, and slow down while still swimming to avoid the panic stop. I felt, and still feel, that there was an important life lesson there: to be attuned to yourself, to make conscious decisions about your behavior based on that awareness, optimize for 'harmony', or 'least disruption'. There are some psychological things going on, too, like shame, guilt, etc that seem really silly now but felt real and were pushing me toward the wrong conclusions!
> how your body feels after a run, is one of the best motivators to do it again
Last summer I stupidly went hard on one or two of the hot AF days (30C) and went 5-6 miles or so then got home feeling like I’d had the wind kicked out of me.
Needless to say, for the next few weeks my body would feel… scared(?) to go for a run and I had to skip more than a few just from the feeling of apprehension. Now I try to run slow and get home feeling moderately exerted and I actually look forward to my runs.
In fact, if I run in the morning, I get the blues after work because I don’t have a run to go on anymore!
Agreed. I'm not motivated by punishment, especially arbitrary and voluntary punishment. And I'd have to bet $1000 per workout to even feel the financial pain, and at that point, it would also be directly conflicting with my financial goals. The whole made up agreement seems like it would take a lot of willpower for me to keep.
What motivates me to exercise is to focus on the tangible benefits I get from exercise. The main one: I feel great after a good workout. I also love to use running and swimming as excuses to explore new places, which gives me another immediate tangible benefit.
One of the best runs of my life was during pandemic lockdowns in Spain when we were finally allowed to leave the house after 3 months, but only as long as we were exercising. The easiest excuse for me to get a change of scenery was to run a 15k (I had been running 5ks in circles on my roof, so I was in shape). I have never enjoyed a long run so much.
It helps if you have a nice park to run through. I think this is why I've always had an easier time consistently doing cardio than someone who might only do cardio on a stationary bike or treadmill. My friends don't believe me when I tell them I actually enjoy running. Running through nature can be a immersive and genuinely pleasurable experience. If you pay close attention it's never boring, there are always new things to notice on the trail, plus the endorphin high after a session is a reward in itself.
Like most difficult things, the more you do it the easier it is to keep doing it
Also, you don't need to run continuously. It's perfectly fine to run for a couple minutes and then walk a bit. I think people's definitions of exercise are often too strict, or constrained.
Another way to get into running is to start by just going for a brisk walk and run a little bit when you feel like it. That's how I got into trail running. I was going for long hikes, and at some point I started jogging short sections (maybe only 30 seconds) when I was feeling good. By doing this I could limit the total amount of running I was doing while still getting a good workout in.
> Also, how your body feels after a run, is one of the best motivators to do it again.
This is the only thing that works for me.
No matter what I do, I can't make myself enjoy the actual run. I failed Couch to 5K multiple times. During my last attempt, I got stuck on week 5 and--frustrated with my lack of progress--forced myself to the top of the hill I was struggling with. I almost passed out, but I felt incredible for the rest of the day.
That did it. Now I'm out there first thing every morning because I crave that feeling, and the more I punish myself during the better I feel after.
I'd have to find the book. But there was research that showed that long-term motivating factors like being healthy, weight loss etc. were not as effective as short-term motivating factors like "I like how I feel after I run/workout/..." or It is beautiful to get outside, etc.
Basically, focusing on what is good about it now rather than what will be good later is better at building the habit.
I like the idea of reframing your goal from "I will run 5 times per week" to "I will be a person that runs often."
This works for me because if I miss one day of running then I've failed my goal immediately, whereas missing a few runs won't break the second goal and lets me make it up. This works for other goals as well.
It sounds like you are relatively new to running. Have you had any problems with your knees? I have friends that want to start jogging but are hesitant to start. I've suggested walking instead.
As someone else has said: you can always start by mixing walking with jogging. The most important part is to start moving.
As for myself: I am not really new to running. However, since moving places I didnt run anymore because my only real motivation were the friends I did my runs with. I did other team sports as replacement (which I liked a lot). However, due to covid lockdowns I basically stopped all sports and gained weight. So, something had to give. I tried running (alone!) and thankfully it now works for me (as I advertised ;)). I started with a pace that was basically not really faster than people "walking". Since I have so much fun running right now, I actually have to watch out not to overdo it. I notice my knees a little but I don't really think they are the weakest part actually (losing more weight would help a lot wrt not overexerting the knees). As other posters have said: Going slowly (really slowly! If it feels like you're pushing yourself, it might be better to walk then.) is also the best thing one can do wrt avoiding injuries etc.
