At what point does exercise stop being a chore...

[winterknight]

At the moment, doing anything more strenuous than walking just completely tires me out after only a minute or so.

Pathetic, huh?

 

[winterknight]

when you get an endorphin rush from cardio exercise!

And when does that happen?

Because I've never noticed it....

 

[treanir]

At the moment, doing anything more strenuous than walking just completely tires me out after only a minute or so.

Pathetic, huh?

Nope.

Gotta start somewhere.

 

[sebastian-k]

It's supposed to be enjoyable since the very begining...

 

[Jeimuzu]

Nope.

Gotta start somewhere.

Yep, that's so true.

Y'know what I did to get myself going a little?

Every day, I did some sit ups. It started as 15, but you can start lower. find something to hold down your feet flat - I used the flat underside of the wheelbase for my computer chair - and just went until my stomach hurt a bit. Eventually, I could do more without my stomach hurting. I don't stick to it too well; I'm gonna start doing it again properly, at some point, because it really helped. I ended up doing 40 in one sitting, before I just ended up knackered.

Don't try push-ups, by the way. You'll just get depressed when it doesn't work. I've found that the only people I know who can support their weight in the right way are the people who don't need exercise that much. It's odd that nobody else has pointed this out before, that overweight guys can't really do push ups.

 

[luminum]

Nope.

Gotta start somewhere.

Agreed. How can you expect to start something new and automatically be great at it? If you're going to exercise because you're out of shape, then it only makes sense that a little bit of exercise will tire you out. But you'll soon find that that small amount is easier and that you can go longer.

When I fence, sitting out for a week is killer. Just doing footwork tires me out, but I and all my friends who fence know that it's a natural thing and we don't get embarassed about it.

So don't worry. Just do it in earnest and slowly but surely, it will get easier and then you can move to more active exercise.

Then you'll feel that endorphin rush. I find it usually comes after I worked really hard and then cooled off and showered. You feel like you just let out a huge sigh.

 

[Swellegant]

Don't try push-ups, by the way. You'll just get depressed when it doesn't work. I've found that the only people I know who can support their weight in the right way are the people who don't need exercise that much. It's odd that nobody else has pointed this out before, that overweight guys can't really do push ups.

Actually, pushups aren't that hard... if you take your weight into account and don't try to do standard Marine pushups at first. I keep my knees on the floor with my ankles crossed (as opposed to behind my ears, you don't have to say it), and can do a few; I also use a bath-stool that has handles on the sides, and push up from there, it works a different set of muscles.

It also helps if you are holding on to something rather than putting your palms flat against the floor... at the gym they have these cool padded pushup handles, but I think you could jerry-rig some yourself out of PVC pipe from the hardware store for a tenth of the cost.

I hate doing situps, though. Booooooring! At least with pushups I can still watch TV. And I couldn't do a chin-up if my life depended on it, there's no way my dainty typist's hands can support 250 pounds, no matter how strong my arms might be.

But all these things should be done in baby-steps if you're in bad shape now. You don't want to hurt yourself. I found that doing a couple of pushups or squats while I'm waiting for the shower-water to get hot is a good way to pass the time. And going for walks is a perfectly good way to get started.

The endorphin rush doesn't happen until you manage actual cardiovascular impact, which doesn't happen until you've got your heart-rate up to... well, some idiotic number that I can't remember right now.

If I was you, I would get one of those horny-making workout magazines. Not only are they very (ahem) inspiring, but they have lots of useful information in them about getting started.