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Does anyone actually enjoy working out?

I can imagine people having fun getting lost in the flow of playing a competitive sport. I've also heard some people experience a post-workout high. But does anyone actually feel pleasure in the moment while lifting weights, jogging, cycling, etc?

If so... what does it feel like? Is there anything the rest of us can do to cultivate such a mindset?

438 comments
  • I'm walking every street in my (very large) suburb (think Southern California) and picking up litter while doing so. I track my progress with an app and map it to a website (citystrides.com) that fills in each neighborhood as I go.

    It started as something to do during Covid--although I took a year off in there, somewhere. I listen to podcasts while I go. So I'm out of the house (I'm retired now--that helps), get some "fresh" air (🤷‍♂️ )--all while listening to and from and about interesting people. As a bonus, the space I've passed thru that day is a little "better" for me having been there.

    I apparently have a dose of "completeism"--a compulsion to 'complete' something thoroughly. There's something psychologically very satisfying about watching that map get filled in.

    https://i.imgur.com/GoNzZgP.png

  • I feel pleasure while my bicycle. The feeling is a mixture of childhood play and feelgood brain chemicals.

    I like to go fast :)

  • I love riding my bike on the weekends and if my commute wasn't 1.5 hours each way, I'd go to the gym pretty often.

  • I don't. I think post workout endorphins are a myth spread to make maintenance on our meat mechs seem more palatable. I "like" to swim, in so much as the water continuously washes the sweat off while I work out.

  • No. I just like how I feel afterwards.

    EDIT: Wait... I do enjoy cycling and jogging. I just don't enjoy working out athe gym. For jogging I enjoy listening to music and having my heart pump harder for an hour. For cycling I enjoy the scenery.

  • I don’t enjoy motivating myself to go workout. Everything up until the point of the actual workout isn’t enjoyable. But the workout and post-workout I do enjoy. There is a high associated with it. And that feeling of accomplishment, and visible progress is extremely enjoyable.

    The only advice I can give is to give it adequate time. It’s easy to get discouraged. Just keep this in mind: You spent a lot of time doing damage to your body, you’re going to need to put in some effort to reverse that damage. Give it some time before getting discouraged.

  • I only cycle once in a while and it feels amazing when the wind rushes through my hair and I zoom through the city.

  • I dislike it, so I joined a gym with a social aspect to it which keeps me accountable. And I love how I look now that I work out a lot, being comfortable shirtless in public like at a pool or beach and feeling confident in my body combined with the social aspect is enough to not mind dreading the workouts.

  • Lifting: I definitely don't like while I'm doing it.

    Riding my bike though: it's great to get out there early in the morning and explore, see nature, etc. with the bike, I also just like the feeling of speed, so the physical act of riding can actually be enjoyable.

    To a lesser degree, the same can apply to running. I find that when I've been in better shape, I could experience that runner's high.

  • No and I never liked it. I tried going to the gym for a while to lose weight but I felt horrible afterwards and during the excersice and the actual Impact on my obesity was quite minimal (probably my fault as I‘m sure I didn’t do everything right). So i stoped going eventually. I know started walking more, I don’t take the bus from the train station home anymore and rather walk the 3.5km with some nice podcast oj my ears. I like doing it, even atvthe current temperatures as I feel like a get 45 minutes just for me where I don’t have to listen to anyone or anything other than my podcasts I enjoy. I work ij Retail so there’s a constant barrage of people and at the end of the day you just don’t want to see people for a while. So while it does help my weight loss it also just feels kinda therapeutic in a way. I just crossed 120kg (down from 136) this morning and plan to try to extend my walks to my days of as well :-)

  • The feel of your muscles tightening. It sure makes you feel that you're doing something great and you're achieving something good.

    Thats how I feel.

  • I enjoy it in that I find it helps me disconnect from work. Not even consciously, I just find after running for 40 minutes any lingering mental hangover from my office job are gone. It's similar to what happens when doing volunteering or community work.

  • I've tried for years to go to the gym regularly. I despise going to the gym. Putting on workout clothes, mindlessly trudging on a treadmill or whatnot before slogging through a bunch of machines then shower and going home. I loathe the idea of sacrificing 1+ hour of my precious free time just to feel miserable and accomplishing fuck all... Everyone claiming "just stick with it and you'll start to enjoy it" lies. There's no other way to say this. Lies. If you love it, good for you, but it definitely isn't a universal thing.

    Walks around town I do kinda enjoy but not enough to make me want to do it. But point me someplace new or nice to hike and I'm off to the races. I love being out in nature, taking in the sights and I don't care whatsoever if I need to work for it.

    The last few weeks I've also started to go swimming with my girlfriend. I've not been a fan of swimming as a child and basically never did it anymore since then. So I'm pathetic at it but to my huge surprise I do quite like it.

    So my recommendation to you is: try loads of different things. Chances are you'll like doing certain things way more than others. Ideally you'll find something you love. Or at least you should be able to find something you don't hate.

  • Lifting weights is fun and feels pleasurable. Cardio feels like I'm trying to get somewhere but I'll never arrive. It's frustrating. I think it's because I have ADHD and, well, most monotonous activities are hella hard to keep up for any period of time. Doesn't help that I've been off my meds for a year since developing high blood pressure.

    For cardio, I've tried different things to trick myself into doing it. Some worked better than others. I used to do long and hard warmups before lifting weights. Of course it had a negative effect on the weightlifting itself, but it was good for my health. To increase effort, I just added 5 minutes each session. Started off cycling 15 minutes at a leisurely pace on the stationary bike, and towards the end I was doing 45 at a much harder pace. Watching the average power climb up each week was fun, it was like a game to me. And the weightlifting at the end of it was the reward to make my monkeybrain accept the annoyance that is cardio.

    Of course, then I had surgery (nothing major, a scheduled quality of life surgery, septoplasty to be specific, but I was told to lay off any exercise for 2+ weeks) and then a month later I injured myself. So now it's been over a year again. Not because my injury was very serious, but because it's incredibly hard to start, maintain, or re-start healthy habits with ADHD. Incredibly easy to start, maintain and re-start bad ones though -.-

    Another thing is, pick a podcast (preferably something funny or informative, not depressing), put it on, and go on a walk. Not the same as running, but on a physical activity for your health scale, if being sedentary is 0% and running is 100%, walking is at least 80% if you ask me. Way closer to running than to doing nothing.

    I understand the last bit is difficult for people living in unwalkable cities, but for those who can do it, it feels way better than most other forms of exercise, because you're getting dosed with happy hormones while you're walking thanks to the podcast.

438 comments