So I can't really give a general recommendation except trying it out and see how your body feels. I think one can find out a lot by themselves simply by listening to the signals of the body.
Running is bad for your knees is a common misconception. Just gotta ease in. I’ve been running for years and have had no knee issues. I know many people with tens of thousands of miles on their legs (approaching 6 figures in some cases) and their knees are fine
I'm happy for the author, but I've always found these sort of tricks to be a chore. I bought a cargo ebike and use it for 99% of my traveling, including a 20 mile commute to work (~40 minutes each way). Now you can exercise for free, no tricking necessary.
Sadly you aren't going to become super muscular riding around a bike, but I assure you, you'll be in excellent shape even with an ebike.
Maybe it's because I'm lazy, but I find having an active life is superior to exercising frequently and having an otherwise inactive life (I also use a deskcycle and a treadmill desk setup for about 2-3 hours at work).
I recently bought a 20lb weighted vest to add some resistance when I'm walking around the house. we'll see how that goes.
Very much so. My heart rate readings are basically the same as on my road bike but I’m making the trip with ~100 pounds of kid & cargo.
I’ve seen a few studies supporting this in general: people ride with the same intensity but go further or get there faster.
There’s a really key benefit which is less obvious: e-bikes remove disincentives. Everyone I know who bought one rides more because they don’t have to worry about that one big hill, or the spot where you need to be on a road & going <20 mph triggers driver aggression, or you can carry your heavier groceries home, etc.
Oh for sure. What people don't realize is how high the "whee!" factor is on an ebike. You're gonna be wanting to go fast automatically and near the bikes top speed the assistance gently tapers off. You'll balance at a speed where the amount of work you're doing is reasonable. You'll cycle much farther than otherwise because if your legs give in you can always cruise home at a slightly lower speed.
It's probably the best invention in transport since the car. Remember all the hype for the segway how it'd be the new mode of transport? all that applies to electric bicycles.
why wouldn't it be? you can still pedal and lower the assistance. personally I find using an ebike with low assistance to be more difficult than a regular, light road bike
I'm surprised about the down votes, I'm similarly curious. I bike a lot, and occasionally take a bikeshare e bike, and the difference is night and day. Yes, I'm moving my legs in the bike pedaling motion, but it in a way that feels like it exclusively is just a different input mechanism for the motor.
I wonder if there is a large spectrum of power in e bikes, and that bikeshare e bikes are at one end of that spectrum.
Depends on the e-bike and the riding behaviour, naturally.
If you simply use the assist to go faster but otherwise put in the same effort, then it's exercise. And if you enjoy the speed and it's convenient to travel more or even switch out car trips, it gets extra points. But if you simply take the same amount of trips, spend less time due to the extra speed, and mostly cycle on full pedal-assist (there's ebikes that are simply electric motorbikes with pedals) then no, it wouldn't be exercise.
Yes. Try riding one and it’s self-evident that it is. (Unless it has a throttle and you’re using that the whole time, but if your goal is exercise don’t do that!)
It depends on the bicycle. Some of them, at the right assistance level, the rider still pedals enough to be in light cardio range, which provides huge health benefits. Other ebikes, not so much.
Either this is a flippant response or you've never been on an ebike. They are not motorcycles and require effort from the rider. The effort can be as minimal or as strenuous as you desire. If you measure by duration the effort is the same. If you measure by speed than one may exercise less overall but folks tend to make more ebike trips so there could be an offset there.
It is ridiculous to question if there is any effort expended.
I remember going to a talk by a cardiologist who said he told patients to take the bicycle and sometimes they'd come back with a worse heart. Then it would turn out that those patients thought an electric bicycle is good too, since it looks like a bicycle and you have to use the pedals like a bicycle. But since you don't really exert yourself it doesn't help the heart. That was maybe 10 years ago, so electric bicycles were not so ubiquitous back then.
I have a somewhat different financial game I use to motivate myself to work seriously on my hobbies. When I have a piece of gear I want to buy, like let's say new hiking boots. I make my self complete a challenge where say every time I run hills I put 5 dollars in savings towards the boots. That way I can't just buy the gear without putting in serious work at the activity first. Same thing for computing stuff, or photography, art or music. Want a new guitar? Need to play the one I have more to earn it first.
