Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

Inspired by this discussion[1], I want to start working out. I'm in my mid 30s, and my age starts to show it's signs. I do train in boxing once a week, but I feel like it's not enough. Most of the week I stay seated.

I have an on-and-off relationship with gym for multiple years. I came to a conclusion that I simply dislike the format of the gym. I don't like wasting time by getting to the gym, getting from the gym, and waiting for my turn for the equipment.

I don't want to invest a lot of time. 30 min max a day. I prefer to workout from my home, without being dependent on the weather.

What will be a good way to stay in shape, given the above constraints?

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34689709

View on HN

I hate gym too (also mid 30s), and use the hate as a tool. I hate it so much, that nothing will stop me from going, because I'm always at the lowest possible desire level anyway. I don't care if the weather is bad, if my mood is bad, or anything else. I just deliver myself to the place no matter what. For over 13 years now.

(People who like gym risk not going when they don't like it. I have no such risk. I'm not tethered to liking.)

But here's the real trick: if you can afford it, get a personal trainer.

Pick a cadence (e.g. Mon/Wed/Fri or Tue/Thu/Sat), deliver yourself to the location no matter what, and let trainer take over from there.

Over the years, I tried gym memberships and always go bored and stopped going after a week or two.

I got a personal trainer 7 months ago, and it's been one of the best decisions I've ever made. I find having someone besides myself to feel accountable to very motivating.

It's also nice to have someone walk you through all the movements, proper form, and telling you what to eat.

When I started with the personal trainer; I was skinny, lanky, nerd. In the last 7 months, I've added 25LBs of muscle. I'm still a lanky nerd, but I'm now a stronger lanky nerd!

I feel like the most rewarding part of the gym is tangible gains. The weights don't lie.

its physically impossible to have gained 25lbs of muscle in 7 months unless you're doing steroids

I don't have the science to back this up, but I think it's plausible, if we make some assumptions. It's basically 3.5lbs/month.

- 2lbs/month is reasonable for beginner gains [citation needed, but sounds right to me].

- If you're really skinny, you'll get bigger gains.

- If you're training optimally (adequate diet, good exercise volume) you'll get better gains than the average beginner.

- Genetic lottery chances.

- Measuring body fat changes isn't perfect (and there will be changes if you're bulking), so it might not be exactly 25lbs.

2lbs a month is basically the maximum if you are perfectly optimizing everything.

3.5lbs a month is impossible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQkRDGz1Nkw

2lb/month of weight gain, including muscle, fat, and water, is very doable for a beginner lifter. 2lb/month of true lean tissue mass is indeed "impossible" without exogenous hormones.

And it gets harder adding muscle. Adding 2lb the first few months is doable. Eventually adding even 1lb gets harder to do and you plateau.

wink wink nudge nudge

If I'm going to waste time going to the gym, I'm going to get the maximum time to benefit ratio.

Yeah it is not like there are any life fucking up side effects

Have some sources

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32081788/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3897047/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j232kdcnSQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBhfP3MBYLU

https://www.reddit.com/r/trt/

Oh right your wink is about testosterone! I have had supplemental testosterone because of low levels. No big deal I reckon.

I thought the nudge was about anabolic steroids, since that is illegal most places.

Hmmm I was 6'0" 142 first day in the military... After 19 weeks of abuse, (infantry school + airborne) often active 20 hours per day I emerged 165. So 23 lbs of almost lean muscle in under 5 months. I would rate the previous commenter's claim as plausible.

How do you know there is no fat, water or bone in the mix?

I suppose I don't. But it makes less sense to me that I would increase bone density in 19 weeks in a meaningful amount and even less sense that I would put on any fat when we had roughly 2-5 mins to eat every meal.

This. So much.

It's the key I use as well to hit the gym. Just go there physically. Even with the lowest amount of motivation when everything's shit.

The line “if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly” comes to mind. If you are already at the gym, you might as well do it badly and then most of the time you're doing it well in the end.

I am on a fatigue wellness plan but basically I go in each session with % perceived effort goals, estimate what I should do, write it down, do it, tick it off, go home. Works great Muscle gain will be slow but no strength regression has happened and importantly I can stick to this for the long term.

The point is I go every time on schedule knowing I won’t over do it - as per the plan!

This is me, since 2010 too.

Out of sheer curiosity -- when did "gym" replace "the gym"?

Is this a UK thing?

OP's writing doesn't sound British, at least to this Brit. The last sentence, "What will be a good way to stay in shape", reads as non-native, even, due to the non-idiomatic use of "will" (compare "What would be" or "What is" here). Dropping articles (the, a, an) is a feature of the English of people whose first language is Russian or another Slavic language - just guessing.

The post you are replying to drops an article on "trainer" near the end. Could also just be shorthand/hurried/casual writing, though - like this sentence. That poster otherwise uses "the gym".

On topic: +1 to getting a personal trainer if you can afford the money and time.

I assumed it was an American thing. Gym is a noun.

Indoor rowing on a Concept2 rower has been my solution to keeping in shape. I usually row for 30-40 minutes 3 times a week at a low load. It’s a compound exercise, working the legs, core and upper body muscles (87% of all muscles supposedly) while sparing the joints. Also very convenient, no need to get dressed like for the gym or running.

It took months to get up to speed with a lot of initial back pain, but the strength gained has done away with back issues I used to have.

Some tips:

- use a good BT heart rate monitor the like Polar H10 (can also be used to measure Heart Rate Variability/HRV as a measure of fitness) to avoid overexertion and record sessions with the Concept2 ErgData app to see progress

- follow the stretching advice from Concept2, at beginning and end of session

- ease into the workouts over weeks and learn the right technique, e.g. from YT channels like Dark Horse rowing to avoid back injury and slowly build muscle

- the newest Concept2 has a phone/pad holder. I got a second holder for my phone to be able to follow and record the session with ErgData while watching stuff on an iPad. In the lastest iteration I’ve added an old monitor with an Apple TV. But now trying to Dopamine diet and ‘do nothing’ while rowing.

I too have benefited recently (since 3 months) from rowing, and started by simply emulating Dark Horse rowing on a laptop set to the front/side of the machine. I really like Rowalong channel now, because he gives effort instructions in terms of your best 2k pace. For example, he'll say "2k+18" for the next interval so if your best 2k time had average 2:00/500m pace, then row currently at 2:18 pace. Compare to Dark Horse who might say "Go at 75% effort" which suffers from subjective self reporting.

If you haven't seen it, https://rowinglevel.com has tables for various distances and ages. It intimidated me at first (these times are fast!) but reaching beginner and novice when they once felt completely impossible is a good feeling.

> It took months to get up to speed with a lot of initial back pain, but the strength gained has done away with back issues I used to have.

This has been my biggest benefit as well.

You might be interested in this, great fun and it'll get you rowing using FTP which is a better way of doing things than pace (standard in the cycling world, surprised it's taking so long to filter into rowing): https://exrgame.com.

There's also this for rowing form but I haven't personally tried it out:

https://www.rowingperformance.com

Want to underline that it's important to learn proper technique if you decide to start rowing. The sequencing of legs, back, arms is not intuitive, and most people who use indoor rowers at the gym have poor technique and set the resistance way too high. It's definitely possible to mess up your back rowing, though injury rather than muscle soreness usually only happens after a few years

I use an exercise bike, and ride about 40 minutes a day, but only because that's what was there. I've always thought about replacing it with a rower, since that works so much more of the body.

30 minutes a day? For weight management, it'd be hard to beat High Intensity Interval Training, particularly with a jump rope (if you don't mind dropping some cash, the weighted jump ropes from Crossrope are pretty slick).

If it's more about maintaining strength, I'd get yourself a copy of Pavel Tsatsouline's Kettlebell: Simple and Sinister, and a kettlebell or two that fit your size and strength, and get swinging. Between swings and Turkish get ups you can work out almost every muscle in your body, with a good focus on core strength.

And then there's things like making other activities a workout that aren't otherwise a workout. I've got an elliptical at home in front of a TV, and have taken to using a chromecast on it to watch Coursera classes, or even casting my screen to read epubs on the TV while walking. Cranking the resistance and incline up keeps that fairly smooth and can hit over 750 calories an hour. I just wish there were ebook apps with built in Chromecast support for something like TV remote controls for page turns, but it seems most people don't read books on TV.

Podcasts are another way I in general find to get myself active, either doing yard work, or just going for walks, as I find that it helps me detach from screens (which, if anything, can distract from processing the audio anyway). Making leisure active to me seems always a better approach than trying to force yourself to do something you don't view as leisurely in the first place. Best of luck.

From my experience, you cannot do HIIT daily, it leaves you too sore. Do you have a good routine for this? Are there biological benefits to doing HIIT that I'm unaware of?

Pavel's S&S, or other anti-glycoletic training methods due work well for me as there is no soreness or need for recovery. I incorporate long walks (5 miles or more) daily to get in the cardio, sometimes go for a run or hard hike.

I'm a HIIT daily person. I used to feel sore after I upped it to every day, but that only lasted ~2 months. I was at every other day of HIIT previously.

My routine is the Deck of Pain. https://www.offgridweb.com/preparation/prison-workout-routin...

TLDR: Shuffle a deck of cards. Assign a body weight exercise to each suit (hearts are sit-ups, spades are push-ups, etc). The pips indicates the number of reps, with face cards being 10 and aces being 1 (you can change this to Aces as 11, Kings as 13, etc). So, a 7 of hearts would mean 7 sit-ups. Continue through the deck until your can hear your soul dying. You can keep the jokers in and do 10 burpees or 1 of each exercise, or 10 of each. Up to you.

You're going to need to take breaks, but try ot go as fast as you can otherwise. I'm down to ~45 seconds per card on average. The hardest exercise to add in here are pull-ups, FYI. You're going to need to rest a lot if you have pull-ups as an exercise.

I also walk the dog at a pretty good pace, maybe in Zone 2 cardio. Usually takes ~30 minutes every day.

As an aside: I Hate working out. Some people report that they get a good feeling after a work out or that they have endorphins or some such thing. Fill in the blank yourself. I do not have any such good feeling after a work out. To give some bone fides, I've run marathons. I've swum miles and miles. I've biked all over many mountain ranges. I've been in combat sports, ball sports, artistic sports. I've done a lot of forms of work outs. I have never had a good feeling after a work out or some exercise was over. I just feel tired and sweaty and sticky. The Deck of Pain is the only routine I've been able stick to for any real length of time. It's just so punishing that I somehow don't care that I hate it.

Thanks! I like the variety that this adds. It's a good means of adding waviness to your routines, I'd imagine.

I personally like working out, once I'm in the groove. I've found that I only enjoy it on an empty stomach and in either long distance runs through the hills (where truly pushing it feels purposeful, and the effort is varied), or when I'm doing non-glycolitic work outs (sticking to the short periods where you're only using ATP). These crazy fast taxing short bursts are nice because your body can bounce back within 1 minute to 70% or 3 minutes to 100%, so it's easy to rotate through a number of push or pull exercises with small amounts of rest in between (I do yoga stretches and breath work in between). It may be the breath work that supplies the majority of the high, I don't know.

The main reason I like the Deck of Pain method, I think, is the randomness from a shuffled deck of cards. With nearly all other methods of exercise, I'm always counting down the miles/reps/laps/minutes, etc. But with the randomization, I only know the number of cards left and have no real idea what the next card holds (until the last one, I guess). Often, I'll shuffle more than one deck of cards and then just do 52, with the other half ready for the next workout. That way, I can have 'hard' days with some exercises and easy ones, further randomizing things.

I used to do HIIT daily and would always get sick (like sore throat) from 2-3 weeks. After a while I got injured and started going to normal gym. The sick periods were gone

I am athletic type of guy - 179cm, 85kg (according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Kretschmer typology).

This works to me to look ok (I mean I don't look like model or Thor and I am not fat either):

1. Walk (do not use elevator, get out of bus one stop before your destination [in Europe this is like 500-1000m distance], take your girl/wife/friend/)

2. Take any chance to move or lift up anything. (Shoping? Take basket instead of cart)

3. Do "morning snack". I did 30/30/30, nowadays (I am 38 and lazy) I do 10/10/10. It means x pushups, x squats, x situps. Doesn't matter what type of pushups/squats/abdomen exercise you do or number of repetition. What matter is that you are able to do it in the morning (even after hard party) as a very first thing at least 5 days a week.

