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Comment by TeMPOraL | Hacker News Reader

Life is tangled. "Healthy choices" are now choices, previously they were side effects of trying to not die.

Exercise, for example, is bullshit make-work that only some subset of people are wired to enjoy for some reason (never worked out how, I'm gonna guess they're either wired to receive reward signal for this, or it's social activity; half of life's motivation is low-key sexual drive anyway). I don't. So I have to find whatever proxy that works for me.

100 years ago this wouldn't be an issue, because I'd naturally get fit, because daily life required substantial amount of physical labor that we've since automated away.

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I also thought I naturally didn't enjoy exercise and had resigned myself to at best forcing myself to go to the gym and grind out a session on a rowing machine or something. I then, in one of the best impulse decisions I've ever made, decided I'd go check out the climbing gym nearby and it turns out I just hadn't found the exercise that clicked for me.

On topic for the wider thread of gamifying doing things that are good for you, bouldering in particular works perfectly with my brain. Every few weeks there's a whole set of new things to try and climb to the top of, and its often as much about working out a sequence of moves that works for as it is about brute strength.

I've never really been able to make exercise stick for an extended period but this time round I'm on about 18 months of consistently making it to the gym twice a week or so and pulling on plastic holds for a while. Its (mostly, unless I have a bad session) fun while doing it, the combination of exercise and problem solving means my system is flooded with endorphins and dopamine afterwards, and I'm fitter than I've ever been.

If you can find exercise that's "play" for you, that's the trick.

I like hacky sack and kettlebells. I can play hacky sack for 15 minutes, wherever I am, and easily keep my heart rate between 160 and 190 bpm. I can do kettlebells in my bedroom in 15 minutes, and stay pretty strong and capable. They're both genuinely fun for me, and leave me feeling better (lower stress, more alert, stronger, more agile, more attractive, less like a lazy slob).

I never could spend 10 minutes to and from the gym, and another 45 there, or anything like that. I feel lucky to have found these things I do like.

IME a huge proportion of people who exercise do so (at least at first) because they enjoy the results (including how they feel afterwards, eg endorphins), not doing the exercise itself. The idea that only some people are wired to enjoy it and you're not one of them sounds like an excuse not to endure some discomfort to reap the benefits.

If you don't get the endorphins afterwards, that sure sounds like not being wired to enjoy exercise.

I for one know I don't enjoy the benefits - not enough to trigger any reward loop anyway. It's a known limitation for me, making it hard to consciously form habits in general. Many people have this.

(It's probably a matter of degree as well as kind - in my case, whatever the intensity/delay critical threshold is, it's sufficiently low to allow functioning, but high enough that exercise doesn't stick.)

I dunno man.

I have never felt what people describe endorphin rush to feel like. Or runners high or anything remotely like it.

I'm almost 40. I had a pretty physically active childhood through my 20s, and I just never remember ever feeling good afterwards. It's very important for me to keep exercising to avoid diabetes, but I struggle mightily to make myself keep doing it nowadays because it is miserable to me

No one can really explain that to me. A lot of "maybe it's this, maybe it's that" but no help fixing it so I can motivate myself to keep doing the work

It sucks. I have a lot more empathy for the "I just can't make myself do it" crowd than I used to. There's a missing circuit in my brain or something and there's no brain mechanic to fix it.

> Exercise, for example, is bullshit make-work that only some subset of people are wired to enjoy for some reason (never worked out how, I'm gonna guess they're either wired to receive reward signal for this, or it's social activity; half of life's motivation is low-key sexual drive anyway). I don't. So I have to find whatever proxy that works for me.

I honestly think nobody enjoys the exercise itself. The real motivation is second order effects like becoming more appealing to other people.

> I honestly think nobody enjoys the exercise itself. The real motivation is second order effects like becoming more appealing to other people.

I imagine some must; sensitivity to second-order effects as a drive is arguably a circuit known to not be present in many people - I'd go as far as speculating that it's an anomaly to have it.

> I honestly think nobody enjoys the exercise itself. The real motivation is second order effects like becoming more appealing to other people.

I, actually, do enjoy the exercise itself. Although, it doesn't prevents me from procrastinating going to the gym and being in terrible shape.

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