Nice! In case anyone is interested in the science of this effect and it's surprising power, this is an almost exact reproduction of an experiment, in the field of "connection science" or "social physics".
(NOTE: The true value here is in the CROSS-INCENTIVIZATION with an existing social relationship, not just the money)
The general truism that falls out of it is:
When possible, always apply incentives to the social fabric, not individuals. i.e. incentivize the edges of the graph (the relationships), rather than the nodes (the people) in isolation. Seek results by always opting to strengthen social bonds, instead of trying to bend people (who are social creatures) into actions while neglecting their social context, which often pull them back into prior habits or prevent the new ones from sticking strongly. Under some experimental conditions, incentives are 30x more effective when you use the money to strengthen a social relationship around an activity, rather than incentivizing the activity itself. (Further, unlike a direct monetary incentive where removing the incentive strongly attenuates the effect, you could now remove the money incentive between you and your brother, and you're much more likely to keep performing the activity even without monetary incentive, because the persistent social incentive is bootstrapped.)
This and other really interesting related research was pioneered by MIT's Sandy Pentland. It's very solid and applies in practice: His lab won the DARPA network grand challenge, where they found those 10 balloons hidden across the USA. He wrote a book. Here's his author talk: https://youtu.be/HMBl0ttu-Ow
The book "Social Physics" is a really great read if the video speaks to you
Frankly, it's affected my worldview hugely. This sort of research has huge policy and regulatory implications imho.
Assume partner (A) and (B) have existing social ties, ie. they're not strangers, and the closer, the better.
Options: (experimenter says)
1. "Hey A and B, for every day you meet your fitness goals, I'll give you 25¢"
2. "Hey A, for every day that B meets their fitness goals, I'll give you 25¢. Hey B, same goes for you."
With proper mechanism design, dollar for dollar, option (2) can be up to 30x more effective than (1).
At least in Pentland's studies, the dollar amount is token and intended to be so small as to be negligible. It being an excuse to strengthen the social relationship (around the new activity) is where the power to change behavior comes from.
One thing I'd really echo here is the emphasis on "realistic". And not "realistic for somebody else" or "realistic for your imagined optimal self" but realistic given not just your current fitness level but also your current level of skill in following through.
As an example, travel and illness threw me off my regular schedule this summer. One I haven't exercised for a while I get kinda miserable, so exercising seems impossible and I have a hard time getting back to it. I couldn't just set a goal of 3 solid workouts per week; I would have failed.
What I picked was a daily streak of at least 10 minutes of elevated heart rate (zone 2 or better) per day. A short, brisk walk would be enough to qualify. The first days sucked and I had a couple false starts, but yesterday was streak day 18, and now going out for a 3-mile run or doing 30 minutes on the indoor bike actually feels good. So now I'm ready to commit to something more serious, but it took a ramp-up to get my brain ready for 3 real workouts per week.
I think a primary root cause to all motivation problems is that our brain is programmed to be lazy. By lazy, I mean, we are programmed to exert the least amount of effort possible to secure our safety and physiological needs.
And, in today's developed world, it's EXTREMELY easy to secure our safety and physiological needs. Once these basic needs are met, we find ourselves in a position where happiness is a function of self-esteem, fulfilling relationships, and physical health.
The problem is that these higher goals take hard work to obtain and maintain. And, our brain isn't wired to want to do that hard work - as long as we're safe & satiated, it wants to check out.
As a result, we have to learn to trick our brains into feeling motivated to achieve these higher goals.
One way to do this is to attach failure of goal completion to something scary like loss of income (see OP's article) or social status. This will trigger motivation because you're endangering your safety and physiological needs (which is what your brain is programmed to react to).
Another way is to learn to silence your subconscious programming (that voice in your head that convinces you to be lazy). You can do this with meditation or by following the 5 second rule: When you feel yourself hesitate before doing something that you know you should do, count 5-4-3-2-1-GO and just start moving towards action.
Finally, after you're done taking action and doing the hard work, you'll feel good. Taking time to notice these positive feelings, and building a causal connection between hard work and positive self-esteem makes goal completion easier as time goes on.
Being lazy is completely natural, and instead of feeling badly about it, we should just accept that our programming is misaligned with the modern world, and learn to take action towards being happy despite of it.
If this sounds appealing, but you want a nice UI to go along with it, check out https://www.beeminder.com/home. Not affiliated with them, just a happy customer for several years.