I would say Kettlebells. I would say some kettlebells exercises like swings would compliment your Boxing training while being different. They will also take up very little space in your home in terms of storage and working out.

Also, walking is outside and dependent on the weather but I would really recommend walking daily to counteract sitting.

I found kettlebells to be the most time and space optimal exercise, the only downside is that you really have to get someone to show you how to do it properly, but after this you can burn 300-400 kcals in a 20 minute workout.

> the only downside is that you really have to get someone to show you how to do it properly

A friend of mine is a big fan of him https://www.amazon.com/Kettlebell-Simple-Sinister-Revised-Up...

+1 to kettlebells. A few hundred high-intensity swings a day can be a proper workout and can serve as a great combo of both strength training and cardio.

Which weight to start with for a 90kg guy with little experience and poor shape?

I'm just a casual kettlebell user rather than a trainer or anything but the recommendations I see for adult males is always 16kg/35lbs. If you're completely untrained/weak then it might be better starting with a lower weight.

This is pretty good advice. I bought some adjustable ones. They're fairly expensive, but you can start with a lower weight and work your way up. You can also do other exercises at lower weights to work smaller muscles.

The kettlebell reddit (/r/kettlebell) is a very good place to learn from - lots of people helping each other get the technique right. Seems the most common mistake is "hinging too early" in the swing.

For a man a single pod (16kg) is a little on the light side unless you are doing lots of reps -I like to keep my kb workout at 100rep, it's quick and an easy number to remember. For swings I,like to use the 2 pod KB and then the 1.25/1.5's for snatches and cleans. You can also use the 2pod for farmers walks and TGUs. This assumes you have multiple KBs if not the 1pod is your best bet to start with and you'll know when it's time for heavier weights.

16kg is pretty standard for a male. Personally, with getting older I really love higher reps for conditioning with a 12kg but they all have their use.

I think most people are delusional though to believe they are going to stick with home kettlebell workouts if they don't like the gym. Most likely the kettlebell will be an expensive door stopper in a few months.

I have just met so few in shape people in my life that don't go to a gym. I have a pretty decent home gym and a good assortment of kettlebells but the external gym I go to just has so much more.

This will go against the normal advice, but I suggest getting a 25lb kettlebell to learn the movements, and then move up from there. 32lbs tops. The key to kettlebells is proper form and explosive movements. You'll steadily get hooked on the activity and want a larger one, but it's always nice to have a lighter weight to learn a new movement on. When you grow out of it entirely you can pass is on, or loan it out to folks so that they can try it out.

Kettlebells, yoga stretches and daily walks are the best daily combination that I've found.

The Quick and the Dead by Pavel Tsatsouline is a great book and routine (100 push ups and 100 kettlebell swings spread out in 15 second intervals over 30 minutes).

I second kettlebells :) Look up Simple and Sinister. You can squeeze a workout into 20 minutes if you crank up intensity. Ideally you do it almost every day. The idea is that it becomes your system rather than being goal-oriented.

I had a friend who I used to go jogging with, he also hated the gym. We had a circuit in a nearby forest (park), and he always found a suitable branch along the way to do pullups, or we did pushups, or belly lifts from hanging down, and stuff like that. Some parks even have benches or exercise bars which you can use. You can do a lot completely for free, and it's more pleasant environment too.

Agreed. The OP mentions not being dependent on the weather, but I find jogging can be done regardless of the weather, it just depends on what clothing you can put on. Also, playgrounds seem to abound here in the U.S., and they're great for catching a quick round of pull-ups or other hanging exercises. I would say most are usually not crowded, and are often empty in the mornings or late evenings.

I took up climbing in my mid-30’s (I’m now in my late 30’s). I find the addition of the mental problem solving component really helps the gym fatigue. It’s a good upper body, core, and cardio workout (though I do try to do pushups and bodyweight squats on days I’m not climbing in order to hit the muscle groups climbing doesn’t), and excellent grip strength has a lot of practical benefits.

This doesn’t fit your time constraint (it’s more like an hour or two a few times a week), but I find the social and mental aspects mean it’s not just “exercising” and the time investment is worth it.

The automobile is why modernity is out of shape. The most simple solution for most folks is to live in an area where, instead of sitting at a de facto lounge chair to move from place to place, it's done by walking or cycling.

This may not solve issues of being over-weight, which is mostly an issue of diet and modern food culture, but it will increase general fitness.

Nothing about that is a solution or simple.

The "simple" part could be up for debate, but in what way is "replace some of your car/bus/train travel with walking or cycling" not a solution to the problem of staying in shape when you hate going to the gym?

It may not be feasible in all cases, but it's definitely feasible in some cases, and it absolutely works.

In particular, bike commuting is an excellent way to integrate exercise into your daily routine without going to the gym or the tedious exercise-for-it's-own-sake activity. It's not practical for everyone, but between power-assisted e-bikes and the observation that you don't need to do it _every_ day, it's a lot more achievable than many think.

Similarly, if you take public transport to work (or elsewhere) you could get off a stop or two early and walk the rest of the way to get some of the benefits even if lacking the time or stamina to do the whole trip on foot.

Integrating exercise into some task or activity you were going to do anyway (e.g., commuting or running nearby errands, if applicable) is much easier than trying to maintain discipline and motivation to exercise as a dedicated, stand-alone activity.

I am not going to walk 15 miles to Costco and carry a week of family groceries on my back. I use literally zero public transit. This advice is insane for people who live in a suburb.

A "buy in bulk" warehouse store is of course one of the least reasonable examples you could have selected, but per the Bureau of Transportation Statistics 52% of car trips in the US are less than 3 miles, and 28% are less than 1 mile. Those are both very walk-able and bike-able distances.

Surely somewhere in that more-than-half-of-all-car-trips there are a few examples of car errands that could be easily replaced by bike, scooter or foot.

EDIT: incidentally even in the most car-centric dystopian suburb there are ways to incorporate more walking into your routine. The next time you go to a strip-mall or big box store you could park on the far side of the lot and walk to the door. A minor inconvenience in both time and effort, but you could probably add 1/2 mile or more of walking to your Saturday afternoon errands that way.

A quarter mile of dodging cars with an ungainly, loaded shopping cart sure does sound like an "inconvenience," and not one I would recommend to a friend to improve their fitness.

Do it or don't, man. I don't care.

But I stand by the statement that most able-bodied Americans could find some way to incorporate more human-powered transport into their routine if they really wanted to. And in many cases they could do it without any adding any superfluous travel. I.e., it may be slower or even less convenient in some way, but it was a trip you were going to make anyway. You're just changing the mode of transit.

(Incidentally if it's truly too dangerous or inconvenient to walk across the Costco parking lot with a loaded shopping cart I think we're well on our way to the people from Wall-E.)

You can't win debates with such people, about biking or walking; there's always another reason why they (and all other good and upstanding Americans) can't possibly walk or bike. When they run out of their own made up reasons, it's "well what about disabled people!"

Like yeah, they maybe can't, are you disabled? No? Well then.

Not sure if you or OP are in the US or not, but American cities have zoning laws and infrastructure that are designed entirely around the car. Aside from a few exceptions, towns in the US aren't like European towns in the slightest. It really is often the case that nothing is walkable or bikeable. The "Not Just Bikes" YouTube channel goes into all this if you are interested in that sort of stuff.

Yes, in US, have lived in cities, suburbs, and rural / mountains. The US on average is indeed far less walkable than a European city.

It is nevertheless eminently possible to walk and bike more.

I'm saying that "move somewhere where you can bike and walk to places" is not simple or a solution to "I need to exercise more but hate it."

I am in a similar (age, mobility) situation and I got into indoor rock climbing about a year ago. Since then I have lost weight and gained a ton of muscle. I go around twice a week.

I always hated going to the gym because it was boring, but rock climbing is fun and challenging, like solving a puzzle. Also, I find I work a bit harder because it triggers your animal instincts of not wanting to fall. I do mostly top rope climbing(bouldering scares me). If you have a rock gym nearby, setup one or two trial sessions and see if you like it.

In the home strength is a lot easier and cheaper than cardio.

With a little bit of knowledge a set of 2m resistance bands and James Grage's videos and channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfSoC-IZMOI for a start) will set you up for cheap and very little space muscle training in the home with really minimum friction to starting and potential for injury. A lot of people go for weights but the muscles don't care resistance is resistance and bands can do things weights can't. When on your own at home you can push to failure safely with bands as you can just let go to remove all tension.

For cardio its mostly about a machine and bikes tend to be smaller and cheaper than most of the others but a jogger or a stepper will get you there too. Really depends on how much cost you want to lay out and how much space you want to assign to working out.

What I found was really important was having something I wanted to do with this fitness and using that as a focus and reason for being there. I also watched TV while doing cardio and that guaranteed I would get 40+ minutes of a TV episode time on the cardio side of things without getting too bored.

I looked at that video, seems like that should work real good for resistance training fitness. If James Grage is only doing resistance band training, it would definitely seem to be able to get one quite strong as he is a rather massive guy. I also looked at other videos there, he definitely seems knowledgable and already picked up several good tips. He points out that his joints feel much better compared to when he weight lifted... Traveling with several resistance bands should be quite easy... I think for lats, one would need a pull up bar or similar. It would be nice if he had comprehensive book on the subject.

Google "joyful movement". The idea is to do physical activity you actually enjoy doing. It could walking, hiking, swimming, bike riding, dancing, gardening, larping, or anything that makes you happy. That is the key.

I wasn’t aware of that phrase but this is also my recommendation. Don’t force yourself to do something you hate, find something you enjoy and you’ll desire to do it. I sit at work and daydream about biking, rather dreading going to the gym.

Indoor rowing: Does not reqire to much space, can also be done outdoors, and provides a full body workout with variable intensity. 20 minutes every other day can be enough to get/stay in shape.

I strongly recommend that anyone with a spare bedroom own a Concept2 rower. You can put thousands of km on them without replacing a single part. Nothing beats the consistency.

If you can find the discipline to do 5+km/day, you probably don't ever need to go to the gym. There are a few movements that would be beneficial as a supplement, but you can use bodyweight for most of those. The simple pushup gives you about 80% of the missing picture. I typically do a 5km row and then 2-3 sets of pushups and call it a good day.

I strongly believe the barbell squat is the best exercise by miles. But, its the biggest pain in the ass in terms of logistics. Rowing feels like a really happy compromise, especially considering the continuously-variable intensity and the mechanism of action.

Mine has 10 million meters on the clock - all I’ve done is oil the chain occasionally.

Concept2 are the gold standard of indoor rowers. You can find them used for cheap and they are built to last a lifetime. There are tons of rowing program channels on YouTube to follow and keep it interesting.

Just as an alt perspective, gained quite a bit of weight in mid 20's-30's. I tried various things -- I did Judo in college before gained weight, but doing BJJ after I gained weight I could never keep up even though I loved it. Did the gym, tried running, etc. I hated it, and especially as I got older they all had noticeable impacts on my body.

The only thing that significantly impacted my weight over the years was a more restricted diet. Currently I do not eat food after 6 pm, and have almost cut 100% of fast food out of diet. (At worst BMI 34, now BMI 25.)

So I loved BJJ (did not hate it the same way I hated the gym), but I physically had a hard time with it post 30 years old. Caveat emptor, I should probably not be giving anyone health advice.

Well, you are right. My BMI is off the charts,but not because I don't go to the gym,but because I overeat in the evening. There's no exercise on the planet that can offset multiple trips to the fridge before you go to bed. And the reason why people overeat is different for everyone: lack of sleep, stress, anxiety, boredom, poor nutritional choices and so on. So it's crucial people fix this part if they really want to change how they look and feel about their body, because otherwise you sign up to the gym and quit 3 months later, because there's no progress at all.

What helped me is brushing teeth a quarter after what is supposed to be the last meal of the day.

