Welcome back, everyone!
Have the seasons changed yet for you? We’re getting there in New England. We’re certainly in the transitioning stage where it’s cold in the morning, but warms up by midday. I’ve lived here for over a decade and I have yet to master the art of layering. Oh, well!
I’m also trying to be more active, but that’s a struggle. Exercise bores me and I haven’t found a method of moving my body that really sticks. Do you have anything that works for you? Give your suggestions! It can be routines, different types of exercise, ways you multitask, etc.
When we move, I’m going to looking into a standing desk + walking pad, since I’ll be more located in suburbia.
…
Big thanks to Jfhobbit, who posted this on the SBTB Patron Discord. They introduced us Metazooa. It’s like Wordle, but for animals. There’s also a plants version.
…
I am always fascinated by glass blowing and the MIT’s Glass Pumpkin Patch is often the highlight of my fall. If you’d like watch mesmerizing glass blowing videos, I discovered the Glass Goof YouTube channel.
…
Sarah: I’m the guest this week on Plot Trysts, talking about Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.
…
Sabrina Carpenter’s music videos have been so good lately. However, my favorite thus far is her new one for “Taste.” I love all the Death Becomes Her nods.
…
Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
I love walking. We have a route in our area that we do regularly. It’s about a 5 km loop. We’ve also found conservation parks in our part of the province that have terrific trails. We’re retired so we’ll make a day of those ones. I used to go to a gym but I never loved it so it became a chore. Walking is my happy time. I’ve also found some YouTube videos for using weights . They’re fun and perfect for doing on rainy days. I’ve never been into team sports but I love swimming so I’ve found indoor pools that offer lane swimming.
I’m also taking a pickleball lesson this Friday. I’ve found doing some kind of exercise everyday is good for my mental health too.
I’ve joined a women’s hiking group and go out when I can. I enjoy classes at the Y, particularly weight training, and I love hot yoga! It feels so great on my joints.
My job involves being on my feet all day, so i’m often too exhausted to go on long walks like i used to enjoy, or to do anything too intense, but I’ve had some success by collecting small sets of exercises and rotating through them, fitting them in here and there. Usually i try for three moves, preferably ones that take no equipment or anything special, so it’s very little to remember, and i just do a rep of five. If i’m in the kitchen waiting on something to come to a boil, or stirring intermittantly, I’ll do one of my balance exercises, for example, then check food. Second set, check food. Third set. Or keeping a set of small hand weights near the couch. While watching a streaming service where i’m stuck with ads: Ad comes on? Left arm does a thing. Next ad, Right arm! I’m still not super consistant about it, but I wasn’t anyway, and it’s been helping me with the issue of having to overcome the hurdle of putting on not-pajamas, possibly going out where there’s people(ugh), and having to commit to anything that feels too big.
Similar concept to what i’ve seen people suggest about tricking your brain into working on cleaning or a big project by doing “just 5 minutes”, sometimes it’ll feel good and jumpstart something more, other times it doesn’t, but i’ve at least done one small thing.
I’m mildly to moderately agoraphobic, so I exercise at home in my living room with the help of various apps and YouTube channels. My body craves variety and gets bored very quickly with repetitive movement, so I do a lot of different things: ballet, various forms of yoga, qigong, Pilates, occasionally other types of dance. I also try to do short 5-10 minute mobility breaks throughout the day, focusing on different body areas.
The mental health benefits of exercise are very real. I never really believed this until I experienced it for myself, but it’s true. If you have any tendencies towards depression or anxiety, definitely do whatever you need to do to convince yourself to exercise regularly. It won’t necessarily be a cure — it’s not for me, my issues are too severe — but it does make a noticeable difference.
Another walker here and having a partner makes all the difference. Neither of us wants to get moving, but we do it so we don’t let the other down. It works for us, slackers that we are.
The thing that really did it for me with exercise was realizing that I’m not bored if I’m learning something complicated. So, martial arts kept me working out hard and well for decades! I’m older now, so I’m doing Pilates while looking for the next thing–Tai Chi or Aikido, if I can find it nearby, probably. I need my brain to be busy, not just distracted, while I work out.
I listen to nonfiction books. They distract me from repetitive cardio and there is nothing to distract me from the book. Nonfiction doesn’t light the burning desire to find out “what happens next” which fuels Bad Decisions Book Club reading.
I’ve learned that I need to exercise without it feeling like ‘working out’. I’ve tried so many routines and I never stick to any of them. My solution? Dance. I know this won’t work for everyone, but for me, going to dance class is fun! I’m getting a full body workout, but it’s like a side effect of the joy I’m feeling. Any type of dance will do, as long as you enjoy it!