Note that Beeminder allows manual entry of data — I use this to track “work out 3x / week” type goals, but also has plenty of integrations (e.g. Apple Health data) for goals like “walk 10k steps / day”
The latter makes it much tougher to cheat yourself
They don't do better in the medium term if you fail. If you don't get any use of out Beeminder, you will stop being a customer.
I have been a customer of theirs since 2014. The few times I have had to interact with support they have always helped me (and to be clear I only remember having to contact support when I had a legitimate reason not to complete some work for a given day).
It was never a problem for me. Between reading their blog posts about the theory of motivation and actually experiencing their UI (and interactions with their customer support when something went wrong and I was accidentally charged) I believe they really do want you as a happy customer above all which means helping you with your goals.
Your argument only works in the short term - if you fail consistently in the long term you will realise the service is not working for you and they will lose you as a customer.
Failing intermittently in the short term - and losing money for it - will cause any rational actor motivated by the financial argument - as you clearly are - to try and work out why and fail less, hence proving their service is working for you.
This looks great but I'm surprised there isn't any % of the paid money going to charities, good causes or something.
I'd like something like this that pays into my retirement, a long-term investment or donates to charity, with maybe 1-20% going to Beeminder or whatever.
I started working out 6 months ago for the first time, with a personal trainer. I had tried a few times to do it on my own or with a friend, but with a friend it's too hard to coordinate schedules, and without a pro, it's too easy to get hurt (tore my shoulder up the first day and it took a year to sort of heal).
Hiring a good trainer has lots of advantages:
- you don't have to think about what you need to do
- they show you safe vs unsafe movements and keep you safe during training
- it's an appointment, so you're less likely to miss. My trainer doesn't normally charge for missed appointments (too nice IMO) but I pay by the month so I have to pay if I miss
- my trainer creates several circuits of 3-5 exercises and they are done 3-5 times each. The circuits are designed so that different muscles are used in each exercise, ie, "active resting", so an entire workout can fit in a half an hour for example.
If you have the funds, highly recommend hiring a trainer. Now I actually enjoy working out 4x a week for 45 minutes.
I used a personal trainer for 3 years and I can't say I'd really recommend it. Definitely had it's advantages, but too many disadvantages to be worth the cost.
High turnover - I had about six different trainers during that time.
They all picked some random exercises for me to do whereas I'd rather have a well thought out schedule.
They are all flakey, lots of appointments cancelled last minute for "family emergencies."
Two asked me out on dates. I guess this would be an advantage for some, but I was interested in getting fit, not picking up men.
I'm using a trainer at a private gym. He owns the gym. Way different I think from going to a large commercial gym where they hire kids off the street, give them a few classes, and call them personal trainers.
Sounds like you had bad trainers. Definitely wouldn't recommend that. Finding a good one on the other hand is easily one of the best investments you can make.
Working out with a PT also really helped me a lot. We work out outside, twice a week. Someone's waiting for me, which completely fixes the motivation problem for me. I'm still not someone who's naturally good at sports, but I've missed maybe 5 workouts in 3 years max (excepting vacations, sickness). I couldn't keep a routine before.
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I've found that I always pushed myself way too hard while running. The goal is not to be fast or have the best time. The goal is to enjoy the journey. That's why I always tell myself now the first few minutes: Don't go too fast, run slow! Slow. Enjoy it. If I start as slow as I can arrange, then everything else follows. Also, how your body feels after a run, is one of the best motivators to do it again.
Sure, these thoughts won't work for everyone, but what does? It's worth a try, anyway :)
Your comment resonates with me as very plausible. All the places I skate, for practical reasons, happened to be nature-rich parks that are the most aesthetic and pleasant places to be around. The sort of places that I'd lounge all day in, if I had an *excuse* to, if it made any sense to sit around all day on a park bench in the autumn chill. The sort of places my phone is stuffed with random photos I take of. (God-rays through the tree leaves! Cool squirrel!) Maybe I shouldn't discount these minor psychological factors, this atavistic familiarity with nature? Maybe it does have an outsized influence on my actions. I wonder.
Need to get one of those stabilising selfie sticks for recording the adventures - holding a phone by hand results in a choppy nausea inducing clip.
Think about it this way, do you enjoy a nice long walk? Most people do. You also don't have to mentally prepare yourself to go on a walk. Do you enjoy a nice long sprint? Probably not. If you tried to do it every day you would have to mentally prepare yourself for the upcoming suck. That's a huge hurdle to making it a habit.