Then I know that, if I get a snack, I'll have to go through the teeth cleaning routine again, and the desire to not have to do that is stronger than the desire for the snack.

Agree overall for weight loss. But even after losing the weight I keep up the cardio because it clears my head.

I would advise you to ride a bike, of course if it's raining it's less pleasant but in reality you don't notice it too much. I've been cycling a lot for the last two years, I'm in good shape with a good cardio, I've also visited my region and discovered some beautiful places.

If you prefer to be indoors I recommend Zwift [1].

[1] https://us.zwift.com/

I hate the gym because of social phobia and transportation challenges. Here are home fitness things that have worked for me. Note that I don't have any motivation to improve my looks (though I definitely do look better than I used to) or train for a sport, so what I do is probably nowhere near hardcore enough for many people. I just want to be generally healthy and have good energy levels.

1. Ring Fit Adventure. Yeah, a weird one, and not particularly hard exercise, but it's what I managed to pick up at a time when I hadn't done any real exercise for years except for biking to get around and inconsistently using an indoor bike (see below). It motivates a daily routine and exposes you to a pretty wide range of movements.

2. An indoor bike. You don't need a Peloton or anything high tech, just something solidly built. I spent $550 on a bike with a tablet holder in 2018 and it's still going strong, same bike is actually under $500 now. It lets you get some pedaling in when the weather is bad or you don't want to go outside or you want to watch TV.

3. An Apple Watch. Not a routine in itself, but I find the rings motivate me to get some actual exercise in every day.

4. HIIT. This is the main fitness thing I do these days. I pick a 20-minute HIIT workout from Apple Fitness+ and do it every day (minus a rest day or two per week) until it feels easy, then move on to another one.

Calisthenics is the way to go. You can start without any equipment and you can do it indoors and outdoors. There are plenty of calisthenics tutorials on youtube. Apart from that I suggest making a 20-30 minutes walk around lunch break

yes get some olympic rings. look into the (free) app You are your own gym(Yayog) Buy overcoming gravity (or join the reddit group where the author answers many of the questions). Working out with bodyweight is fantastic imo

I do an hour every other day, but you could split it up as 30 everyday.

30 minutes of running in place. I live in a city and getting to a nice spot to run would be the distance of my run anyway. Started stationary running in my apartment. 30 minutes is 3.5 miles for me.

30 minutes of body weight training. 5 minute yoga stretch routine, then 10 burpees, 30 squats, 15 push-ups, 10 chair dips, 10 pull-ups, 10 lunges.

I just wake up, and do it all barefoot in my sleep clothes, when I’m done I shower and go on with my day.

Edit: I should note that this is my 30m routine now, when first starting or if I take a few weeks or months long break, either those numbers go down or the time goes up

When I first started my burpees were much more loose and casual, I’d pop up and drop slowly and do knee pushups, over time of consistent routine they tightened and sped up

Listen to your body and just keep at it, in time you’ll reach your goals

I'm curious, is there a technique to running in place? Running in place kills my ankles and calves. I used to jog and didn't really have an issue.

There are as many ways of "running in place" as there are runners. One day my SO was exercising - as she said, "running in place". It didn't look right to me b/c rather than push off upward with her toes (and consequently a little hop), she was bending her knees and, only then, pushing with the toe. The result was a very low-energy "running in place" where the hips rotate to follow the knees. This puts almost no stress on the ankles and is easy on the calves.

OTOH at least she was trying, so I kept my mouth shut!

Trying to picture how this would look. Sounds almost like using the upper leg more to lift the leg off the ground instead of pushing off the ground.

Thanks. I'll look around youtube and see if I can find anything.

Both when I run “regularly” and when I run “in place“ I try to spend as much time on the balls of my feet.

It allows me to control the impact like a spring.

Running heel first, which feels more natural when running distance, leaves my knees hurting.

Running on the balls of your feet can tire your calves out quickly if you’re new to it, and can leave you too sore for the next day, so start slow.

Do 10m for a week or two until you feel your recovery has caught up, then 15m then 20m then 30m.

If I want to up the amount of energy I am expelling I will bring my knees up higher for as many strides as I can.

You will want to force yourself to keep a good running form when stationary because you can easily “fake it” and fall back on bad form of “kicking out” or “wobbling” which can impact your joints negatively.

Keep your feet pointing forward, raise your knees, and swing your arms just like you would when running distance.

Do it in a way that feels comfortable to you rather than in a way that feels weird and performative.

All in all the important thing is to get your heart rate up, and sweating is usually a sign that you’re getting some good cardio done.

The biggest thing for me was I wanted to get it done in 30m, but when running distance it took me 15m to prep myself for the run (get water and music ready, find my clothes and shoes, get dressed, ..). But with running in place my run is literally 30m of my time, every time.

Which made the most important part: just keeping a regular routine where you move your body; so much easier.

Home is a good place for exercising, too. Pushups, crunches, Roman/Russian twists, squats, dumbbells lifting, triceps extensions, latteral raises, a whole bunch of core exercises don't require gym. Just self-discipline.

Also, go for a walk, jog or biking. Home or gym movement won't replace fresh air and some sun.

There's really very little need to go to the gym period, you can put together a nice little home gym for a few hundred dollars and craigslist. Personally I like the gym but it's not always convenient so I have a pretty decent home gym that I've put together over the years. The best exercise is a 1h walk 3-4 times a week....in the summer I'll move some of the home gym out into the yard, my wife gets grumpy but working out in the sunshine is pretty great.

Cheat yourself.

I’m not a fan of gym myself, I’m also a terrible swimmer but I love water and found out I can easily backstroke for an hour at a time and this is fun. Even tho I can barely swim any other style (working on it!).

I hate running but taught myself inline skating when I was 25 and now, 10 years later it’s super fun.

I love walking but most of the time it’s not enough, but I love sightseeing even more so I try to travel to new places a few times a year and if those places happen to be in remote mountain regions…

And when I can’t go out and want to do a quick cardio I simply start some interesting vid on YT/Netflix/whatever and start hula hooping. If the content I’m watching is good I simply forget I’m working out.

Also hula hooping while playing FIFA makes it way more fun and immersive.

Just do the stuff you like, there has to be something.

If you can, add more movement to your daily routine. If you have a commute, consider a bike. Can you walk to buy groceries? Use a basket instead of walking a cart? Any other car trips you can replace? Take up dancing, climbing, or some other active hobby.

But if you want a segregated "exercise" time, then I'll second kettle-bells. You can work as hard as you like in very modest space with 2 or three bells.

For 0 gear, look at bodyweight work. The Canadian Airforce produced a program you could do when stationed at an arctic DEW line station with no more space than you had beside your bunk. http://fit450.com/HTML/5BX_Intro.html

A home gym?

When I used to not work from home, I was enrolled at a gym 2mn from the workplace.

Would go after work while other were having drinks.

Some of my colleagues would pause around noon.

Some people can go before work and shower there.

So the commute time is essentially eliminated.

But lifting weight is the best way to be in shape. Better than just cardio. (and it also works the cardiovascular system, just a form of hiit)

But if you don't enjoy strength training, perhaps you need something that motivates you more. I don't know what that could be that would have the same effect to be quite honest.

With consistency and results, people tend to feel good and it feedbacks into them not wanting to skip the gym, instead of relying solely on pure discipline. Gotta play with dopamine and the reward system.

I can't speak for boxing but as someone who does weight lifting, you can get pretty far by just lifting at home (and go to the gym for heavier weights or start purchasing more expensive equipment if you have the space for it)

I love Bowflow adjustable dumbbells. You can go with 552 or 1090 depending on how much experience you already have and how strong you are: https://www.bowflex.ca/en-ca/selecttech/552/100131.html https://www.bowflex.ca/en-ca/selecttech/1090/710000.html

Julian from HN has a great guide on how to do this, I always give him a shout out when I can because his guide is very sensible and easy to follow: https://www.julian.com/guide/muscle/intro

See the relevant thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12618223 .

I think the most important factor is consistency and discipline. It's more of a lifestyle change than achieving a certain goal and you have to be patient with yourself. The rest of it pretty much boils down to: sleep, eat enough calories and lift a bit heavier every time..

Good luck!

Have you considered purchasing your own weight rack?

Rogue sells a few pre-made one's that fold into the wall and occupy little space. It's a larger upfront investment but you can have free weight gear in your house and it will pay for itself fast.

If you're outside the USA, you can usually find a local welder / shop to make one for you.

Outside of strength training, you could go for long walks (I enjoy these).

If you find a fun community, Acro, BJJ, Climbing, Dance, Football / Soccer etc, you might have your day made.

You could also box more often.

I second the home gym. Got a fairly inexpensive progear rack, progear bench, and go beast dip rack. I already had the 45lb bar, curl bar and 300lbs of weights from a previous set so the upgrade was pretty seamless. Bought the cable pull down separately off Amazon for 1/4 of the price. Can now do almost every type of lift with no spotter. Yes is does take up most of a small room in my basement but for being in my 40s think I am the best shape of my life minus lung power hard for me to believe that. If you don’t have room push-ups pull-ups (playground near by?), sit-ups and jogging will be better than nothing. Also recommend an e-bike. Still get exercise but can travel faster and further making it practical. If you have money left over grab a one-wheel great for the core and closest thing to snowboard in the summer. Also great winter (snow) for snowboarding/skiing this year. Wow after writing that all out now know where all my money went, but hey it’s for my health. Cheers!

VR boxing. High cardio, works a reasonable amount of muscle groups. 30 minutes should be plenty, and there's other VR stuff you can try although none quite as good for fitness.

Buy one of those cheap ocules headsets and if you don't like it or get bored you can probably get most of your money back by selling it. And yeah the facebook integartion stuff sucks but there aren't really any other options in that price range or with a similar ability to just pick up and go with it.

Do you have one that you recommend? The two I've seen are Creed, and one whose name currently escapes me but is cheaper. The latter I have heard is a more "authentic" experience, while Creed is more of a game.

Thrill of the Fight? That one gets me sweating within the first few minutes of a session

Try „Les Mills bodycombat”. I am pretty fit and have trouble with medium level. Best cardio on VR.

For more fun „Pistol Whip”, also great

I'd say that's more of a rhythm game than a boxing game. There are a fair number of entries in that genre, beat saber is popular, supernatural is similar.

Honestly though you can just search for "best VR workout games".

Thrill of the fight is the one I use. You don't necessarily need to pay for software in the ocules quest platform right now though.

This is my solution. It isn't perfect, but the best kind of exercise is the one you actually can do and want to do on a regular schedule.

FitXR is still my main go to, and mostly the boxing ones, but they have a few other course types (Dance, never tried, HIIT is ok, but not as fun as boxing, combat is just boxing with a few more moves, haven't tried Sculpt).

BeatSaber for when you want to warm up or you feel exhausted and can't get in the mood for a boxing session. Run the song at fast or very fast for a more efficient work out.

Nobody can answer this for you. They are describing what works best for them. Find what works best for you. Forget what is optimal. What is something you can do consistently for years. If that's walking, then walking is still better than sitting.

I found watching TV while working out is a great motivator. Consider that as well.

And lastly. I've been working out consistently for over a decade. I still don't like it. Get your feelings out of this. Think of it like brushing your teeth.

If you have the means, consider paying for a personal trainer.

Exercise is all about consistency over a long period of time, and there's a chance you just don't have the capacity (willpower/mental health/...) to do it on your own, and that's ok.

Some people will fall in love with some activity and naturally do it consistently. Others have the discipline to keep grinding. Some have something in between, but many have none of those. That might be you and it was certainly me.

Just to give some context, I've been a marathon runner for 7 years. I have a PB of 3:24, and I'm training for a sub 3 hour marathon right now (logging around 70 - 120km per week). I run 6 times a week, and work out at the gym 3 times a week. I consider myself to be in my all-time peak athletic shape right now.

I don't mean to be rude, but this comes from years of people picking fights with me about exercising and easy ways to get fit.

You're looking for an easy way out. There isn't any. Or there shouldn't be. If you want to really stick to an exercising habit, you have to either do something you really love doing, or just pick something and stick to it. If there isn't some sort of physical activity you love doing and could potentially do effortlessly, you have to start from scratch.

