exercise

[quarrel]

I've kept things simple and unstrenuous so far since I basically started cold. The goal, arranged with a friend for mutual support, was originally 60 minutes a day, every day. It's dropped to 30 for both of us: for him because he doesn't have the time, for me because I can't handle it. I've got a jumprope for cardiovascular work, and I'm doing crunches and pushups every other day for muscle tone. I'd like to be doing pullups as well, but I don't have a spot to do them.

Results are mixed so far. On one hand, I've already felt improvements after one week. On the other, it's a big relative improvement over practically nothing. Jumping rope is surprisingly difficult, and even now I can't sustain it for even ten minutes. My legs tire too fast. If things don't improve, I'll need to switch or supplant it with something like biking or hard walking. Over the Olympics I walked around Vancouver something like five to ten miles per day for three days straight and it didn't tire me out, so I can't consider it a workout. It wasn't a strenuous pace and it was spread over the course of an entire day.

Comments

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

For me, the key is to enjoy exercise, otherwise I can't sustain it for a long period of time. Roller skating, biking, fast walking, and yoga are things that I like doing. (Kayaking and snowshoeing, the one time I did those, too! But I haven't managed to do either here.)

I think walking five to ten miles a day totally counts. Even if it's not strenuous/tiring, it is building up your cardiovascular system and endurance (and legs, for that matter.) I think the intensity of the exercise may affect the rapidity of results, but imo walking is just always a great thing, for mental health as well as physical health.

With the jump roping...if you really like it, by all means ignore what I'm saying (and you're a lot lighter than I am weight-wise,anyway.) But I would worry about putting that much impact upon my knees and ankles. I have problems with jumping jacks when I take a fitness class with Daniel at his tae kwon do school - they really bother my knees.

I think it's great that you and a friend are working together on this - it makes me want to come up with a similar goal. I know exercising helps me to feel better on a lot of different levels.

[quarrel.livejournal.com]

A brisk walk would be a workout, I suspect. I still don't think casual walking will do nearly as much for either my legs or my heart. Jumping jacks are already something I've decided to try to fill the gap so I don't have to spend every day on the sidewalk-less streets in my housing development.

My ideal goal is that I somehow gain the discipline to just do this stuff, period, without needing to enjoy it or have a friend prod me constantly. I'm not satisfied at all that I need to resort to gimmicks like those. I don't care if it's a fundamental fact of human psychology. It feels distasteful, and I am perennially jealous of those lucky few who had decent behaviors and responsibilities implanted in them by their parents when they were still at an impressionable age. They get all this stuff for free now.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

I don't think enjoying life is hedonism; I think it's beautiful. I don't think enjoying exercise is a gimmick; I see it as a way to celebrate what my body can do and likes to do. If I feel like I'm torturing myself, then I just don't see the point in...well, any activity, really, exercise included.

I feel like your ideal here seems somewhat robotic? Human psychology is messy and sometimes distasteful but it is what it is and I kind of want to celebrate it in all of its absurdity. Maybe we are all basically hairless monkeys with big brains; if so, I'm okay with the dichotomy of our base and our sublime aspects existing together.

I know both people whose parents were lax about diet and exercise and people whose parents were obsessive about it...and it doesn't really seem to have a correlation upon their diet and exercise now. Have you read studies that show otherwise?

I honestly don't see exercise as a "decent and responsible behavior" either, because there are a lot of people whose exercise is curtailed by disability or lack of time (such as those who work several jobs to pay their living expenses.)

I agree that sometimes our parents do leave us with less-than-desirable patterns of thinking or behavior. I think that's when therapy helps.