So why not try to find a sweet spot in between a walk and a sprint? Just build up speed gradually from a walk. Once you have days where you have to psyche yourself up to go for a run, you know you are going too hard. Going for a walk and going for an easy run should not be any different for you mentally, although you might have to take a shower after a run.
Hope anyone who has struggled with running in the past is able to regain confidence with this mindset
This was a key point for me. Like many, I started with Couch to 5K. During my run intervals, I ran too fast. Had to make up for that 2 minutes of walking.
Eventually, after much reading and trial and error, I finally figured out how to run and how to program running. My standard is to keep my 1 mile time right at 7 minutes. I test it once a month. If it is creeping up, I’ll add in more running/cardio. Otherwise, I keep everything the same.
It took a lot of months of “slow” 11 and 12 minute miles to build up my body to be ready to start doing the tempo runs and speed work. I think too many new runners start right off with tempo and speed work because they “gotta feel the burn”, and they get embarrassed being passed. There were times I was going to quit running because I’m maintaining a 12 minute pace and people walking their dogs were passing me.
I don’t remember where I heard this (or read it), but depending on when you start your fitness journey, remember you spent YEARS getting yourself to where you were. You’re not going to turn it all around in months much less days.
I worked out in the morning because "It's Monday, and Monday is a weekday, so that's why" is far more sustainable in the long term. Sometimes less thinking is better.
This said, for many people with jobs/kids/other commitments, regular workout is more of an exercise in scheduling than willpower. For that, the only advice I could offer is to use the mornings, and be done before anyone else in the house realises.
Not everyone feels like this. I hate running, and hate the way my body feels afterwards. I just want to go to bed or sit down and do absolutely nothing. It wrecks my productivity for hours. I tried to get into running a few times because of the supposed "high" that you eventually start to feel. Never once felt it, even after several months of forcing myself to do daily runs.
Anyway if your feeling exhausted after a daily run then slow down, it takes more than one day to recover from heavy exercise so daily runs should stay casual.
Sprinter's build is a real thing. If I ever run more than 200 meters at a stretch, I'm probably dodging bullets.
It's not an instant fix, but it's a definite uptick in execution. For me. Your mileage may vary.
I've been lifting for 20 years now. My body still hates it. Oh well :-/ what can you do.
P.S. I never time the runs, I never push it. I just run and don't worry about it. If someone passes me running faster, I yell at them for cheating :-)
I found running to be more enjoyable once I stopped using run-tracking apps like Strava.
Now I just use my phone's built-in pedometer. A run is just a way to help me hit 10k+ steps per day. During my runs I can be spontaneous without feeling like I'm going to ruin my Strava pace, and running isn't this overt start -> finish ordeal anymore.
Eventually I learned to a) slow down at the start, and b) to recognize when I was inching toward the redline, and slow down while still swimming to avoid the panic stop. I felt, and still feel, that there was an important life lesson there: to be attuned to yourself, to make conscious decisions about your behavior based on that awareness, optimize for 'harmony', or 'least disruption'. There are some psychological things going on, too, like shame, guilt, etc that seem really silly now but felt real and were pushing me toward the wrong conclusions!
Last summer I stupidly went hard on one or two of the hot AF days (30C) and went 5-6 miles or so then got home feeling like I’d had the wind kicked out of me.
Needless to say, for the next few weeks my body would feel… scared(?) to go for a run and I had to skip more than a few just from the feeling of apprehension. Now I try to run slow and get home feeling moderately exerted and I actually look forward to my runs.
In fact, if I run in the morning, I get the blues after work because I don’t have a run to go on anymore!
What motivates me to exercise is to focus on the tangible benefits I get from exercise. The main one: I feel great after a good workout. I also love to use running and swimming as excuses to explore new places, which gives me another immediate tangible benefit.
One of the best runs of my life was during pandemic lockdowns in Spain when we were finally allowed to leave the house after 3 months, but only as long as we were exercising. The easiest excuse for me to get a change of scenery was to run a 15k (I had been running 5ks in circles on my roof, so I was in shape). I have never enjoyed a long run so much.
Like most difficult things, the more you do it the easier it is to keep doing it
Another way to get into running is to start by just going for a brisk walk and run a little bit when you feel like it. That's how I got into trail running. I was going for long hikes, and at some point I started jogging short sections (maybe only 30 seconds) when I was feeling good. By doing this I could limit the total amount of running I was doing while still getting a good workout in.