That means putting in the work and becoming disciplined. Building a habit. Which means you have to work against yourself so you can, in the future, be in a position where exercising is at least neutral and effortless. Only then will you know whether or not you'll enjoy it. Never before that. If you have an open mind and patience, you probably will.

You could also just keep trying several other options, until you find sometimes that you seem to enjoy. But chances are you'll probably get tired of it soon.

I'd honestly advise you to work on habit building skills rather than trying to find something you'll be able to do effortlessly, just like that. If you pick something, stick to it, be patient, study it and put your mind to it, I promise you, you'll eventually start enjoying it.

I mean to make it practical, set 30m - 1h a day (or three days a week) aside dedicated to exercise. Block your calendar if you need to. Don't compromise, that time is an appointment, it's not flexible time.

I got in my best shape when I went for personal training. It's prohibitively expensive, but it worked for me because there was an appointment set every week and there was someone telling me what to do.

I mean if you're social, set appointments with friends to go exercise. I've had colleagues who would go play squash, go bouldering or go running once or twice a week with friends.

In shape or fit is several levels below what you describe. Personally, I find running a marathon near lunacy. You may like it, but it's not healthy in the long run.

> You may like it, but it's not healthy in the long run.

I disagree. Not all marathon runners are made equal. Talking about the long run means an extreme training routine that is consistent through a long period of time.

The vast majority of marathon runners are casual runners, rarely logging more than 40km a week. And after a while most simply stop or reduce significantly their training to casual (in terms of intensity) but consistent training.

AFAIK, most research about negative effects of marathon running is related to professional athletes, who have a career in running. Endurance athletes usually start from a very young age, and peak at around 30-40. That's 20 to 30 years of extreme training. And the key aspect here is oxidative stress, which means they are aging faster. There's also a risk that your heart will change in shape to respond to a greater demand, and that may lead to conditions such as arrythmia.

I think I can speak for most of the amateur athletes I know. We're all well aware of the risks. There's just no point in not taking them.

Got to agree on the lunacy. Legend has it that the first marathoner, Athenian messenger Pheidippides, died after running the 26.4 miles from Marathon to Athens and announcing the victory of the Athenian army over the Spartans at Marathon. But he had a good reason to do so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheidippides

Apparently he ran much farther (like 6X as far) in the time before he died:

"The Real Pheidippides Story (Runners World):

https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a20836761/the-r...

I felt the same way about the gym. Now I go 3-4 times a week and are in great shape.

There's a few things I've optimized that make it real easy and sticky as a habit:

    1. No cardio. I'd always procrastinate going to the gym because I'd always row or run on a treadmill to "warm up" before lifting. I dropped the requirement to "warm up" and just get straight into lifting. This was probably the single most impactful change that made me go more.

    2. Wear clothes to work that I can go to the gym in. Have a few sets of pants that are gym-ready, wear a t-shift, wear shoes that can be used at the gym. This removes another element of friction "damn, I have to go change, etc." Now I just walk in, drop my bag, and start lifting.

    3. Use Strong App with 3 x different workouts I created myself and have iterated on over time. Can't recommend this app any more strongly (pun not intended). I couldn't find a workout app that fitted how I wanted to track my progress and sets. I sat down and wrote PRD for the perfect workout app. I then stumbled upon Strong, and it satisfied all the reqs in the PRD + many more useful features.

You can do pushups, pull-ups and chin-ups at home with only your floor and a bar.

These exercises may sound like something out of high school, but they are excellent for all upper body. Biceps, triceps, shoulders, back. Even abs get definition.

For legs do squats, walk and take the stairs.

Some exercises beyond squats to target legs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burpee_(exercise) lists a number of interesting variants, if you have the space at home for them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calisthenics has some more ideas that might be amenable to the half hour time window.

They require little or no equipment and you could make your routine more interesting by doing some of them outdoors when weather allows.

I followed Start Bodyweight for a while, seemed pretty good. The emphasis on being able to manipulate one's own bodyweight appealed to me, and end goals of the progressions like one-armed pushups/chinups/etc are pretty cool. Minimal equipment required, mostly just access to a bar for pullups/chinups and somewhere to do inverted rows and dips, though it's usually advised that you add deadlifts. 30mins 3 days per week is about what's required.

The Bodyweight Fitness subreddit provides similar routines, as well.

http://www.startbodyweight.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/

There are also a lot of resources on youtube if you want video demonstrations/walkthroughs. Calimove was pretty useful for me.

https://www.youtube.com/@calimove

That said, I was probably in the best shape of my life back when I used to do indoor rock climbing three days a week. It incorporates a satisfying combination of technique/problem-solving and physical strength/endurance.

I also hate the gym and this sounds almost exactly like what I do. For the last 3 months I've been alternating between running through my neighborhood (2 miles for ~20 minutes) and weightlifting at home (~30 minutes) a total of 5-6 times per week. Running you can do pretty much anywhere and any time of the year with the right outfit as long as there isn't snow/ice on the ground. For the weightlifting I bought a pair of adjustable weight dumbbells [1] and just follow along with a YouTube workout at home (there are tons of them).

So far this has worked great for me. I've gone from 213 -> 192 pounds and built a little bit of muscle, though not a ton because I've been eating at a moderate caloric deficit. Diet is a huge component depending on what your goals are and I had to learn to love salad. Once I get down to 180 pounds I'll probably switch things up and start eating more and lifting more frequently in order to bulk up.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J8S38LW?tag=verywellfit-onsite-...

Paid $800 for a stationary cycle, best purchase I've ever made, no joke. It's very hard to find an excuse to just sit on your cycle during useless passive meetings, in breaks, before or after work and watch youtube while doing it. One+ hour a day, 5+ days a week, intensity with a pulse over 120 bpm was all what was needed to go from BMI 24.5 down to 22.6 within 6 months. I also do 5 minutes of intense muscle training each weekday, to complement the cardio and raise my base metabolism. I've built some nice muscles, meaning the BMI without muscles taken into account is even better. I'm probably close to optimal weight and body fat percentage soon, then I will go down to 30 minutes of cycling each day. Eating habits got slightly better; I eat too much in general. Paradoxically, working out lowers appetite(?). I specifically take care I eat enough protein, though, around 100g a day, to not get muscle fatigue, as I still increase the intensity regularly.

Which bike did you buy?

Quadrupedal movement(i.e. crawling), a resistance band routine and pullups will hit everything strength and mobility-wise, and cost and weight are close to nothing relative to a full gym. For pushing the intensity even further you can add a weighted vest or just stuff a backpack with books, with some padding to keep it stable. But you only want to do all of that a few times a week max, because it's very strength-focused and will overtrain you quickly if you let it; for the majority of sessions, a warm up to work through any stiff joints, and then cardio, is the right amount.

For cardio, it's a matter of "pick your poison". Some people like the bike or rowing, some have found a traditional sport they can practice like shooting a basketball, or a video game like DDR, Beat Saber or Ring Fit. Many people have gone for a treadmill desk or stepper machine. If you're doing boxing, maybe the classic speed bag and jump rope will do the trick.

Get a bicycle :)

Gyms are not for me either so I'm always out on two wheels

I can relate a lot, since I have always been a sports hater myself. after lots of research, I came to the conclusion that the best bang for the buck would be found in strength training. it works best in a lot of dimensions: back pain, looking great, staying there, even if you make two weeks of vacation.

In the end, after giving this a serious shot, I really came to like it a lot. Especially after I realized how much of a difference it makes in terms of mental strength, willpower, and confidence as well. My love life is through the roof.

Even though it takes considerably more than 30 minutes, I now have a power rack in my room and I fill the minutes of waiting between sets by using them on starting the most dreaded tasks on my list. This works incredibly well, as I am so filled with adrenaline after a hard set that it works a bit like the blinking star in super Mario: It makes my mind almost invincible for a few minutes.

Just an experience of many here. YMMV.

Gym is indeed boring and so is running. Pick an activity that you actually enjoy doing (or you think it has potential). Preferably one that involves flexibility, coordination and strength and pushes you out of your comfort zone. Dancing, acrobatics, martial arts, yoga.

I would add team sports: basketball, soccer, etc. I do not know how much of a social person OP is, but having peers counting on you to show up adds extra motivation.

It would be helpful to know your goals. If you are trying to keep weight off, then more cardio or at home HIIT will be helpful. If you are trying to keep muscle and maybe stay fit that way, it might be better to invest in a home gym set-up.

For general fitness/weight loss:

- Cardio + controlling the diet - try to get a stationary bike - medium quality which can provide power, RPM, resistance and has the ability to adjust the front bars and seat (getting a good fit on the bike will help you avoid injury). Alternatives might include a weighted jump rope.

For strength training

- a set of adjustable dumbbells up to 50 lbs. should be adequate and a set of resistance bands. With these you can do most standard exercises and build strength

Find every opportunity to walk and climb steps more.

Use a step counter and aim for an appropriate target amount per day (10k being the simplest and most popular target for most but anything above 6-8k is going to be beneficial). Park further away from a place you need to go to. Get a dog. Take the stairs instead of the lift or escalator. Set an alarm or get an app to remind you to get out of your chair at regular intervals.

Some people like standing desks, but the evidence suggests shifting between standing and sitting desks is better. Use a balance board while standing for extra smug points.

If you're boxing once a week, you're getting good upper body conditioning. If you want to keep the momentum up at home, skip rope. 15 minutes 2-3 times a week and you're already way ahead of most of the population at your age.

Eat well, hydrate, sleep well. No use working out and then filling your body up with garbage and sleeping too little/poorly. Similarly, don't feel you need to mainline protein shakes and supplements. Gradual changes to your diet and exercise routine are the most important part. Avoid anything that promises too much too quickly. It's probably a scam or a cult.

Avoid injuring yourself. A lot of middle-aged people take up running and quickly wreck their knees/ankles/feet and end up put off by the whole affair or even reversing any progress they made. Trendy fitness cults like Crossfit can be a health and safety disaster for most people let alone those of use who still listen to 80s music.

Weights are good but proper form and technique is more important than big numbers. Get a trainer to teach you these. Learn about progressive overload and measure your progress but keep your workout simple and easy to follow. You don't need to learn some fancy targeted isolation exercises that involve you contracting your medial right glute while you lift a very particular and expensive type of glorified medicine ball rainstick in the air with your left arm pointing to Polaris and singing the national anthem.

Most importantly, do something you enjoy. You'll stick to it better and it won't feel like a chore as much.

> I'm in my mid 30s, and my age starts to show it's signs.

It's not your age that shows, it's your lack of exercise. A man's 30s should be closer to peak physical fitness than one foot in the grave as apparently most people view it.

> I don't like wasting time by getting to the gym, getting from the gym, and waiting for my turn for the equipment

Any gyms close to your place/the office you could hit early in the morning ?

Any room for a small power cage at home for bench/ohp/deadlift/squats ?

I personally do 10min of stretching in the morning/evening, heavy squats/ohp/deadlift twice a week and indoor rock climbing every now and then.

Strong recommend for the Dan John book Intervention [0]. An easy read and you should be able to grok the principles and apply them to kettlebells, bodyweight, barbell, whatever you choose.

I followed it for a while with just dumbbells and bodyweight and later on joined a much more intense olympic weightlifting gym and found I had pretty good movement and strength compared to most people who just walk in off the street (or maybe the coach was just being nice!).

[0] https://www.otpbooks.com/product/dan-john-intervention/

If you are mostly concerned with staying healthy and really really hate the gym, then I'd recommend focusing on your dietary habits instead.

In my experience, working off bad calories is a lot harder than simply not consuming them in the first place.

Also, certain meal patterns like one-meal-a-day and intermittent fasting (i.e. eat every other day) can provoke exercise-like effects in participants.

Which do you hate more - not having that 2nd cookie, or driving to the gym?

I'd still recommend getting off your ass as much as possible in any arrangement. Standing desk and what not.

I relate to your comments about gym a lot. I feel like going to the gym is a mundane, mechanical and very dystopian activity. I never found any 'fun' in the gym and we all know we can't force ourselves doing what we don't enjoy. So I set out searching for physical activity (hopefully strength training) that was fun.

