exercise for us?
exercise for us?
Exercise is hitting. My brain gives up way before my body does. Even when I try and listen to music or watch shows while exercising, I just can't keep at it.
Has anyone found an ADHD friendly way to exercise?
77 comments
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Does running up and down the stairs repeatedly because I keep forgetting things upstairs count?
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If you do it enough, yes.
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For me I can't really exercise for exercise sake. I have to do an activity that happens to involve exercise, like a sport, swimming, or hiking.
Things I have tried and enjoyed:
- net sports like badminton and volleyball
- trampoline park
- a martial art
- roller skating/blading at a rink, similarly ice skating
- a hobby that involves having to hike, brain want hobby reward so will put up with endless trudging...barely
- swimming / surfing / snorkeling / diving
- VR games (fr, quite the workout)
- having a dog and using dog as motivation to walk more
- amusement park or fair (because I will get my damn money's worth and walk for like 10 hours straight)
Extreme social anxiety, covid, money, and no longer being in college with "free" or cheap access to things have ruined most of these for me but my point was to do a THING that happens to need you to move your body. Not just exercise (bleh). This is how you trick your traitorous brain.
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This is totally it.
I don't exercise I put the three kids in a truck tyre and drag them to school. (MUSH Daddy!)
I don't exercise I walk to shop for milk, get home, realise I forgot the damn bread, think I can make bread, look up how, get distracted, make healthly wraps for lunch.
I don't exercise, I just lose the thing I just put down, queue marathon of reorganization (it's not cleaning) until I get the point of lifting heavy machinery to look under and give up, hammer on a worn 3/8 socket. Bonus cardio if the 10mm was in your other pocket all along.
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As with many things, it didn't stick for me until it did and once I was in the habit, it's actually harder to skip than to just go. Even if I'm not thrilled about the workout, I still end up going because it's wired in now.
That said, I do listen to podcasts almost exclusively at the gym and that can make it kinda exciting if there's a good one coming up.
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Most people with ADHD have brains that are diametrically opposed to habit forming. Every single task that I do every day is performed deliberately.
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But how did you get to that point? Weeks of grinding out the task? Reminders? Alarms?
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When I had kids I decided that I was going to live a healthy lifestyle to serve as a good example for them. Finding ways to exercise with them has been a lot of fun and then it just snowballed into me exercising on a very regular schedule and now I'm in the best shape of my life. Now it feels really weird if I have a day where I'm not doing some kind of exercise activity.
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Run directly away from home, when you get bored, you're 50% done. Run home if you want it to be over faster
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"You're not going for a run, you're just running away!"
My wife when I do this.
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VR hands down.
It's the only workout that has ever stuck for me, because it really doesn't even feel like a workout. Games like Beat Saber or Pistol Whip can burn as many calories per hour as playing tennis, and are genuinely super fun.
https://vrhealth.institute/portfolio/beat-saber/ https://vrhealth.institute/portfolio/pistol-whip/
I started playing regularly at the beginning of lockdown and ended up losing around 50lbs. I would play Pistol Whip until I was completely drenched and could barely stand anymore, but I still wanted to keep playing! I got a plugin for the valve index that measures your activity and your calories burned, and I can easily burn 1200 calories during a session... YMMV though.
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Oh man, I did the same thing with DDR in the early 00s.
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I’ve found success with HIIT type exercises because you’re switching your motion every minute with rest in between. It’s easy to stay focused because of the variety and how quickly it changes.
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Amphetamines
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An actual bicycle. Constant change of scenery and not getting hit by cars really keeps me engaged.
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100% this. Biking is such a game changer. I've never enjoyed any physical fitness effort as much as I enjoy biking. Running hurts too much for me to enjoy it but point is, doing something outside with changing scenery keeps me in the zone. Plus if I ride out 10 miles and get bored, I have to ride 10 miles back home.
I'd also recommend group fitness classes. If there's an instructor telling me what to do, rather than me trying to self-motivate, I work out much more effectively and enjoy it more.
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Have you tried rock climbing? I have some friends with ADHD who really took to it.