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This is the only thing that works for me.
No matter what I do, I can't make myself enjoy the actual run. I failed Couch to 5K multiple times. During my last attempt, I got stuck on week 5 and--frustrated with my lack of progress--forced myself to the top of the hill I was struggling with. I almost passed out, but I felt incredible for the rest of the day.
That did it. Now I'm out there first thing every morning because I crave that feeling, and the more I punish myself during the better I feel after.
Basically, focusing on what is good about it now rather than what will be good later is better at building the habit.
This works for me because if I miss one day of running then I've failed my goal immediately, whereas missing a few runs won't break the second goal and lets me make it up. This works for other goals as well.
As for myself: I am not really new to running. However, since moving places I didnt run anymore because my only real motivation were the friends I did my runs with. I did other team sports as replacement (which I liked a lot). However, due to covid lockdowns I basically stopped all sports and gained weight. So, something had to give. I tried running (alone!) and thankfully it now works for me (as I advertised ;)). I started with a pace that was basically not really faster than people "walking". Since I have so much fun running right now, I actually have to watch out not to overdo it. I notice my knees a little but I don't really think they are the weakest part actually (losing more weight would help a lot wrt not overexerting the knees). As other posters have said: Going slowly (really slowly! If it feels like you're pushing yourself, it might be better to walk then.) is also the best thing one can do wrt avoiding injuries etc. So I can't really give a general recommendation except trying it out and see how your body feels. I think one can find out a lot by themselves simply by listening to the signals of the body.
Sadly you aren't going to become super muscular riding around a bike, but I assure you, you'll be in excellent shape even with an ebike.
Maybe it's because I'm lazy, but I find having an active life is superior to exercising frequently and having an otherwise inactive life (I also use a deskcycle and a treadmill desk setup for about 2-3 hours at work).
I recently bought a 20lb weighted vest to add some resistance when I'm walking around the house. we'll see how that goes.
It's fine to use it to add work to body-weight exercises such as pullups, squats, etc. but don't wear it for hours just walking around.
I’ve seen a few studies supporting this in general: people ride with the same intensity but go further or get there faster.
There’s a really key benefit which is less obvious: e-bikes remove disincentives. Everyone I know who bought one rides more because they don’t have to worry about that one big hill, or the spot where you need to be on a road & going <20 mph triggers driver aggression, or you can carry your heavier groceries home, etc.
It's probably the best invention in transport since the car. Remember all the hype for the segway how it'd be the new mode of transport? all that applies to electric bicycles.
The objective part being the heart rate monitor on my watch. I routinely get into the 130-145 range.
Or sometimes not! The throttle is not labor intensive. But that gets boring.
I wonder if there is a large spectrum of power in e bikes, and that bikeshare e bikes are at one end of that spectrum.
If you simply use the assist to go faster but otherwise put in the same effort, then it's exercise. And if you enjoy the speed and it's convenient to travel more or even switch out car trips, it gets extra points. But if you simply take the same amount of trips, spend less time due to the extra speed, and mostly cycle on full pedal-assist (there's ebikes that are simply electric motorbikes with pedals) then no, it wouldn't be exercise.
It is ridiculous to question if there is any effort expended.
(NOTE: The true value here is in the CROSS-INCENTIVIZATION with an existing social relationship, not just the money)
The general truism that falls out of it is:
When possible, always apply incentives to the social fabric, not individuals. i.e. incentivize the edges of the graph (the relationships), rather than the nodes (the people) in isolation. Seek results by always opting to strengthen social bonds, instead of trying to bend people (who are social creatures) into actions while neglecting their social context, which often pull them back into prior habits or prevent the new ones from sticking strongly. Under some experimental conditions, incentives are 30x more effective when you use the money to strengthen a social relationship around an activity, rather than incentivizing the activity itself. (Further, unlike a direct monetary incentive where removing the incentive strongly attenuates the effect, you could now remove the money incentive between you and your brother, and you're much more likely to keep performing the activity even without monetary incentive, because the persistent social incentive is bootstrapped.)