After a lot of trials, I found the answer: F45. Their workouts are pre-designed, group based and <45min. Working out in a group brings evokes some primitive, deep sense of camaraderie that I find very rewarding and motivating. The fact that they are <45 minutes including warmup, working out and stretching makes them really quick for me. The stations are all setup before so I don't need to expend mental or physical energy in setting anything up. And the exercises are super well-designed, so I can leave my brain at home knowing full well that I'm going to get the best results. As an added benefit, my local f45 has a great trainer that helped me heal from injuries and always looks out for my form, so I can focus solely on having fun.

It's honestly been a game changer. I vividly remember moments where I was having such intense sense of euphoria despite being in so much pain. I whole heartedly recommend anyone to try group based HIIT workouts.

Buy some equipment at home, space permitting. Eg: A few pairs of dumbbells, a mat, a pullup bar etc. Let's say you're at your computer doing nerd stuff. You take a bathroom break; do a set of something. You go to the kitchen to get a snack do a set on the way. Etc etc. Curls, squats, lat extensions, whatever.

I say this specifically as someone who hates working out, and as you pointed out, hates the overhead time involved with gyms.

Why you need to go to a public gym? You can setup your own - piece by piece - start with an exercise mat, dumbbell set and incline/decline foldable bench, that's it. For the next level, you can setup your own roll cage; that's what I did during Covid. During the past couple years, I've added few more equipment. I believe I can do about 90% of strength training exercises that you can do in a 12000 sq ft gym. But, my personal gym is spread only on about 34 sq ft :-)

There are so many comments like this in this thread, it’s kind of surprising to me. Does the majority of HN live in big suburban homes? The idea of putting weight training equipment in my tiny apartment is laughable.

My apartment is about 735 sq ft; I live in a big city's downtown. How big is your apt?

Also, how much space, do you think it will take - "an exercise mat, dumbbell set and incline/decline foldable bench"?

I live in a 2,000 sqft house with an attached garage and barely have room for that and an exercise bike. I definitely didn't have space in my last 750 sqft apartment.

Right, but you have room for a television and multiple couches etc. Give me a break.

You're right, we do - we don't have a lonely spartan lifestyle. If you ever live with a partner, have kids, entertain, have hobbies, work from home... floor space and storage come at a premium.

You can get rid of the television and coffee table and seating. We all have a choice. Your older self and partner and kids will thank you for being in good shape for longer.

Live somewhere you can bike and/or walk to work and for your daily needs. Admittedly this can be weather-dependent, so it might not suit your requirement (though even living in Ireland I find rain only rarely causes an issue).

I lost about 100 pounds this way.

Moving to a new country would be one of the more extreme options but this video describes the idea of "The Gym of Life" well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPUlgSRn6e0

Lots of good suggestions here, but yours dovetails nicely with mine: if your situation supports it, get a dog. Walk the dog. Play with the dog. Take the dog to the park.

I tend to hate physical activity for its own sake. I’ve been known to say I’ve never run in my life unless I was being chased. But, having a dog opened up a world of activity with a purpose. I now get outside and walk for a minimum of about 40 minutes a day, and most days much longer. It’s done wonders for both my physical and mental health.

But that actually points to an underlying principle: if you hate the gym because it’s boring or seems pointless, find an otherwise enjoyable activity that also incorporates an element of physicality.

After reading about it in The Guardian[0] I signed up for the "Six Pack Revolution"[1] 75 day program and I've been on it for 4 weeks now. Workouts last 30 minutes max, which I do at home while listening to a podcast. You do need to buy a battle rope. It comes with a high protein (non keto, with meat and vegetarian options) diet for which they supply a recipe book and I make my own version of things. Every day it's push ups and glute exercises, every other day abs and special challenges with the battle rope two times a week.

You do need to use Facebook so you can get the exercises and get followed up (they say they will have an app later in the year), send pictures every week and filter out a bunch of feel good gobbledygook. But the discipline and the ready made routines have been great. I'm almost 50 and bored shitless by exercise in general but this one is working for me.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/dec/31/exercis...

[1] https://www.facebook.com/TheSixPackRevolution

Nintendo Switch + Ring Fit Adventure.

If you like being around people, martial arts.

Alternatively, if you don't like people, martial arts.

Same here 2 years ago. Hate gyms. Here is what works for me: After getting up I do some short HIIT (in my case 7 minute workout - there are loads of apps for that, it even reminds you, so no brain work required). This habit has to be implemented through months I think - takes some time. This wont keep you in shape alone. Additionally, as working from home I use a under desk treadmill - literally going for a walk the whole day (slow speed 2-3 km/h, not in video calls). This currently gives me 10 - 15 km a day. This also takes time to get used to. I started slow and extended the walking time step by step. After 1 year or so I am not sitting anymore during the day - just for meals. Sold the chair. That alone keeps my ideal weight super balanced and additionally it builds some good muscles over time. After that I thought it would be good to train my arm muscles a bit so I put a pull up bar above my walking pad and from time to time - i.e. when stressed I do pull ups (again not during video calls of course). I want to write a script which reminds me for the pull-ups, so I can configure an ideal training. I didn't really expect it but those steps made me a lot happier, healthier and less depressed and it actually takes no time.

> I don't like wasting time by getting to the gym, getting from the gym, and waiting for my turn for the equipment.

I know you said you don't want to rely on the weather, but I became a runner because of the above point. I just want to put on my shoes, take off from my front door and then wind up back at home. I can take my whole workout on vacation with me by packing a pair of sneakers and running shorts. Incidentally running in foreign locales is a rare pleasure I never expected.

You don't have to do it every day to get in running shape. 3-4 days a week at 30 minutes a day is plenty. Take it slow and don't push your limits too hard, which is the mistake most new runners make. A program like C25k can help.

Rain is obviously a big factor, as is the cold. Your body temp goes way up when you run, so with proper clothes the biggest obstacle to running in any >30 degree weather is convincing yourself to go outside. I live in Boston and it's pretty rare to have an entire week of unrunnable weather. During harsh winters I have joined gyms to use their treadmills or indoor track, but this is an act of desperation for me because I don't do it every year.

I don't like the gym neither. I worked and trained heavily in one for a few years and these days I find them utterly boring and not that beneficial for the kind of sport I do. The gym is not the only way to get in shape. What I recommend you is to start an activity that you might find interesting (e.g martial arts) and combine that with calysthenics at home. I know you mentioned you prefer to workout from there, however, I stronly recomend on engaging with something social because that bring benefits other than just the "getting in shape" part. However, if you still truly want to workout from home, I can tell you the setup I've been using for years now:

- Stationary bike

- Pull ups rack (can be used for dips too)

- Rings (I hang them from the bar and use them for doing push ups or australian pull ups)

- A weighted vest (20 kg max).

- An abs wheel.

With only that and taking care of my diet (avoid sugar as possible, eating stricly just 4 times per day and doing intermediate fasting) I've been able to stay in really good shape for the last six years (plus a year ago, I started to do other activity out from home as well)

I hope it helps.

Since you prefer to work out from home, consider investing in some equipment for yourself.

I have a pretty decked out space in my basement now, but I started small with a pair of adjustable dumbbells and a bench at the end of 2020. I challenged myself to max out on those dumbbells (50lbs) before investing further in things like a barbell, squat rack, etc.

Personally, I find it hard to come up with routines on my own. I used a personal trainer for a few years pre-COVID as a means of forcing accountability. Personal training can also help teach you / get you used to weightlifting, especially with the more advanced compound lifts.

Now I use an app that generates routines called Fitbod, but there are many other apps like this that will take the guesswork out of things. You can tailor the routines to your desired equipment / duration.

The trick for me was to start small, and focus on consistency. Whether that is one day a week or five, the key is to regularly come back to the practice. Eventually, it got easier to just “show up” and push myself further.

Hope this helps!

Have you ever thought about a personal trainer? Someone close to home or perhaps even someone that comes home to help you train? Sounds silly perhaps, but if you can afford one its a good option. I exercise a lot (some days 2-4 hrs per day), and for private training, all I have to do is show up. Everything is optimized for that hour, for my progression and there is not one minute of wasting time.

If you want to get in very, very good shape at home in a set amount of time, do an exercise program like P90X3.

If you simply want to feel better and remain functional, I recommend cardio (pick your favorite) plus yoga/stretching/full-body core work. Your goal simply is to feel good, which means (1) most days, stretch thoroughly enough to relieve aches and pains, (2) go for runs to alleviate stress and anxiety. Focusing on feeling good also gets you doing low-effort, high-benefit activities like simply standing up regularly and doing a sun salutation or two.

Or you could do 12 sets of biceps a week and eat 30 grams of protein every three hours.

I will also add: I think the oft-repeated advice about "go do big lifts at gym" is bad for most people. Yes, it makes you stronger. However, those exercises are likely to cause injury at some point if done regularly for decades. They also do not really matter irl, unless you fantasize about deadlifting a car off someone in a moment of crisis or something.

+1 for P90x3

First I got a treadmill, then I got a barbell, then I got a squat rack (and bench). This was over the course of a year or two. I am lucky to have a good basement floor for this. If your house can handle equipment, I say invest in equipment.

I let the equipment "marinate" for awhile (I didn't use it the first year). I guess it took awhile for me to start using it. One day I did a 10 minute walk, I didn't even change clothes. I kept doing it, and increasing duration and intensity and adding lifting days. These days, I workout 3-5 times a week, 90-120 minutes per workout. Mostly treadmill. I feel a lot better than before.

I personally couldn't be happier not going to a gross gym, or relying the weather. Probably one of the better decisions I've made for my health, but to each their own.

Honestly, hire a personal trainer to help you stay on track. Keep with it for at least 6 months. I started this back in December and it has been great!

Left to my own devices I would have done one or two sessions and then quit. Now I do two strength sessions per week and long walks one or two days per week. It's not a lot but I can feel the change. I might stick with it for 12 months but it costs a decent amount.

My trainer drives out to where I live and we do exercises using body weight and basic equipment (dumbbells and boxes). It also helps since I can make note of the exercises and copy the routine once I kick into my own training. They can give you lots of useful tips for how to build muscle and stick with it too!

I was treating it more like a course in how to stay in shape for the rest of my life. I'll probably do strength training and walks from here on out until I die of old age. (early 30s btw)

I think the key is just to find a activity that you love to do.

For me the gateway drug into being active was outdoor cycling. I've fell in love with exploring anything around me on the bike. Bike got me into the best shape of my life in my 30s and that just led me to enjoy many other activies like running, rowing, calisthenics, and yoga.

Accountability via trainer is a good option. Eventually the habit will stick and then you can pocket the money if money is important to you.

The low/no money option is to tether an activity that you like to one you dislike. If you like watching Netflix shows, only allow yourself to watch it when you’re on a bike at the gym (or at home).

Like to go on YouTube? Only while exercising. Be 100% strict and no excuses with it.

Don’t go too hard, cardio done at steady state for like 30 minutes a day will increase your life span and make you feel 1000% better. Weight lifting is a non boring way to also be at the gym.

Last tip: to retrain your brain recognize that agitation or frustration and lack of desire means you are heading in the right direction. Hate going to the gym? You are doing the right thing. Your brain will fight you but it’s the only gateway to feeling better and being healthy.

Crazy idea: Try rock climbing. Climbing is (in addition to crazy fun) a huge motivator for getting in the best shape you can. Further, the best way to train for rock climbing is rock climbing. You'll still need to go out to a rock gym, but you won't see that as going to the gym, you"ll be going climbing.

Exercise with light dumbbells as propagated by the famous bodybuilders at the end of the 19th century (people like Prof. Attila, Sandow, Strongfort) could fit the bill. This training approach goes against many accepted truths today but it's what these people swore by.

If this sounds interesting to you at all I highly recommend David Bolton's book "The Lost Secret to a Great Body". It is very well argued. Here's an excerpt that I found intriguing:

The first thing you have to realise is that THIS IS NOTHING TO DO WITH WEIGHT TRAINING. THE WEIGHTS THEMSELVES ARE ONLY INCIDENTAL - IT’S WHAT YOU YOURSELF ARE DOING WITH YOUR MUSCLES THAT IS IMPORTANT.