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Agreed, best shape of my life was when I took a rock climbing class... And now I haven't excersised in years.
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Bouldering was the first form of exercise that I've ever enjoyed
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Same, it's sad I live an hour+ away from the gym tho, otherwise I would do it so much
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Bouldering was a breakthrough for me. I didn't like top rope climbing because climbing just felt like an endurance test (admittedly, I was not climbing well) and I found belaying both boring and extremely stressful.
But bouldering feels like solving a puzzle and is something I can do both by myself and socially.
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i love bouldering except that it destroys what fingerprints i have and locks me out of every biometric device i own LOL
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I feel you. I am like this with so many things.
When I started going to the gym, the only way I could get myself to go was to watch a show on my phone while working out. The catch is, I told myself I was only allowed to watch the show while I was working out. If I want to know what happens next, I had to get on a treadmill.
I fell out of the habit last summer and getting back into it has been a huge struggle.
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This works as long as the show dopamine is higher than the difficulty getting to the gym. Very few shows hold my interest THAT much past the first couple seasons.
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I got really caught up in the "make number bigger" cycle of lifting, and each 5lbs I added to any lift was a huge dopamine spike. Obviously you can't keep increasing weight forever, but I found that the steady and easy dopamine hits from noob gains were enough to establish it as a habit in spite of my attention span
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Personally I hated team sports and things like going to the gym, but bouldering is really fun for me. It doesn't feel like it's forced or repetitive and you can choose what you want to do and it feels more live solving puzzles than sport. Am only a 5A+ so far but having fun.
What also helps is the atmosphere is very chill in the boulder gyms near me.
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Great suggestion. I hate lifting weights, but bouldering is a ton of fun. Any sport sport that's physical is honestly a good idea. Doing something fun for exercise is like eating those limon hot Cheetos, you don't actually feel the burn until you stop.
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The only long term one I've been able to cope with is biking. About a 40km to 65km bike ride over a day. I was able to keep my speed to either hyped up music or slowed down music to keep my speed and I felt like I was doing something, not just standing in a room and the constant looming feeling of not making progress.
The other one I've tried lately has been badminton. It can be nice and competitive as well as friendly too!
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Other than medication, the only thing that works for me is going consistently with someone else. Playing games like tennis or racket ball also keeps my brain from giving up. Indoor bouldering where I can make progress on smaller routes can keep me from losing motivation or getting bored, too
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Someone else mentioned VR games, if you can afford the gear I second that recommendation. Some games can be quite the workout, and it doesn't feel like I'm convincing myself to exercise because I'm just playing video games.
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Third this suggestion. Haven't played much more than beatsaber, but its more of a workout than a bike ride for me. Of course its what you make of it. I personally like fast songs and I intentionally try to use my arms to swing at least partly. If you just use your wrists, you'll probably get less of a workout. There's also maps focused on fitness (lots of wall dodging and squats) if you want to do those (I typically find them less fun, so I don't really play them).
OTOH, if you can make commuting by bike your normal means of commuting, that can be a way to be consistent in getting exercise. Even if using an ebike and only getting light exercise.
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An exercise bike has been great for me. I can pedal while I read, solve a word puzzle, or watch something on YouTube. I often will do my email that way with a computer - I bought a bike with a build-in desktop. (I think it's called "exer-work" or something like that.)
I also lift weights regularly. I manage to do that by promising myself that I only need to do one set of whatever I feel like lifting. Most of the time I want to do more once I get started, but sometimes I don't. Setting the bar really low (no pun intended) is how I have managed to form & keep the habit.
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Echo: elliptical is set up by the TV hooked up to chromecast. I exercise while watching 40 minute YouTube videos.
Oh, also Ring Fit Adventure
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Whenever I fall out of my exercise routine, I rebuild it in small chunks. At my peak, I was waking up at 4a, walking to the gym, doing 60+ minutes of weight lifting, 30+ minutes of cardio, then walking back home.
So, when I'm starting from zero again, my first goal is just to walk to the gym and back each day. I don't even go in, I just force myself to get up (probably not quite as early), and go through the motions of walking there and back.
