Hacker News Reader

Comment by andrewstuart | Hacker News Reader

No app will work.

You just have to reprogram yourself to do it.

Nothing else but ACTION will suffice for exercising.

A very fit friend of mine said to me many years ago "I just don't give myself any choice about whether I'm going to the gym."

You can talk and use apps and make plans and get trainers and coaches and excuses etc etc etc but in the end the ONLY thing that works is ACTION - go and exercise. Find an exercise that suits you. I like running because it's so easy - just pull on shoes and go - and you can listen to podcasts as you do it. Also CrossFit because I find exercise boring so it's really great to do a group class where the instructor tells you what to do - all I need to do is turn up for an hour and hand over all the thinking about it to someone else and leave fitter and hour later.

View on HN

> "I just don't give myself any choice about whether I'm going to the gym."

I use this strategy too and it's the thing that has worked best for me. I make it a rule and don't let myself ask questions. No "do I have the time/energy?" or "should I do my workout today?", because it's always easy to find a reason not to. Wiggle room has a tendency to grow and suddenly you haven't worked out in a couple weeks. Then a month. Now you have to start over again.

Taking choice out of the equation makes it a lot easier to form and keep the habit.

If you go after work: "In order to go home, I have to go to the gym first." As though the gym is required step in the process.

If you prefer the morning: "In order to have breakfast, I have to do my workout first."

That's it. That's the rule. Like brushing your teeth before bed.

I had some success with https://www.beeminder.com/ in my short time of using it so far. Essentially, it moves items from "important + not urgent" quadrant to "not important + urgent" one: by dinging your card $X dollars if you don't comply.

However, I also had to shift my mindset towards trying to progress via small inconsequential chunks, rather than trying to "fix everything". E.g. the idea is to just show up to the gym - not exercise - but if latter happens, then sure, why not (and it usually does). I think it helps snap out of the failure avoidance mode.

It's 102. All the CrossFit gyms in Texas don't have ac. I'm miserable. Also I don't have a death wish.. no choice no option.

I'm about to force myself to spend 180 a month for a crowded upscale 24 fitness. But the Olympic gym that wanted 320 a month takes the Cake.

When I wasn't living in a literal oven I would go as far as the drive 30 minutes to do CrossFit or Oly. I have a metal block on not group classes. Only CrossFit works for me. I never get results at a vanilla gym. But you are right its a no choice situation. But for me it works to have a chart with weekly cells.. hard to break that chain when you need a new poster board...

> I never get results at a vanilla gym.

How are you defining results?

If you watch yt videos by Arnold or Jay Cutler and just go to the gym, you'll be the strongest guy there in about a year.

If you mean lose weight, that's 99% an intake problem.

You sound like a CrossFit person haha. But seriously, there is a place for tools and apps in working out for some people. My Apple Watch has made my exercise more regular and progress significantly more measurable for me.

>> You sound like a CrossFit person haha

No just an inherently sedentary programmer - I'm no CrossFit evangelist - it's just a highly time efficient way to meet the goal of being fitter and returning to programming.

I think the secret to actually exercising is understanding what you do and do not like and finding exercise that suits you. If I go to the gym on my own I get bored and I do not push myself thus I do not get much fitter. So CrossFit is part of the success secret for me because it is effectively a group gym program in which I must do what I am told whilst I am there - unlike going to the gym on my own, getting bored and lazy and dropping it because it's not working for me.

Since I am too lazy to exercise intensively I need to be in a structured environment to do that.

Going to a group exercise class requires nothing more of you than turning up - motivating yourself just to arrive somewhere is much easier to do than motivating yourself to self plan and self drive an entire workout.

This is the Jocko Willink approach:

YOU are responsible for making the best you.. and it always feels better if you have crushed out a daily workout before most people are awake:

https://www.businessinsider.com/retired-navy-seal-jocko-will...

Having said that - I think it's a great business to make apps for this stuff and there is big money in it.

The reason is simply because people don't want to take action. They want to procrastinate and avoid and find ways of almost exercising and there's absolutely no better way to do that than to delegate all your emotional energy on the subject to some sort of app.

Apps to encourage you to exercise are awesome business - they just aren't a way to actually become an exercising person but who really cares about that.

(Assuming that reply wasn't sarcastic to the core.)

> Apps to encourage you to exercise are awesome business - they just aren't a way to actually become an exercising person but who really cares about that.

Moral human beings with any sense of self-respect.

Trade is about voluntarily exchanging value. I give you something (like money), you give me something in return (like an app that does what I need), we're both happy. What you're praising here is a violation of this - it's encouraging people to lie about the value they're offering. It's wrong.

Many people don’t want to actually do something hard and unpleasant but get value from feeling like they’re getting organized and making plans to do that unpleasant thing later.

Sure, that's their weakness. Exploiting it for profit is still immoral.

> You can ... get trainers and coaches...but in the end the ONLY thing that works

> it's really great to do a group class where the instructor tells you what to do

So, trainers and coaches are useless, but "instructors" are alright? I fail to see the difference there.

Interacting with other people can motivate you. Having a trainer or a coach does work. Having someone tell you what to do takes off the mental part off your shoulders and then you can "just do it". And you might also feel bad if you don't show up.

I think OP meant the part about showing up at the gym - that nobody but you can do. Once you're there, however, having an instructor helps you not having to think about what to do.

Like myself, I’m guessing you don’t need that mentality any more. You simply go. It’s part of your lifestyle

Reply on news.ycombinator.com