Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

Having kids and total lack of energy in the evenings. I work from home and do try to exercise a bit in the mornings but I am not satisfied with my routine.

What's keeping me from exercising right now is a recovering ankle sprain. It shouldn't be -- there is a lot I can do that will not aggravate the injury, but none of this is part of my routine. Habits and routine seem to take some amount of time to establish, and the overhead for making new ones is hard to find time for.

Before the sprain, I was training to play roller derby. because it is competitive, I'd focus a lot on the skills improvement. The exercise turned into an afterthought. Now I am thinking it would be wiser to have some similar routine, equally intense and with the same mastery of skills reward system and less likelihood of injury.

I don't know that I could go back to lifting, at this point. My drive to be faster is so much more powerful than my desire to be stronger ever was.

It's true that some are busier than others, but the vast majority of us can find 20-30 minutes to exercise 3-5 days per week. Cant get to a gym? Work out at home.

People simply chose to do something else instead.

> How do you keep it up?

Philosophically, to me, it is a way of being faithful.

To me, keeping oneself in top physical condition (fitness, weight, grooming, dress) is an act of being faithful to one's self but also especially one's spouse. This has rung true to me even when I did not have a partner at the time.

It is definitely more than a just-for-myself thing. Doing something only for yourself is too mutable, too subject to whim and mood. We can all think of times I'm sure where we have justified letting ourselves down ("I'm too tired/lazy/slobbish/etc to do this today"). But I cannot justify letting her down. I will always be in good form for her (and someday, for my family).

Also philosophically, there's some appeal to it that I can't quite name. There is some thing like pride in doing something that 99% of people try to actively avoid, in trying to run up a mountain, over and over. In overcoming, I guess. I wish I had the words for it.

It's never too late to start exercising. What you have to realize is that you're not just a brain on a stick. A neglected body will eventually be a drag on your brain. A fit body will improve every aspect of your life. Whatever your excuses, they will all be wiped away when you realize how much more energy you have when you're fit.

I was a sedentary working-from-home consultant, so sedentary that my appetite disappeared. The doctor couldn't figure it out, but I did and prescribed myself a bicycle. Biked myself to exhaustion every night until it took too long to reach exhaustion. Now I bike, rock climb (mostly in gyms) and do yoga (I've done enough classes that I can do it at home by rote now).

I recommend rock climbing as an ideal geek exercise (unless you're obese): never boring, because it requires mental focus, planning, determination, etc. It starts easy, and you see results if you do it once a week, amazing results if more often. It most often requires a buddy (who needn't be at the same level) so you get a bit of human contact. Also the gyms are packed with hot bodies, and you can be one of them!

You'll never know which exercise is right for you until you try a bunch. One of them is sure to keep your interest.