The second thing you have to realise is that the very word “exercising” - as in the previously mentioned Mr Pope’s chapter on “The art of exercising” - was being used then in a different way to mean something totally different from what we think of as “exercising” today. For a start it was supposed to be a physical “art”.

We tend to think of proper “exercise” as something difficult and physically taxing - the man who’s just come back from a ten mile run, panting and bending over to get his breath back, his legs wobbling underneath him, has just finished his “exercise” - the person lying in a sweaty heap of exhaustion after one and a half hours hard cardio on the machines, static bike and cross trainers has just “exercised” etc... by this definition exercise is taxing on one’s system and needs recovering from.

This is not what was understood by the word exercise at the time the light dumbbell protocol was popular - that would have been “hard training” maybe or “a session of thorough physical work”. Exercise was supposed to be invigorating and enervating - to put something into your system rather than take something out of it, to build up rather than tear down.

Bonus: There is also a chapter how this specific type of training could help in boxing by improving your control over individual muscles and thereby making you less muscle bound.

I started working out at home. I really like the exercises from Caroline Girvan, especially the Iron Series ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhu1QCKrfgPWmStsg7imo... ) I've done this series 4 times and I can say that I see results (including feeling better). It was hard in the beginning but now I'm (mostly) looking forward on doing the exercises.

I use a mat, a (round) resistance band, a (small) yoga block, and some weights: two dumbbells of 5/10/15/20kgs each (we now also have other weights, like 3/8kgs). It took me some time to use the 20kgs weights. A chair/sofa/bed I'm surely you can already find at home.

Including the warm-up (do it!) you'll need a little more than 30 minutes, but not a lot more.

I was a gym rat pre-pandemic. Fitness-wise, I never recovered from the gyms closing - partially from loss of social motivator of gym and partially due to health reasons. Some of my gym friends switched to home workouts and YouTube. One that got high praises from my friends is Heather Robertson's channel.

I've had success using a virtual personal trainer from Flexit. I do 30 minute sessions at around $35 each. I have a nice power rack / barbell setup at home, but you don't need much equipment for a worthwhile session.

My partner has a different trainer that focuses more on conditioning. You can switch trainers easily if you don't "click" with your first choice.

At first I was skeptical of virtual, but I found it's loads better than dragging myself to the gym. I can wake up 10 minutes before the session and be ready to go. If you are traveling, they can walk you through an in-hotel room session or at the hotel gym if you want. Many times I've signed in groggy, having just woken up, told him I wanted to half-ass it that day just to hit some personal best 20 minutes later.

You can buy some free weights at home, and do things even without equipment beyond some dumbbells and a barbell plus plates which don't take up loads of space. Floor press is a reasonable substitute for bench, you can squat without a rack by only squatting with a weight you are comfortable lifting over your head especially if you have a family member who can spot you, or failing that do something like kettlebell squats. You can get a skipping rope for cardio you can do in your yard/on your balcony.

Sure you're probably going to have a hard time getting as ripped as an action star in a modern movie or a full on bodybuilder, but you can absolutely manage to be in pretty decent shape.

I work out at home, and that is my set up and I am genuinely in better shape than most of my friends

A friendly challenge:

Teach yourself 1-2 compound:ish movements per rough muscle group really well. Do 2-3 sets of each, pushing yourself fairly hard. Gtfo.

This never takes more than 30 minutes and with that few movements, there's no queuing for the next piece.

Gym still sucks. Training sucks. I don't love the toothbrush either.

I started training with kettlebells to build up some strenth, which went fairly well. My workouts are extremely short, 10 snatches per side, sometimes a couple more exercises. Also, from time to time, some planks. But always below 5 minutes.

With the start of COVID, I started cycling way more, mainly touring on the weekend for 3-5 hours. Since cardio / endurance has been my primary concern, I drastically reduced my kettlebell training to one session every 6 weeks, but its still enough to maintain my 10 snatches.

I can really recommend the kettlebells, but be careful since you can quite injure yourself with the weight. I started with 16kg, which IMHO is a great starting weight for men.

FYI I am in my mid forties, overweight but now quite fit.

A 10 minute jog (3 minutes really is enough) in one spot, not moving forward, while holding your hand out in front at elbow height, and knees going up high and touching the hand, or knees going up as high as the elbow, while jogging.

Squats, going down all the way, no more than 10 a day (start with just three). You can kill yourself doing too much.

Full body Stretches.

Should take like 15 minutes. Do that every other day and you will be A Ok.

If you have injured bones or muscles or knees, then you also need to do toning in those areas.

If you only have like an hour a month, go to the gym, get on a bike, and do a full speed spin wheel getting your heart rate to max (160?) for 5 minutes straight. The blood flow will get you renewed for a month.

Focus on three things: cardio, stretching, and endurance (same exercise for long periods).

What’s your budget? I started by buying a pair of these:

https://www.roguefitness.com/powerblock-series-elite-exp-dum...

Two exercises 1/ dumbbell squat 2/ overhead press 10x5 sets (can do 10x3 to start). You can do in your own house, own room, with privacy. Takes ten minutes. Do a ten min jog around the block. Keep it easy at first.

After you max those out on squat, get a small rack and barbell set, I put mine in the garage.

Did you try a pull-up bar with an elastic (or resistance) band? For example see [1].

As a strange coincidence, I just did my pull-ups for the day just minutes ago. I have the pull-up bar and the elastic band under my bed. I take them and mount them on a doorframe, and when I'm done put them back under the bed.

You may ask, why not straight pull-ups. I just can't do that many. With a resistance band you can do many more, and you utilize the muscles more completely.

[1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/XPRT-Fitness-Resistance-Bands-Pul...

>I don't like wasting time by getting to the gym, getting from the gym, and waiting for my turn for the equipment.

If the main the thing you don't like about exercising are not related to the actual exercise - gym commuting time and waiting times for equipment - seems like the obvious answer is to make a home gym.

For myself, I had a massive change just by putting a nice TV in front of an exercise bike. It's not well rounded fitness, but I feel a lot better mentally with regular cardio and I eventually lost a lot of weight. Pro-tip: stop watching Netflix on a cliffhanger. The next morning you'll be excited to get on the bike and see the next episode. I always save the 'page turner' shows for the bike.

Swimming does wonders without taxing your body too much since you're not carrying weights. I've also noticed that practicing drumming also helped a lot to maintain a good part of my body in good condition, while helping reflexes.

Cheap equipment for resistance training at home:

- Good quality, XL exercise mat (google miramat). This should be your first purchase. Make an environment you actually want to train in. Alternatively, if you're building a full home gym, look at buying some rubber stable mats.

- Sandbag (goruck are pricey but insane quality)

- a set of resistance bands and a door strap (search slim panda on amazon)

- suspension trainer or pull up bar or both.

- paralettes

Cardio, choose one or more of:

- Rucksack with weight plates (can also use it for resistance training, again recommend checking out goruck)

- Skipping rope

- Concept2 rowing machine and EXR app - Was doing this last year at the gym and it was great fun.

- Zwift Hub, Bicycle and Zwift App - I'm doing this right now and it's super fun.

For me, I have to have a schedule for me to go to the gym. It's part of my routine that I just do. I do some weight training, then cardio. Cardio indoors is boring, but the machines they have there have chess and sodoku, so I like to do that when I run or go on the elliptical. I make it where the goal is 4 times per week and it's built into my schedule. For a while it was right after work, I'd go on the way home, doing wfh I go to one nearby and train for 45 minutes.

I also avoid exercises that made me hate lifting, like power cleans. It is good to have a whole body program, but finding alternatives for exercises you dislike is super helpful

Intermittent fasting to lose, keto to maintain.

Abs are made in the kitchen. Calories in vs calories out.

Gym is good for tone and breaking a plateau, but you aren't likely to lose a lot in the gym only without a CICO change.

Went from 260 to 140 lbs over a year.

SI unit?

Kettle bells swings are the single most efficient way to get a full body workout.

Pavel's kettlebell workout https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKx8xE8jJZs

JRE - Pavel's talking about kettle bells https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWESVqOwMHw

Other things to consider:

Saunas are great. 20 mins 60 degrees C per Dr. Rhonda Patrick foundmyfitness recommendations.

There are tons of yoga videos you can follow along with on youtubes.

Eat healthy and get plenty of sleep. Good luck ^^

Do not discuss with Gym (or you'll be shooting your foots). Going to the effing gym is the only way. You'll develop taste for it when you start to learn from the positive feedback of seeing results. Take 3 private weelkly photos (same three angles, front side and back in underwear). If you're dieting right you will see very modest consistent progress.

Diet is 70% of your results, gym is 30%.

BTW, you should gym hard as if it's the end of the world.

In 3 years you'll unrecognizable. Atlethic as F*.

Fail and you will be in a worst place than you're right now, regarding to shape of course.

Look into bodyweight fitness stuff. Pushups, pullups, squats.

You don't need fancy equipment, though a few minor things (can be much less than $100) like a pullup bar add a lot of value.

You can definitely do it in your home though the backyard or park might be nicer.

And you can tailor your approach to your fitness level: if you can't do traditional pushups, you do pushups on your knees. If normal pushups are too easy, you can do decline pushups. There are different levels of exercises for every part of your body.

As a bonus, you get to move around a bit which is what you say you want to do a bit more of.

I'm 32 and recently over the last 3 months have made a successful workout habit at home after ~10 years of trying. I just do whatever I feel like doing now. I use to try to follow some program to the t, but could never follow through. Now I just youtube some random workout, wether it's with dumbbells, bodyweight, HIIT, yoga, going for a walk or whatever. It really doesn't matter for me anymore, as long as I'm doing something everyday even if its only for a short period of time.

I have a weight rack in my office. I do sets in between meetings or when I need to think. It's not as beneficial as doing all of your sets at the same time, but it's enough for me.

Is that really true though? You can easily do more reps overall by spreading across the entire day, and you're even adding time for recovery. My anecdata of 1 is that it doesn't make much difference.

In my anecdata of 1, yes, it makes a difference, but it's well past the 80/20 threshold.

In my anecdata, it depends on what your goal is.

I think doing some reps spread throughout the day is a good way to increase the max number of reps you can do in bodyweight exercises. Some communities call this method "greasing the groove."

For me, I could get up to doing 20 pull-ups in a row (without kipping) if I did sets throughout the day. But I wasn't gaining any muscle, so I definitely didn't look like I could do 20 pull-ups. My brother trains by going to the gym and doing all sets at the gym. He definitely looks like he can do 20 pull-ups.

So, if your goal is to improve your max number of reps in some exercise, then yes, I think it's a good approach. If your goal is to build muscle, I don't think it's an optimal approach.

I have a pretty similar setup. Adjustable kettlebell, dumbells, plus a yoga mat. I try to target each muscle group 2-3 times a week.

Core (v-sits, weighted situps, kettlebell swings)

Presses (military press, "bench" press, etc.)

I also have a pull up bar and straps, so I'll do weighted pullups (can take weight off with a pulley/add with a belt) or inverted row.

Cardio isn't my favorite but I can talk myself into cycling country roads into town for groceries. Also walk the road during WFH standup, lunch break, etc.

Check out Calisthenics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mlN0yuxoLE

It's hard to start but the more you get in, the more fun it is.

I'm a competitive person, I like being good at things. Choosing a sport, basketball, to stay in shape has worked wonders for me. When I play basketball I don't think of exercise, or my tiredness, I just focus entirely on accomplishing the goal of developing the skills needed to beat opposition.

If you are boxing once a week, do you find it enjoyable? You could start being more competitive, starting with some light sparring and setting the goal of amateur fighting eventually.

OrangeTheory was transformative for me-stepped in to my first class in 2018, struggled, then powered through a 55 lb weight loss over 6 months. The data-driven aspect of it helped a lot, and the fact that it’s 60 min and coached means no waiting for machines or Googling routines.

If you really can’t invest the 60 min, they have 45 min strength-focused classes, or F45 is a similar gym and all 45 min.

Go twice a week, and supplement by buying a rowing machine for home another 2-3x days/week for 30-40min.

