alt Hacker NewsYeah, the way we talk about exercising and fitness in general often pre-supposes that it's an unpleasant chore.
The "secret" to long-term fitness is finding activities you enjoy doing for their own sake that happen to involve moving your body and then incorporating them into your lifestyle such that you're doing them frequently and consistently.
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This is definitely a good approach but I don't think it's the only one!
I absolutely agree that the idea that exercise has to be unpleasant is wrong and harmful. But there's a middle ground where the things you actively enjoy aren't sufficient to keep you fit, and so you develop a habit of doing regular exercise even when you don't feel like it and even if it's a bit boring and effortful.
Everyone's different but IME this works well provided you build up the effort level gradually, and never feel the need to push yourself to a really unpleasant degree. Eventually habit, the knowledge that it's good for you in the long run, and the fact that it usually makes you feel better in the short run make it pretty easy to stick with.
This is like "find work you enjoy". If it works for you great, but for many it doesn't really and at some point you have to accept exercise is non-optional and just pick something you can tolerate if you don't find anything