Making Exercise Enjoyable And Comfortable

My two best tips for integrating exercise into a healthy lifestyle.

Exercise is one of those things you need to be able to keep up for the long term. Otherwise, the benefits are short-lived. I discovered that in order for exercise to be something I routinize, do regularly, and continue over a long period, I had to fulfill these two criteria.

It’s harder than it sounds. Exercising effectively is difficult; it involves pushing the body hard enough that it reaches states of semi-exhaustion, repeatedly. With this I am referring to a healthy cardio workout.

You want your heart and lungs to be in good shape, so that you can do more with less effort, and keep your body healthy. It also burns many calories and speeds up your metabolism.

It’s not easy work. We all know that time slows down when we’re working hard. It speeds up if we’re having fun. So, the way to balance out the slowing effect is to find something that’s also enjoyable.

The iconic example of this for me was the game Dance Dance Revolution. It’s an aerobic/dancing video game. You get to listen to cool music while also working out, and playing a game.

A 15 year old version of me shed 55 pounds (more than 25% of my body weight) by getting carried away with the sheer fun and challenge of DDR (I also became an expert-level player in the process — a nerd perk). Some other examples from my life of enjoyable exercises were racquetball and lifting weights.

The good news was that once I found a form of exercise that was fun for me, I wouldn’t struggle as much with how tired it was making me. My energy was so focused on the other engaging aspects of it, that my mind would be distracted somewhat from the physical exhaustion.

What we find enjoyable varies across individuals and situations. I used DDR as an illustrative example, but even something as simple as jogging can meet this requirement.

As an adult, lately my preferred cardio workout is jogging on the treadmill. The enjoyment comes through listening to music and seeing how hard I…

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