Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

We all know that exercise is good for us, yet many of us fail to either start or continue. Why?

Like many of you, I sit in front of a computer far too much during my days. I blame my inactivity on everything: not enough time, family obligations, an I'll do it tomorrow attitude, it won't work for me because of my genetics, I don't know what I should do so better not do anything and get injured etc.

Do you do the same? What keeps you from exercising or what made you start exercising in the first place? How do you keep it up?

There's no such thing as "not enough time"; we all get the same amount of time for everything.

What there is, what people actually mean when they say "not enough time", is "things I'd rather be doing".

Consciously or unconsciously, you prioritise your list, perhaps by Maslow's hierarchy of needs or in other ways, then whatever consistently drops off the bottom at the end of the day ends up mentally filed in the "not enough time" bucket.

In my case, I find exercise for the sake of exercise mind-numbingly tedious, so my "things I'd rather be doing" includes "playing cookie clicker again", "afternoon nap", "staring into space dumbly" etc.

After filling my day with all those things, oddly enough I never seem to have time to go out for a jog.

Looking at what made it into the bucket and what didn't is a fine source of guilt.

(I keep thinking it's time for Propcycle to make a comeback now we have VR helmets...)

What made me exercise in the first place: I saw bathroom scales at department store and randomly decided to buy them. Back at home, first time stepping on them I realized I'm not just a little overweight, I'm way overweight. I started weighing in every day and writing down the number. Always knowing my exact weight was a motivator to change diet and start exercising.

Around that time I also read Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". It was inspiring, and I started doing 5K runs each morning.

Next few years a big motivator to work out was seeing my results improve in amateur bike races. In the biggest local cross country amateur racing series, I went from finishing in top 500, to top 100, then 30, then top 10.

Indeed, I'd phrase it as "other priorities" -- some priorities stem from circumstance, some from active desire..

Additionally I think classifying it as "I'd rather be doing" is somewhat unhelpful because there are many things people "want to be doing" in the long term that they find difficult to "actually do" in the immediate term in large part due to outside stimulus (and the availability thereof). The ability of people to focus and stick with tasks, whatever they might be, is anything but equal.

I used to start & stop exercising regularly...meaning I'd start going to the gym for a few weeks and then stop out of laziness / lack of motivation.

That changed 1 year ago, when I stopped aimlessly 'exercising' and started goal-oriented 'training'.

I discovered powerlifting. Its principles and techniques really resonated with me. I was no longer exercising to be 'fit' but 'training' to beat my numbers (I don't do competitions) and see how good I can possibly be.

I've never been more consistently active over time, never been stronger, and never felt better. Now, I can't imagine living without lifting.

Powerlifting is what I chose, but you choose what you want. Learn the technique, set a schedule, set goals, and beat them...over and over and over and over again.

Then you won't think about activity as 'just exercise', but as something much more significant.