Why do I hate going to the gym / lifting weight & cardio so much? Why do I feel no obvious benefits from a month of 4-days a week of weight training (apart from some extra strength & minor visible changes)?
If exercise is so potent and so beneficial, then shouldn't I crave it the way I crave sugar? Or at least not actively dislike it?
I really don't see how you subjectively not feeling a benefit to an active lifestyle conflicts with the above.
"No pain, no gain"
Why would there be pain for doing what we're designed to do?
We werent designed to do sports, it is just that those who didn't move were a little more likely to die. And people who are more likely to die are less likely to pass their genes on, simply because they had less time to reproduce. The result: We have bodies which are meant to be moved, but only if needed, like many other animals. Moving too much was bad too, as resources are needed to do it an resources were not readily available at all times [cue picture of rough European winter ca 1300 AD]. You probably guessed already that starvation, because you burned too many calories has luckily become a non-issue in most parts of the world.
So we are a direct result of the environments and circumstances our ancestors lived in, managed to get kids in, and who in turn managed to survive long enough to raise their kids.
[1] Many people actually like moving or grow to like it. A bit like with spicy food, which hurts at first, but pours out endorphines, being fit and using your body can give you all kinds of good emotions during and after the activity and you can grow to like it once the pain is over. Being able to rely on your body and know it and its limitations can be very fulfilling. When I run my Sunday 16km I don't feel any pain. But I am fit. I might feel pain when I attempt a marathon and try to set a personal record. But regular running is a breeze once you are in shape.
I think you're mixing up a few things here. The reason things hurt is because you are doing physically demanding things with your body. Evolution can't just make something which takes a lot of energy not take that energy. It could get rid of the idea of pain entirely, but that's bad for a lot of other reasons.
That's like asking why our bodies were even designed to get food in the first place instead of not needing it. There are physical constraints involved.
If we stop exercising, are body figures out we have no available food and makes us listless so we conserve energy until food appears. We are in peril, so we put on fat and metabolize muscle to survive.
Except in modern life our body thinks no excercise so more fat, less muscle, and less energy.
So it is exercise that drives our body, not our body prompting exercise (excepting maybe fight or flight in brief bursts)
As someone who's been lifting weights and doing regular cardio 4 or 5 days a week for 25+ years:
No, you might just hate it forever. I do.
I've never liked doing it and have always had to guilt myself into it because I find it so unpleasant.
But whenever I'm unable to do it (injury, surgery/accident recovery, etc.) I feel substantially worse both physically and psychologically (I know not doing it is reducing the number of "good" years I get to have in life). So I just tough it out and get to work.
Seems pretty much the same case with thinking too. Thinking hard doesn't come naturally to people either. Though doing it often can not only save your life(speaking evolutionarily), it can also improve your quality of life.
Its the same thing with fasting. There are big benefits to fasting long intervals of time, but we like to eat despite it giving us diseases.
Perhaps one needs to do some of it for a while to start liking it. Then it kind of becomes likeable. I do see people enjoying playing sports, or playing chess.
>> Why do I feel no obvious benefits from a month of 4-days a week of weight training (apart from some extra strength & minor visible changes)?
Combined with some diet thing, that builds good momentum.
>>If exercise is so potent and so beneficial, then shouldn't I crave it the way I crave sugar? Or at least not actively dislike it?
Children hate to eat, and like to play a lot. Does feel like it comes with our nature. We just run the opposite direction.
This has probably been the case for the majority of the human population throughout history. Now we have a modern society with division of labor, good wealth (in comparison to previous generations) and safety. If you got a desk job and a car you literally stopped moving. This was not possible ever before in human society, except for the lucky few.
I totally recommend doing sports. The brain functions better if your body does what it was made for.
That is, there is an optimal point at which your metabolism is exactly exhausted daily, without needing to increase, but neither needing to find alternate process to pour energy into
The theory being that if you do not exercise your body spends the excess energy on causing trouble for the body
However by increasing metabolism you raise the floor for what is the necessary exercise you need, while at the same time increase “wear and tear” simply burning more energy
To be clear, there is absolutely no science behind this, just idle curiosity
* Generally, the opposite sex is physically attracted to fit individuals.
* Finding food prior to agriculture or paying others.
* As for sugar, I'm not so sure, but maybe the plant's benefits also have to be considered (e.g. propagating seeds through fruits).