Once I have that down, I start trying to get myself up a little earlier so that I can go in the gym and actually do something. That something should initially still be something easy, so it might just be walking on the treadmill for 15 minutes before heading back home. Every day/week, I try to increase the duration/intensity until I get back to my ideal routine.
Some days I have a serious case of the "I don't wanna"s, and on those days, I tell myself that I just need to walk there, and if once I'm there I still want nothing to do with it, I can leave, but I usually end up staying for most to all of my typical routine.I find that setting myself small, incremental goals is way more effective than setting one big goal, because with one big goal, if I can't do the whole thing, then I failed, so why do anything at all?
Once I get into the routine, I find that it really helps me in so many ways, and definitely helps my ADHD. I really like morning workouts, but my friend does much better with evening workouts. Try different times of day to see what works best for you.
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Threadmill with steam remote play. The games occupy my brain, the time passes.
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When I was in college (a few decades ago), I was quite athletic, but once, I participated in a little marathon. 20 minutes in, I realized this was dumb & just walked back to the starting point. I still remember my thoughts - like why am I chugging along, rattling my entire being, & for what purpose, it's just boring & pointless. I think with ADHD, we're always calculating effort applied & reward received, & exercise is hard to justify. I haven't run for fun ever.
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Yeah, every time I try to use any exercise equipment I get ANGRY. I feel WORSE than I did beforehand. No sense of accomplishment, no endorphines, just irritation
If I go for a walk where I can explore for miles, I'm happy. Dancing also makes my brain tingle. I get more joy out of vacuuming and other housework than a tredmil or elliptical machine.
F THAT! Feels pointless and I can't seem to convince myself otherwise. Same for running. It's meh unless I'm trying to get somewhere fast (and I already speed walk as it is)
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Yeah, this is why it's important to try and break down large goals into smaller goals. (I'm not saying it's easy though)
Look at building muscle for example. What you need to do is focus on the little improvements, one extra rep each week, one extra pound each week. Make that your goal every single workout, instead of beating yourself up over the fact that you don't look like 5x Mr Olympia Chris Bumstead yet.
(Which you won't anyway, but that's another story)We want short-term success, instant gratification, but excercising for improving our health is a long-term project, whichever way you do it.
So you need to train in a way that gives you these smaller achievements sprinkled throughout the weeks, months and years.
How though, that's highly individual and depends on the person.
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I haven't been able to exercise successfully since I moved from home.
Where my parents live there was a great 5km run which included hills, scenery and if you did it backwards it was more strenous. They sadly exploited the fuck out of it and built a railway across it.
Where I live now it's boring, hard to get to or too slopey.
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Not quite related but when I have no motivation to clean I set a timer for 5 minutes per room. It becomes a race for me to see if I can get it done in time. I might do something similar for exercise.
Side note, I have a notification for daily tasks that notifies me every hour until I do it. It annoys me enough that I do it.
Not everything works for everyone though.
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I do the timer thing, sort of! But I'll do it in the form of multitasking. Say if I have a kettle on or coffee/tea brewing, I'll see how much of the dishwasher I can unload in that time.
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I love that idea. My partner also does this. She likes to see how much of the kitchen she can clean when the kettle is boiling.
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Go outside and walk/jog in an area that has interesting scenery. If you are stuck indoors or everything is dead like it is now, use music or video to entertain yourself. I use songs to "time" how long I exercise because theyre bite sized and it is easier to motivate myself to exercise 1 song at a time than it is to exercise for say... 30 minute blocks of time. AND remind yourself that you can spread that activity throughout the day and that you can get some exercise just by speeding up how fast you already walk or take the stairs instead of the elevator etc. Anything is better than nothing.
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My method for hacking my brain is wakeup exercise. Finding a short exercise which I can do faster than I can talk myself out of it. I started with 5 pushups. That's all. A tiny number, 10 sec exercise which I do as I get out of bed in the morning.