I did crew for six years, I ran, I hiked, I lifted weights, went to spin class and Zumba and hot yoga… and then I hit forty and got diagnosed with arthritis in my ankles and knees. I wish I could work out the way I used to because it was the best stress relief, but the only thing I seem to be able to do without pain is careful, limited aquarobics. It all seems wildly unfair. The furthest I can walk without pain is only about a mile.
You could try walking with a fun challenge or goal, like looking for cats in the neighbors’ windows, or looking for interesting textures of tree bark etc to photograph. That’s something you could do with a partner and make it an adventure rather than a chore.
I’m with Sarah S on team martial arts. The learning something complicated, the social interaction, the moving your hands and your feet and your hips and also someone else’s body at the same time, all of it. Can’t replace it with anything else, I’ve tried.
On the other hand I will run if it makes the dojo more fun, and I will do the PT exercises for my glutes if it makes the running more tolerable, and the next thing I know I’m one of those people with an 18 part routine but I swear it’s just because I like throwing people.
I echo what Star says about exercise for depression and stress relief. I find it annoying at times, but true.
I am one of those people that *doesn’t* enjoy sports, competition, group classes, etc so a lot of things that are fun for other people are not fun for me. I do yoga, running, and weight lifting, all in my blissful solitude 😉 Just goes to show one side does not fit all.
One thing I recommend is to try and start very small and maybe just incorporate it into an already existing daily habit. One wall push before you brush your teeth, a quick balance pose while your coffee brews, etc. The best book I know for advice on this type of habit building is BJ Fogg’s TINY HABITS, much better IMHO, than the ATOMIC HABITS by Fogg’s protege, James Clear.
Re: exercise inspiration, I really enjoy ageingdisgracefully on instagram. Although she (at 75) does do some, for me, impossible moves, she regularly has suggestions and demos on small exercise snacks or mobility moves that inspire me to get up and moving around. And she emphasizes having fun!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_osz1VSXbX/?igsh=MXNqY3J4NjFydHB1Yg==
Variety is what has kept me exercising pretty successfully for 30+ years. I find doing the same thing every time I work out to be a recipe for boredom and repetitive stress injury so I try to mix it up as much as possible. I work out most days, but I do something different every time, whether it’s a yoga session, a walk in my very hilly neighborhood, a workout on a spinning bike, stair climbing at our local outdoor stairs, or visiting the gym for some weight training and/or ellipticals. I also subscribe to Apple Fitness+ which is amazingly affordable ($11/mo) and has a huge variety of workouts to choose from (strength training, dance, spinning, kickboxing, yoga, pilates, HIIT and more) and offers them in 10, 20, 30 and 45 minute sessions so it’s easy to mix and match, or to fit in a short workout when you don’t have much time.
I bought myself a treadmill. I also have an old-school DVD with some aerobics to mix it up.
We attend the Tacoma Glass Pumpkin Patches every year since I learned about it 6 years ago! They’re all locally made by artisans We always attend with our good friends and it’s become a fall tradition for us. I’ve got 5 lovely glass pumpkins and 3 adorable ghosts (I put battery-operated tea lights under them to make them glow), and I’m looking forward to getting my 6th pumpkin in about 2 weeks! (side note we also collect glass Christmas ornaments for every year we’ve lived in Washington, I have a special tree stand for them, kept well out of reach of my 2 kitty girls).
I find working out on equipment to be very boring. What works for me is signing up for a class, like yoga or Zumba Gold, because once I’ve paid for something I feel obligated to go. Also walking with my husband. He prefers to do it early in the morning, and I’m not an early bird, but afterwards you feel great, and you can bask in the knowledge that you’ve done your exercise for the day.
There’s a post on the r/AutismInWomen subreddit, “Suggestions for those who need to exercise but hate it,” where the OP gives some tips.
They talk about the Lummowell series of videos on Amazon Prime, which are computer animations.
They also talk about the yes2next channel on YouTube, with exercise videos for beginners and seniors. I’ll just quote OP here:
“Another is the yes2next channel on YouTube. It’s a middle aged woman and her elderly mom and they started during lockdown as a way to keep seniors at home moving. They have tons of 5 and 10 minute low key workouts with very simple moves and modifications up and down to make it more or less challenging. There are also lots of seated workouts for seniors.”
I’m not a senior yet, but I really relate to OP about hating exercises and procrastination.