Don’t eat too much.

Eat a high protein diet.

Get your T levels checked if you are a man.

Work on increasing your metabolism if it is slow.

If your hormones are good, and you don’t eat too much, and eat a high protein diet you will remain in shape.

Are you sure you hate the gym format and not just the circumstances under which you've experienced the gym?

> I don't like wasting time by getting to the gym, getting from the gym

Don't you have to do the same for boxing? You probably have to walk/drive there.

> and waiting for my turn for the equipment.

Have you tried going to the gym at a time of the day where it's not busy so you don't have to wait for equipment? Early mornings (before 7am) and late nights (after 8pm) are generally good times for that.

> I don't want to invest a lot of time. 30 min max a day.

This is a bit weird. If you want to take care of your health, why are you only willing to dedicate so little time? This is not to say you can't get some exercise in just 30 minutes, but that mindset is problematic.

> I prefer to workout from my home

Great! If you enjoy lifting weights and have the space, a squat rack, barbell, and some plates are good enough to get you going. StrongLifts has a good breakdown of the equipment you'd need: https://stronglifts.com/5x5/#Equipment

If you don't want to invest the money or have the space, your only option for strength training will be bodyweight exercises but those are limiting. You'll never be able to really develop strong legs just from bodyweight exercises. But maybe you don't care about that.

Reddit's r/bodyweightfitness has good resources on bodyweight training: https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness

---

Ultimately, people that stay healthy and fit over the long term are those that manage to incorporate physical activity into their daily lives in a way they enjoy. You can do that by walking to work, walking your dog, doing groceries on foot, playing some kind of sport, hiking, cycling, etc. If you enjoy boxing, why not do that 3-4 times a week?

And you need to remember that you can't out-train a bad diet. If you don't take care of what you're consuming you'll not manage to stay fit.

I would recommend some light cardio and flexibility/yoga personally + swimming/sauna. Good mix for wellness.

I can also recommend visit to good physiotherapist/osteopath and/or personal trainer to get personalised advice. Worth money from my experience.

EDIT: mandatory mention of acroyoga[0] cause it’s fun

[0] - https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/acroyoga/

Walk

Seriously

Walk

I had bariatric surgery 3 years ago - single best advice I got out of the whole thing (past "your stomach now holds about 1 cup, choose wisely") was "walk"

Find ways to add walking to your daily activities - go to an office? Take the stairs; walk around the parking lot at lunch; park further from the door. Work from home? Take a 10 minute pause every hour or two and walk around the outside of your house (yes, I said "outside").

It's not complicated ...:)

What does “in shape” mean to you?

It may seem obvious but it really does vary from person to person. For some people it may just mean staying slender, for other people it might mean being able to run a 5k on a whim at a respectable time. The answers for how you can avoid the gym and maintain that are going to vary.

Realistically the most straightforward solution is to build it into your day. Walk around, ride a bike places. You can do some calisthenics at home for strength.

Ok so I was the same way (same age-ish, actually slightly older, possibly blessed with good genetics, possibly not, my uncle's on my mom's side are all lean alcoholics and my dad was a stress eating obese person). Now I'm 40+/-2, in the best shape of my life, about 3-4 months away from a six pack (ab definition is getting nice and I'm losing body fat, rapidly).

What worked for me was the atomic habits trick. Don't be afraid for it to take years to get to where you want. Make it so easy to work out you don't not do it.

Home gym (one set of adjust dumbbells, standalone pull-up bar, a few leg weights, workout bench), workout equipment in the living room. It's all compact stuff so moving it/hiding it for when I have guests is easy.

Find a personal trainer and subscribe to whatever they suggest for a few months, then cancel (it's easy if they're actually shitty people, which mine was) then just keep doing that workout. You don't have to start with the full prescribed workout, just do what you can with the goal of getting further along, later.

Work out at least every other day (5 days a week is better), start with 15 minutes, then get to 30. Eventually you'll find yourself not minding doing 1h. If you do more than 1h you're probably doing something wrong. Don't kill yourself over missing a day, a week, or a month. Just recommit to it afterwards.

I often project YouTube on the wall while working out, as incentive, plus I tend to watch knowledge building shit while exercising (MIT Qmech lectures, mathologers, Ukraine war analysis - like perun).

Time: I used to do it very late at night, because that was the only time I remembered to do it. That's ok. Whatever gets you exercising. Now, however, I've committed to do it during the 6-7-ish timeframe and have been consistent with that. But judging from your post: I think it's important to do "whatever gives you no excuse to not do it".

Not commuting to/from work helps tremendously.

And that's it. I've recently started experimenting with t-boosting herbs (like ginseng, tongkat ali) and it could be placebo but it makes me feel better and I think it's burning fat quicker and increasing libido -- unfortunately having to think about that is a real thing for men starting in their mid 30s

I found listening to audiobooks at the gym helped. I didn't mind working out and once I got fit enough enjoyed it but I got bored. Audiobooks filled that void and I started to look forward to my time at the gym.

Me and my wife hated it as well.

Bought an elliptical and hyper-extensor at home and we love both. The elliptical can give you a very powerful cardio session and that's very important for us the sedentary people. Plus it helps with weight loss.

The hyper-extensor activates muscles that get lazy with sitting. Works very well.

From then on just go crazy; all sorts of squats, situps, stretches and whatnot.

I don't like it in the gym. Too much preparation time in both directions.

Strength training gives meaning and purpose to every gym session for me personally. Look into Stronglifts 5x5 - it's 3 exercises a session and all you really need is a squat rack, so if you go to a proper gym they should always have one open. With proper form, nutrition and patience, you could go from squatting the bar to squatting 2 plates in a couple months. I've done some form of this on/off for around 7 years.

>I don't like wasting time by getting to the gym, getting from the gym, and waiting for my turn for the equipment.

>I don't want to invest a lot of time. 30 min max a day. I prefer to workout from my home, without being dependent on the weather.

Just buy your own weights then. A new power rack, barbell, and weights should cost a bit north of $600. Or you could look online for used equipment for half the price. Its not like a bar of iron gets worn out.

Bought a treadmill recently and been using it almost every day. That takes away the hassle of "going" to the gym since it's already there and significantly reduced the barrier of entry for me.

The best part is that I can use it while working since I partly work remote so I can walk while coding. Especially when I am in a 2 hour meeting where my contribution totals to five minutes.

Bonus: combined my walking with lifting dumbells after a while.

Here's the key - find a physically strenuous activity that you actually enjoy. It does not have to be working out at the gym, there are lots of other activities that will work, but the trick is to find one that you enjoy and actually want to go back and do (for the rest of your life! Your health never stops requiring attention, nor does it take holidays).

Just get up in the morning and run around the block with small 3kg weights every morning. Take some kreatine it will give you some energy to actually go out and do that. Do that for a few months and you will start loving excercising and it help you move back to going to the gym.

On days that you don't feel like running just go out , run down the street for a few metres and come back.

Your description of the downsides of a gym brought to mind Reinhard Engels' "Shovelglove": wrap something soft around a sledgehammer to protect your floor. Then do shoveling and similar movements for some short period of time every weekday. He has more instructions and a video: http://www.shovelglove.com

One thing that is helpful to stay in shape is a hobby sport. I really enjoy riding dirt bikes, and bicycles. Even better if you can find a group or convince a group of your friends/family to go with you. It is surprising how good of a workout you can get while you are having fun.

I've also had a great time on Zwift with a smart bike all from home. That is a solid workout. Even pro cyclists train with it.

I'm sure I came across the link below at HN a couple of months ago.

2 years ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24860311

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Air_Force_Exerc...

Saw this on a separate thread the other day:

"Get some weights. Pick up the weights. Put down the weights. Eat healthy food." There is no real secret. No need for a gym to do those.

But now more seriously - I'd suggest just getting a pull up bar. You can then do pull-ups in addition to push-ups, squats and some core work, and that'll hit all of the main muscle groups. You can do that at home.

A finger board is also great if you are interested in rockclimbing. I’ve got one installed just above my kitchen door and I have to pay the “Troll Toll” to enter the kitchen ;)

I cycle on a hometrainer 3-4 times a week.

Oh! And i do this simple thing: 8-10 times a day i do 15 push-ups.

My new goal is to do 20 minutes of kettlebell training 2-3 times a week.

I have found out it is all about habit for me, and it being something I can just do when i want. Like: i have just done 15 push-ups on the toilet at work. When I get home, i do them when i am in the kitchen. It is hard at first, but you will soon feel the difference.

Go for walks, push ups, sit ups, pull ups, unweighted squats, aerobics, swimming, even yoga. There's plenty of exercise to be done without weights, much less a gym.

Carve out your 30 minutes a day and do whatever you choose for those 30 minutes. The better shape you are in, the faster / more you can do.

I used to love the gym, but the ones around me are severely overbooked, so I don't like them anymore.

Buy your own squat rack, barbells and weights. You won't get much done in 30 mins though. Decide whether this is a priority for you or not.

In 30 mins you can do a pretty decent strength training workout IMO (once youve gotten accustomed to it). You can easily hit one body part (chest/shoulder/bicep/back/legs/etc) in this time, if not two.

Not when you get to heavier weights and spending 5mins+ rest periods between sets. To be clear - I'm talking about compound movements like squats, presses, deadlifts. If you're just doing bicep curls or something use a rest-pause DogCrapp-style training and have at it.

30 mins a day is fine. You have to use split training instead of doing a full session with a rest day in between. That’s less beginner friendly but that’s not a big issue.

Ouch. Try classic bodyweight training (e.g. Mark Lauren's programs, they generally fit into this time frame) three or four times a week. Not to mention tabatas. Those 4 minutes can get very long...

I highly recommend the book “Body by Science”. I have followed it for months and my strength has more than doubled. Spending only 15 minutes a week in the gym. Yes fifteen minutes. Once a week. The book explains why it works. The actual exercises is only a few pages. Perfect for anybody who hates going to the gym and/or can’t do cardio.

I use https://www.bodbot.com/ to get a workout, can be varied enough not to get boring, you can skip/ban exercises that you don't like and it adapts to your performance and the equipment you have.

I've also heard good things about FitBod, but it has only a pay plan

Is BodBot free or paid? There's no informations on the landing page.

If you like boxing and have space, get a punching bag, a mat, and a jump rope.

- 3 rounds of jump rope

- 3 rounds of shadowboxing

- 3 rounds of punching bag

That's 27 mins and great and fun cardio.

I love the gym, but hate cardio. I'll have to do cardio though, so my solution is to just bring my phone or ipad, and put on a 30-45 min episode of whatever and do a low-intensity cardio workout. Doesn't work as well as HIIT did for me, but is about 1000 times more enjoyable.

Being able to focus on something entirely else did the trick for me.

My comment will not help the OP based on what they are looking for. For others who don’t like standard gyms there are many types of gyms that have very different vibes. CrossFit, Starting Strength, and Brazilian Jujitsu come to mind quickly. These I have found are much more social and supportive than the standard gym format.

Let me try a different approach here... Where do you live? Is it close to beaches with waves?

If so, maybe you could try learning to surf. It is one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life.

After you love it, you will try to stay in shape so that you can surf better. It is a very demanding sport if you want to go with small boards, since they demand strong paddling.

Since you “train in Boxing” once a week, expand on that and train outside of the gym like you’re going to compete in Boxing. Jump rope, run/walk, do calisthenics, and look into Kettlebells plus resistance bands. Also stretch more and possibly buy boxing bags for your home. I do this, but I prefer to train for Kickboxing.

I don't do sports, apart from occasional hiking. But what I need to do is to not over-eat and try to eat properly. What worked for me regarding diet are the following three: 1) paleo, 2) keto, 3) intermittent fasting (eat only in 8-hour window). Any one of those three helped me to stay in shape without gym, all worked for me.

Make your own home gym. Start with some dumbbells. Don't forget your cardio so get a jump rope.

Try going for 100 burpees or as many as you can do in 20 mins, whichever happens first. That's an easy way to get fit at home in no time.

Once you get into the groove of things, it starts getting fun and less of a chore.

Bicycle. Ride to work. Or for leisure.