The important part is not to "push the envelope" or whatever. The amount of exercise should be small enough that it doesn't bother you. And only do the exercise today. Don't think about yesterday, don't think about tomorrow. You only have to exercise once. Today. Easy. 10sec, 30sec, whatever. Then move onto whatever weird and cool shit you wanna do with the rest of your day knowing that you have exercised.
I feel like I'm cheating, cos it's so simple yet so effective. I now do a lot more than 5 pushups, but the concept hasn't changed.
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Oh and as mentioned below, rock climbing/bouldering is fucking great. Go hang out at a gamified problem solving gym and you will exercise til you wish you could make yourself stop.
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get a mountain bike and a hyper dog... at least that's what i did and i lost several pants sizes this last year...
(i have an australian cattle dog and they're the best... but also very difficult if you're not fully prepared... also the only breed that's part dingo)
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Heavy lifting is the only thing that's stuck for the way my brain works. I used a program called 5x5:
- only 5 different lifts to learn, each full body so there's no fiddly minmaxing
- more or less timeboxed. 5 sets of 5 reps 3 times with about a minute between each rep and set. To improve, you add more weight, not spend more time
- consistent, once you get the routine down, and you know roughly how long it'll take, you can just let your body take over, coast on muscle memory and motor neurons, zone back in in an hour when you're done
- numeric satisfaction as your weights increase in fixed increments.
- immediate gratification because functional strength is neat and comes on surprisingly fast
Downside: So hungry, all the time.
It's been a few years since I've been active. I used to live in an apartment directly above a gym. Now I live in the boonies and need to convert my carport into a garage before I can buy a weight set.
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Find a job that requires physical labor and you won't need to work out. That's what I did and I dropped 15 lbs by my second* week on the warehouse floor.
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This worked for me in my early twenties. Working as a farmhand put me in the best shape of my life. Working on a computer erased all of that though.
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I'm in a similar boat. Do you ever find yourself thinking back to the labour days? If there wasn't such a difference in pay, I might consider the switch. The only career that I know of that has pay parity is oil rig work, but I don't want to fuck up my body before it's time.
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I did swimming for a few years when I was living close to a big swim hall and passed right by it on my way home from work. It does require a bit of motivation to start, but for me when I first got into the water it felt natural to just keep moving. Swam for 30~40 min and then going to sauna for 15 min and a nice hot shower afterwards was such a reward for my brain it always felt worth it. Now I moved and is sad I don't live close to one. Also as got super tired afterwards but in a nice way. Felt good. I wasn't medicated back then let alone knowing anything about ADHD so in hindsight, with medication I might have better odds of feeling even better after a good swim.
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Swimming is the easiest for me to do - I find the rhythm soothing and I like being away from any technology so I can just think or focus on the swimming.
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That could be one of the good reasons it worked so well for me. No chance of distractions from phone, TV, birds, houses people, sounds etc. Just the rhythm of the water and straight forward task. Also I'm thinking that it almost requires more brain effort to stop because of the whole changing clothes and shower process so to avoid that task i just stay in the water a bit longer. And the heat from the sauna is good at "melting my brain" so my thoughts get calmed down a bit and feels rewarding.
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I have a Garmin watch that you can load with exercise programs in conjunction with it's phone app. The couch to 5k running program works well.
- It sets a schedule
- It tells you what to do for that day
- Guides you during the run
- Records your progress
- Sets a clear goal you are working towards
Other than that I listen to audio books on my run.
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Find an exercise that works for you, I tend to like cycling or spinning so that’s what I’ve stuck to, and schedule recurring time to do it (ideally on a calendar that beeps at you, i.e., your phone). Until I scheduled time to exercise regularly I never remembered to do it. I’m also extremely calendar driven, so if something isn’t in my calendar it may as well not exist in my world.
I’ve also heard of people having success with setting an arbitrary personal rule — like not showering at home and only showering at the gym. Then once you’re there, just do something small like walk on treadmill for a few minutes, and maybe you’ll catch a groove and decide to continue.
If you decide you want to lift at a gym, I found it super helpful to have some sessions with a personal trainer to put together some workout sets that you can cycle through. If you don’t have the money or don’t want to get a trainer, there are tons of forums out there and well used and liked workout programs that you can follow. Google is your friend here.