This and other really interesting related research was pioneered by MIT's Sandy Pentland. It's very solid and applies in practice: His lab won the DARPA network grand challenge, where they found those 10 balloons hidden across the USA. He wrote a book. Here's his author talk: https://youtu.be/HMBl0ttu-Ow
The book "Social Physics" is a really great read if the video speaks to you
Frankly, it's affected my worldview hugely. This sort of research has huge policy and regulatory implications imho.
Assume partner (A) and (B) have existing social ties, ie. they're not strangers, and the closer, the better.
Options: (experimenter says)
1. "Hey A and B, for every day you meet your fitness goals, I'll give you 25¢"
2. "Hey A, for every day that B meets their fitness goals, I'll give you 25¢. Hey B, same goes for you."
With proper mechanism design, dollar for dollar, option (2) can be up to 30x more effective than (1).
At least in Pentland's studies, the dollar amount is token and intended to be so small as to be negligible. It being an excuse to strengthen the social relationship (around the new activity) is where the power to change behavior comes from.
As an example, travel and illness threw me off my regular schedule this summer. One I haven't exercised for a while I get kinda miserable, so exercising seems impossible and I have a hard time getting back to it. I couldn't just set a goal of 3 solid workouts per week; I would have failed.
What I picked was a daily streak of at least 10 minutes of elevated heart rate (zone 2 or better) per day. A short, brisk walk would be enough to qualify. The first days sucked and I had a couple false starts, but yesterday was streak day 18, and now going out for a 3-mile run or doing 30 minutes on the indoor bike actually feels good. So now I'm ready to commit to something more serious, but it took a ramp-up to get my brain ready for 3 real workouts per week.
And, in today's developed world, it's EXTREMELY easy to secure our safety and physiological needs. Once these basic needs are met, we find ourselves in a position where happiness is a function of self-esteem, fulfilling relationships, and physical health.
The problem is that these higher goals take hard work to obtain and maintain. And, our brain isn't wired to want to do that hard work - as long as we're safe & satiated, it wants to check out.
As a result, we have to learn to trick our brains into feeling motivated to achieve these higher goals.
One way to do this is to attach failure of goal completion to something scary like loss of income (see OP's article) or social status. This will trigger motivation because you're endangering your safety and physiological needs (which is what your brain is programmed to react to).
Another way is to learn to silence your subconscious programming (that voice in your head that convinces you to be lazy). You can do this with meditation or by following the 5 second rule: When you feel yourself hesitate before doing something that you know you should do, count 5-4-3-2-1-GO and just start moving towards action.
Finally, after you're done taking action and doing the hard work, you'll feel good. Taking time to notice these positive feelings, and building a causal connection between hard work and positive self-esteem makes goal completion easier as time goes on.
Being lazy is completely natural, and instead of feeling badly about it, we should just accept that our programming is misaligned with the modern world, and learn to take action towards being happy despite of it.
Note that Beeminder allows manual entry of data — I use this to track “work out 3x / week” type goals, but also has plenty of integrations (e.g. Apple Health data) for goals like “walk 10k steps / day”
The latter makes it much tougher to cheat yourself
I have been a customer of theirs since 2014. The few times I have had to interact with support they have always helped me (and to be clear I only remember having to contact support when I had a legitimate reason not to complete some work for a given day).
Failing intermittently in the short term - and losing money for it - will cause any rational actor motivated by the financial argument - as you clearly are - to try and work out why and fail less, hence proving their service is working for you.
I'd like something like this that pays into my retirement, a long-term investment or donates to charity, with maybe 1-20% going to Beeminder or whatever.
Hiring a good trainer has lots of advantages:
- you don't have to think about what you need to do
- they show you safe vs unsafe movements and keep you safe during training
- it's an appointment, so you're less likely to miss. My trainer doesn't normally charge for missed appointments (too nice IMO) but I pay by the month so I have to pay if I miss
- my trainer creates several circuits of 3-5 exercises and they are done 3-5 times each. The circuits are designed so that different muscles are used in each exercise, ie, "active resting", so an entire workout can fit in a half an hour for example.
If you have the funds, highly recommend hiring a trainer. Now I actually enjoy working out 4x a week for 45 minutes.
High turnover - I had about six different trainers during that time.
They all picked some random exercises for me to do whereas I'd rather have a well thought out schedule.
They are all flakey, lots of appointments cancelled last minute for "family emergencies."
Two asked me out on dates. I guess this would be an advantage for some, but I was interested in getting fit, not picking up men.
One was kinda mean to me.
I found going to yoga classes MUCH more useful.