Saturday November 1, 2008 JST

bad advice

You know what advice I hate, and which I find to be the most useless advice ever?  Find exercise that is fun to you and do that!  Do people who give this advice think the rest of us know there’s this extremely fun exercise acivity but we for some reason avoid doing it?  I assure you that is not the case.

Exercising is never fun.  Maybe it is for you.  Maybe you find it honestly thrilling and interesting.  I find it extremely dull at best and uncomfortable drudgery at worst.  Everything is more fun if you are sitting or laying down, in my opinion.  Everything becomes even more awesome if you could read or watch videos while laying down or sitting.  I can’t read while exercising (I have tried, but I can’t) and while watching videos is okay, it takes some preparation, or a lot of time fiddling with the tv, and yet still is nowhere near as awesome as laying down.  If exercising was so awesome and fun you wouldn’t have to remind people to do it.

I know some people honestly enjoy this activity, in the same way some people like cleaning the bathroom (which I also do not enjoy).  I am sure it makes some people feel good.  I am not one of those people.  And I am guessing neither are most Americans.  If you’re so intent on people just doing “fun” exercise, Mr. Expert, maybe you should make some sort of fun exercise.  Which I can do while napping and watching horror movies.  And snacking.

5 Comments so far

1. Grace wrote on November 1st, 2008 at 10:08 am

AMEN!

The only thing that makes it in any way tolerable is the advent of the unabridged audiobook. And still just barely.

2. Molly wrote on November 1st, 2008 at 10:40 am

True dat. The only things I really enjoy are plain ol’ walking and yoga. (And yoga is brilliant because it always ends with a few minutes of just laying there on the floor doing nothing!) Although if I get this San Diego job I am totally going to try surfing. Which seems like it could be pretty awesome.

3. jennybento wrote on November 2nd, 2008 at 3:02 pm

Part of the problem is also that I find doing one thing at a time extremely boring. So if I could watch a movie, check my email AND work out, I could probably be okay with it.

4. Daniel Howard wrote on November 3rd, 2008 at 5:33 pm

Exercise, like balancing the checkbook, is best just after you finish. RAH! And yes, I exercise laying down: arm free-weights while listening to the radio.

Have you tried reading on an exercise bike?

-d

5. Dan Wright wrote on November 5th, 2008 at 12:20 pm

Electrical muscle stimulation is the wave of the future! MACHINES CAN EXERCISE FOR YOU

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