Consistency is key! Find something that motivates you and take advantage of it!
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I have to do something more fun, i cant do cardio or weights no matter what i watch or listen to. Dance and martial arts are super engaging.
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Before it got super expensive, I LOVED pilates. The machines were fun to use, the classes were upbeat, and the movements changed every two to five minutes. It kept my brain and body active for the whole session. I wasn't getting distracted during classes, and the different classes offered were similar but also changed up to keep me engaged.
It was also easier on my joints (I have rheumatoid arthritis) than running and cycling, and I have a hard time swimming so that wasn't an option.
Once I get back to a point where I can afford it again, I will definitely be going back.
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Pump it Up, Dance Dance Revolution. Any kind of gamified exercise is great.
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This is the only thing that's worked for me. Ddr and just dance. A friend swears by the switch ring game
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In my youth it was rock climbing. You can’t really quit something if it means falling to your death 🤣
But seriously anything that keeps your brain occupied. For me it was competitive sports. Basketball, ultimate frisbee, anything like that. Now that I’m old, it’s getting up from my chair to go pee. I also like what I consider “exercise games” like Beat Saber.
Tl;dr… anything that tricks your brain into seeing it as fun and not exercise.
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Books on "tape" or narrative podcasts are what finally let me spend enough time working out, I have to be really into the story though
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When the weather’s nice, I like biking. In terms of ADHD stuff, doing a thing that takes you out of your house on a loop effectively forces you to complete it. Like, if I go for a 2h ride and then decide I’m not into it half way through… I still have to keep going. But also, just being outside with varied scenery tends to make boredom much less of a problem.
When it’s hot, swimming. You can get into a really nice rhythm with it, and it’s a truly outstanding full-body workout. Also, once your endurance gets high enough, if you are doing long-distance sets, you will get fatigued, but you will also 100% be riding that endorphin high, which is kind of a fun sensation.
When it’s cold (like, New England cold, not CA cold), mostly just walks. And skiing.
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I usually have to pair things up, like I rarely ride my bike just for the sake of it. Most of the time it's to get groceries, go shopping, etc. and sometimes the stores I go to are ~10km away. I'm really lucky that my city has actual factual cycling infrastructure though, so I pray your area has at least acceptable infrastructure.
This doesn't always work, sometimes I don't need anything. So another way I can get my butt on my bike is to simply put on sunscreen. Doing that makes it a lot easier for me to get out there so as not to waste the sunscreen. ¯(ツ)_/¯
I never go to the gym though. Way too complicated for me.
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Swimming does wonders for me. You can think about tons of stuff while swimming, it exercises many muscles at the same time, easy to get the hang of it and tiring if you do it enough!
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YouTube workouts go by quicker for me. I also have a rebounder (mini trampoline) which I find addictive enough to stick to. It also just takes a lot of practice to make a habit of exercising even if I don't feel up to it. It helps to start with short workouts on YouTube and work up to longer workouts over time.
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Look into a thing called flow arts!
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Do it with a friend! It worked great for me: my friend and I both tend to get distracted easily but working out together helps us keep each other on track and also the workout goes by faster when you have someone to talk to. Also we motivate each other to push ourselves as well!
Find yourself a gym buddy, it might be what you need!
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Would Ultimate HIIT Workout for People Who Get Bored Easily - Fat Burning HIIT Cardio Workout hit the spot?--I mean, HIIT the spot?
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Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Ultimate HIIT Workout for People Who Get Bored Easily - Fat Burning HIIT Cardio Workout
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
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FitnessBlender has a few "People who get bored easily" workouts. As an ADHD-er I often followed them. I still work out, but I don't follow the videos as much.
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are u sure you're not using adhd as a crutch here? people make up excuses to stop exercising while exercising all the time. you might just be reaching for the easiest thing to blame here. try doing something fun too and not doing shit where you can get distracted and shit. I can't do a gym routines just cuz my brain wanders off during sets and whatever, but bike like 400miles a week and it's not mentally exhausting for me.
77 comments