Walk. Free, enjoy some tunes in your headphones, explore the area, stop for a beer when you feel tired.

I`m in London UK and I walk a lot. Doing callouts in central, sometimes rather than taking public transport home I will walk back . Finish work at 5pm, walk 20 kilometers home be back at midnight.

I've had quite a bit of success with HIIT bodyweight training. I love that exercises are short (especially initially where exercises can be less than ten minutes) and you can do them wherever you are since you're equipment is you (and maybe a pull-up bar). My site of choice is: darebee.com

I'm like you OP. I hate the gym too. I only run and bike. Both are very surprisingly effective at keeping you fit. They are also very efficient in terms of time and burning calories.

The only times we could use the gym would be when it rains or gets too cold to run outside and we don't have a treadmill at home.

I am an unabashed Peloton fanboy for reasons you describe. Most workouts are less than 30 minutes, I do them at home, lots of non bikes strength, etc.

Secondarily I just go running. If you know how to dress for weather, it’s a pretty time efficient exercise. Just change and go..

Feels like you are talking about me. What happened after I was in that situation was:

I decided to forget gyms ever existed and during the first year of covid, got myself a remote personal trainer.

So now, 3x/week he calls me on zoom, and for 1h beats my ass into shape.

Best decision I've taken in a long while.

At 30 min limit - you’re stuck to something at home. I’d suggest pick the cardio you least hate, buy the home equipment version of it, put it in front of a tv and add it to your daily habits!

Treadmill/stationary bike/rower/home swim setup … there’s no real limit here.

There’s a lot of apps with workout inspirations. For example Playbook[0] There’s a lot of creators and you should be able to find 30 mins home program.

Disclaimer: I work there

[0] - https://playbookapp.io/

How about 5BX Plan For Physical Fitness? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Air_Force_Exerc...

If the outdoor environment around your home is nice enough you could try running. Yes, it is dependent on the weather but I've found that the fresh air is a bonus even under the rain and a welcome break from being indoor all the time.

How about rucking? Walking in nature with some extra weight or going up the mountain.

A coworker and I are each other's "accountabilibuddy". We do a workout every 2 hours and report back to each other via Slack. We've been going strong for about a month now and we've both lost weight.

Climbing gym is a lot more fun than regular gym. The goals are much more rewarding, and there’s better reinforcement from your peers. You’ll end up going to the regular gym at the climbing gym to get better at climbing.

https://www.strongfirst.com/shop/books/simple-sinister-book/

There are personal trainers who do remote/virtual training - you can try out if that works for you. It eliminates the logistics around the gym - as long as you still enjoy the actual exercises at home.

Bouldering worked for me, and seems to attract tech types, probably because of the puzzle solving aspect.

Just taken up cycling to work now that I’m in the one location in this city that has a decent cycle lane into the CBD.

Get into motocross or enduro motorcycling. After an hour or so you're exhausted, and you'll have a lot more fun than being at the gym. The only downside is that you can seriously injure yourself.

Always a classic: https://matt.might.net/articles/hacking-strength/

I walk, that gives more benefits than just staying in shape, but takes more time than just 30 minutes.

Anyway, what I manage to do is to stay in round shape, as more things are needed like maintaining a good diet.

Cycle everywhere! Also BJJ

Work out from home. I have a Tempo and doing a 20-30 minute class a day has been the best thing I've found for someone who doesn't really like the gym/sports/etc.

Try Zwift + a smart trainer like the Wahoo Kickr or (soon) my startup Veloa that you can find here: https://veloa.co

Then bring the gym to you - buy your own equipment. Work out in one 30m block, blocks of 2-5m throughout the day, whatever - anything's better than nothing.

1. Learn to use free weight (go to a proper course - form is important to avoid injuries long term).

2. Buy a bunch of weight plates second hand.

3. Enjoy your gym free life from the comfort of your home.

i started doing crossfit and I love it.

I know some gyms can be toxic, but mine is amazing.

I hate the exact same thing you do: Waiting for equipment and rude people.

At a crossfit gym it is all class based, and you book your time and show up and do your workout in a group setting, get it done, and then move on.

I love the class format for that reason. There is no waiting around because we work in stations, or the gym is designed to support everyone in the class working.

staying in shape primarily hinges on maintaining habits. I always tell people to start with taking two 10-minute walks per day. Once you can regularly do that, it's a natural next step to start doing weightlifting workouts, etc. If you literally can not get in the routine of taking two 10-minute walks every day, it's premature to strategize around the gym and weightlifting, etc.

Buy a Deskcycle, ride 2 hours a day at resistance 3 or above. Done. Alternatively, standing desk, walk 2 or more hours daily at 3mph or greater.

Have you tried group-based high intensity training, like Crossfit? Like you I dislike traditional, equipment based gyms. But I absolutely love CF.

If you don't like working out probably intentional stretching or yoga and a focus on healthy eating is the best you can do for your body

If you have a Nintendo Switch, RingFit will take care of cardio and muscle tone if you're not too put off by the cartoony anesthetics.

You can do quite a bit for your health by committing to walking 30 minutes every day.

But exercise isn't everything: nutrition is important too!

Try rock climbing? I could never do gyms but rock gyms were something I'd do for fun and it can be equivalent exercise

You keep going to the gym. Get a delicious whey powder and reward yourself after every visit to condition yourself.

Increase intensity. Hit the boxing bag hard for 5 minutes twice a day will burn more calories then walking for five hours.

what about increasing your boxing to 3 or 4 times per week?

other than that i would recommend a kettlebell and a pull-up bar at home!

My dog gets a good walk up and down the hill near me every day. Who's looking after who?

Buy a kettlebell and use it at home. 30 min workout is cheap, effective, and efficient.

I run for 20 minutes every day at 6 AM. I also walk to my office 45 minutes each way.

Find something else you enjoy! Walk, hike, cycle, play any sport you enjoy doing.

Try rowing.

- Train 2 days a week in boxing.

- Do however many iterations of the 7 Minute Workout you want.

Body weight training - see other's posts. Cheap, easy & safe.

Find a bunch of podcasts you like. Take long daily walks.

Establish walking as your basic form of exercise.

climbing gym

social, mentally stimulating, choose your difficulty, fun, skill progress, translates to outdoor adventure, interesting community

biking to and from the work if possible (~2hr per day), easiest way to stay in shape and not wasting your time

Try everything and only do what you like

Start training jiu-jitsu or muay thai.

Go to the gym.

Meta quest 2 + FitXR + resistance bands.

Done.

Everybody want to look like Superman but don’t nobody want to lift no heavy ass weights.

climbing gym.

social, engaging, mentally stimulating, choose your difficulty

Round is a shape.

Do rockclimbing.

I go to the gym ~5 times a week and still have a love/hate relationship with exercise in general. I’ve developed a variety of ways to hack around it that work for me:

- Playlists. I enjoy music but have learned to more-or-less limit listening to music during “gym time”. I don’t look forward to the gym, I look forward to my gym playlists.

- Looking at it as a balance of time. I frequently have to tell myself “It’s 1/16th of my day”. I’m in a position where (thankfully) I almost always enjoy the other time in any given day so rationalizing “It’s one of the few things I have to push myself to do, and for an hour a day that’s not bad”.

- Pacing inside or walking outside during conference calls. Almost everyone in my immediate family (for whatever reason) naturally “randomly walks around” when on the phone. The standardization of video from COVID has cut into this a bit but it’s not unusual for me to log at least an hour of walking a day (inside or outside) because of meetings and conference calls. It’s pretty amazing to randomly walk around your house in loops when you’re occupied on a call and realize you’ve ended up walking a few miles. I’m at the point now when my phone rings I immediately stand up and start walking - and in a given week that really adds up.

- Progress is VERY slow but at a certain point external validation really helps. It’s very vain but I’m at a point now when people who haven’t seen me in years routinely remark “Wow, you got HUGE”. I don’t consider myself “HUGE” but I’m still very happy with myself in that many people would consider me in better physical condition nearing 40 than 20. At this point I feel like I need to (at least) maintain this level - even though I know that’s not really possible (less TRT or similar) with age.

- Personal trainer as a “jump start”. My progress rapidly advanced after seeing a personal trainer twice a week. VERY expensive (to the point I realize it’s out of reach for most people) but what I would do is essentially copy a personal training workout another 1-2x in the week (alternating) to accelerate my progress.

- Sleep and eat well. Especially for strength training, sleep is where progress is actually made. The good news is sleep is better and more natural anyway when you’re physically tired. Eating well (or just better) is also easier when you feel good from exercising and know you’ll end up feeling gross if you eat poorly.

- Perfect is the enemy of good. 30 minutes of exercise (even just moving around) everyday puts you an fairly elite portion of the population (at least in the US). Eating relatively poorly for a “cheat meal” (or for me day - I LOVE food) really isn’t that much of a setback compared to most western diets (double so for the US).

- Accepting age. Just yesterday I was at the gym working out next to two girls who appeared to be in good shape (college town - they were probably teenagers). There’s a grocery store immediately next to my gym and I ran into them again at checkout. I was buying salad and chicken, they were literally buying a gigantic bag of candy and a big bottle of soda. That’s youth for you.

- It gets addicting. At this point when a study is done on poor diet or lack of exercise (or when I just look around) I’m in total amazement what eating poorly and not doing any physical exercise must feel like. I know when I eat poorly and don’t exercise (really busy with work, vacation, etc) I start to physically feel sick towards the end and really look forward to getting back to my routine.

- Fitness tracker. My Apple watch calorie goal is 1k calories/day. I usually exceed it just with these tips but on the occasional day where I don't even break half every time I check the time I think "that's not good".

- Caffeine. I take caffeine pills so I'm able to tightly control my caffeine intake. 100mg in the morning (replacing morning coffee for most) and 200mg in the afternoon-ish. There's something about caffeine pills. I suspect it's from being an "immediate dose" vs progressively drinking coffee over some time period. In the afternoons when I take 200mg I can feel it "kick in" - to to the tune of "oh, there it is". Really helps to jump the lag you can feel through the day and (for me at least) it's almost "too much" - to the point where I feel like I need to burn it off with physical activity. 300mg/day still puts me well within medically recommended daily caffeine intake. Let's not kid ourselves - caffeine is a drug and it's great. That almost high feeling jump start afternoon kick is also a great way to motivate a gym trip - telling myself "You're taking these and you'll enjoy it but you better promise yourself you're going to the gym after". Plus they're CHEAP (a month of caffeine for < $10), always available (no finding a coffee shop, figuring out what to do when traveling, etc) and always consistent. I'm actually kind of amazed people randomly brew or purchase coffee and consume a drug without having any idea how much.

No need to exercise at all. It's all about diet. This is something that pretty much everyone agrees on.

Exercise can help weight loss, but if your diet is bad even exercise won't work.

Remove all processed foods, at least all white sugar and refined oils.

Eat only food that physicaly existed 200 years ago (minus sugar that rich people could afford in large quantities only). Removing white sugar and white flour and processed oils and all processed sweets is the safest best.

TLDR: eat whole foods.

I lost about 90 pounds with this advice. Now my BMI is 22. Food intake timing is even more critical. However, it is essential to get exercise to keep the body at maximum health, not merely great health.

If you want to lose fat, healthy eating is king. If you want to increase muscle mass (but also to maintain it), some exercise is necessary.

Just watch the documentary Pumping iron. And do exactly what Arnold says. While in the shower, shout like a gorilla, the higher your arms are, the higher the pitch should be.

Prefer the Ronnie Coleman school of just shouting "lightweights baby" before, during, and after each set.

That guy is insane... doing squats with close to 400 kgs. He has successfully ruined his body with those absurd weights. Nonetheless his copyright scream is awesome.

I would consider myself borderline expert at this.

Are you rich?

If yes: https://exxentric.com/products/kbox/ + https://saga.fitness/products/the-bfr-cuffs

Are you budget conscious? Adjustable: (any brand is fine) https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/bowflex-selecttech-552-...

Find a way to deadlift and squat and bench: https://www.titan.fitness/ If you can splurge would _strongly_ recommend a belt squat that pulls you from underneath and does not create spinal tension.

Good luck!!!

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