Exercise Habit

[rowyn]

I read an article whose author described exercise, like drug use, as an addiction: 'providing a stress-relieving high' or something on those lines.  And I thought "Really? An addiction?"

I've been getting regular exercise for over ten years now, pretty much continuously. I've skipped weeks now and then, and the amount varies: some times I might barely have jogged 30 miles over an entire month, others I might bicycle for over 300. But nonetheless. It is a habit. I exercise regularly. It has some tangible benefits: I do feel less stressed afterwards, particularly after biking outside.

But an addiction?

I am tellin' ya, if this is an addiction, it would be the easiest to break ever. Give me one reputable headline saying "exercise wears out your heart! Conserve heart action by sitting on the couch more" and I would be ALL OVER that couch. Yesssss. Come to me, sweet couch. Heck, I don't even need to learn that exercise is bad for me! Just demonstrate it's not good for me! I COULD QUIT ANY TIME.  LET ME QUIT RIGHT NOW. PLEASE.

It's a habit, yes. Like going to work five days a week. That doesn't mean I crave it or even want it. I have never found myself thinking, "Oh, I know I should stay home and eat ice cream, but I just can't resist the incredible lure of EXERCISE! I'm trying! I know it's a mistake but ... " *bikes for 10 miles, unable to control herself*

Yeaaaaaah no. Maybe there are people who're addicted to exercise, but I am so not one of them. -_-

Comments

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. Yeah, it's a habit I have to struggle continuously to keep as well. -_- There are probably *some* people for whom exercise falls into the category of endorphin-addiction, but I don't think most people are like that.

[rowyn]

Yeah, I didn't want to come across as dismissive of the possibility of anyone ever being addicted to exercise -- certainly some people do, either because of endorphins or because of an unhealthy relationship with their body (and over-exercising because you're obsessed with it can be very unhealthy).

But this is a problem I am not remotely in danger of having. And I suspect fairly few people are.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

*dies and is ded of giggling*

Yes, count me in as one of those people who does not get a sufficient high from exercise to become addicted.

[rowyn]

I only did half my usual ride this evening: "See I can quit ANY TIME." XD

I actually did get a "runner's high" a few times.

[jorrocks-j.livejournal.com]

I think the last was not quite twenty years ago.

Nowadays it's more like "Ah-hah-hah! I see you, incipient old-man-pot-belly! I see you trying to sneak into my life, bringing with you comic jollity and cozy avuncularity and diabetes and neuropathy and erectile dysfunction! Ah-hah-hah, hee-hee-hee, oh you scalawag YOU'RE GOIN' DOWN LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER, MOTHERFUCKER!..."

So I run and I suck at it but I suck less than the guy who never got off the couch. End of story.

Re: I actually did get a

[rowyn]

I can't really handle jogging any more. It is made of misery and hatred of life. I think the problem is that it really suffers in comparison with biking, which is sort of fun. Not actual "this is better than sitting at home with my computer" fun, but "this is kinda nice and I don't mind much". :D

Re: I actually did get a

[archangelbeth]

I simply cannot jog. Or run, really. My knees are fuuhh-riiiied. (Fried, only drawled and emphasized.) I can walk. I would rather not, but the kid apparently derives emotional well-being by going on walks and I am paranoid enough (...and need the exercise myself...) to not want her going around the neighborhood on her own.

[tagryn]

Jerry Seinfeld had a take on exercise (and career and life in general) that's stuck with me:
http://createsilence.com/Blog/the-torture-youre-comfortable-with/

Jerry: A lot of guys, Howard, they don’t want to lift those weights. It’s like going into the gym every day. You know how you walk in every day, and you go, “oh geez, I’ve gotta do this again.” A lot of guys don’t want to do it. It’s brutal.

Howard: It sounds like a tortured life, and you say it’s not, but…

Jerry: It is, it is, but you know what, your blessing in life is when you find the torture you’re comfortable with....Yes, and that’s marriage, it’s kids, it’s work, it’s exercise, it’s not eating the food you want to eat. Find the torture your comfortable with and you’ll do well.

Howard: I can’t argue with that because, even radio, it’s torture for me.

Jerry: Of course it is!

Howard: And yet I have to do it.

Jerry: It’s no different than when you’re 30 minutes into your workout, you’re ok; like, you’re ok now. You don’t want to get your ass out of bed, you don’t want to sit in that awful chair again, but once you get going… that’s life. You master that, you’ve mastered life.

[rowyn]

That is a depressing but apt way to look at it.

[cairtirnin.livejournal.com]

My brother is one of those addicted to exercise types. He's been a runner since high school and I'm pretty sure it was the biggest motivation behind him becoming an Army Ranger. He wants to test his physical limits to the breaking point.

I just don't want to. I like exercise well enough when it feels like it has a purpose. Walking, biking, swimming, those can be fun activities. I can't do any of those in the snow packed rural tundra that I live in once November hits. Last winter I forced myself to do zumba 4 days a week. I hated every. single. minute of it. My body felt horrible. My mood was awful and somehow I actually managed to gain weight. Ugh, exercise for the sake of exercise just doesn't work for me.

[rowyn]

*nods* One of the reasons I like biking is that I can actually get somewhere by doing it. Run errands to the grocery store and library and stuff.

But I like dancing and martial arts, too. Exercise where I'm learning to do something is much better than when I'm just grinding away at it.

[benalene.livejournal.com]

I need to get back into exercising. I wish it was something I could get addicted to, because I think that some of my health and anxiety problems stem from inactivity.

You know what, being a couch potato is extremely addicting...

[rowyn]

"Hi, my name is Rowyn, and I've been off the couch for almost 10 years now. But there's not a day goes by that I don't think about going back .... "

[octantis.livejournal.com]

It's funny, actually... it's often the same with drawing.

I *want* to be addicted to drawing. Desperately. I love art. I like seeing it, I like the results I can (sometimes...) achieve, and I can even enjoy making it. I feel my future is probably tied to it. Yet I have to really push myself to do it, and some days it's like pulling teeth.

I know people who can't STOP drawing. They literally can't, it's like something between compulsion and vital function. These are the people who get really really good at it. They start doing it almost out of reflex. I sometimes wish I could be that way.

I think at a certain point of mastery it takes much less effort. Getting to that point is the hard part, and the people who have an abundance of energy and a resistance to pain make it there much faster.

It seems like when you've reached that point, drawing or doing exercise, effort and aches reduce while the elation of expressing yourself in art or exertion remains. Maybe that's part of the 'addiction', the power of it outweighing the blahs. It's the superhuman that can run all day like it's nothing.

Of course, then we start getting older and feebler and that brings a whole 'nother crisis but one roadblock at a time, I guess...

[nekomavin.livejournal.com]

A year ago my wife would have agreed with you. But a brush with severe illness inspired her to get serious about exercising, and she found that swimming and 'waterfit' classes were a good fit with what her body could do.

Now if she has to miss a session (or if one of the 'good' waterfit instructors isn't there when she was scheduled to be) she mopes about it. She finds her situation amusing, to have changed her opinion on exercise so much.

So perhaps you haven't found the right kind of exercise yet...

[medicmsh.livejournal.com]

I have found that the three most addictive types of exercise (for me) are sofa-sprawling, cat-smoothing, and ice-cream-consumption...