Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

I'm happy with the results, but this is an 80/20 thing. I'm going for minimum time and money, and maximum adherence to the routine. This means do it at home, 30 sec-1 min rest between sets or superset, 8-10 reps per set since I'm not going for pure strength. I'd consider getting a small bench. They're under $50 for a small unobtrusive one on Amazon. I do 3x a week alternating routines:

A) Goblet Squats 3x8-10, Dumbbell Bench Press 3x8-10, Dumbbell Rows 3x8-10 each arm, Situps, 3 sets

B) Dumbbell Reverse Lunge 3x8-10, Dumbbell Press 3x8-10, Dumbbell Bicep Curls 3x8-10, Hanging Leg Raise, 3 Sets.

At 50 lbs, the Goblet Squat won't do much, so I would substitute something like a Bulgarian Split Squat. You'll be upgrading your powerblocks in no time...

Another vote for 5 x 5. The app is a little in-app spammy, but the free features more than make up for it. There are even linked youtube videos for each exercise.

For those addicted to exercise, I am curious to know the course of your "disease."

(a) "I've always loved exercise." Clearly genetic then, or tied to some childhood environmental factor. For there are many people who hate it.

(b) "I got roped into a sport at a young age, because my friends were doing it, and after a couple years got addicted and just have never stopped."

(c) "I never worked out much until I was 35 years old and 60 lb. overweight. I decided to get serious, tried many different things and hated them all -- until I tried ___________, which I love and can't stop."

I don't have a long history of steady exercise, but I think I am making progress. Two of the obstacles were:

(1) Tedium. For my heart, I thought I had to run. For the other muscles, I thought I really should be doing 30 different exercises, split across three days, every week. Otherwise my body would become imbalanced from training some muscles and missing others. Some people enjoy this sort of thing. But for me it is mindnumbingly boring, and on top of that, physically uncomfortable. Boredom is one thing, and pain is one thing, but this kind of thing is boring and painful at the same time.

(2) Threshold. Once in a blue moon, I would feel motivated to exercise that much, but most days of the week, I didn't. Those days, I might have been willing to go for a short walk or do one or two exercises. But I thought, such a small amount of exercise isn't much better than nothing at all. Plus I'll have to shower. If instead I spend the next 30 minutes working, running some errand, or even just unwinding, that will make a difference. Therefore I will do one of those things instead of lightly exercising.

So the two things that are maybe helping me overcome those obstacles are:

(1) Exercise programs like the StrongLifts 5x5 (which is not 25 different exercises). It is "the Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, Overhead Press and Barbell Row. You do three of these exercises each workout, three times a week, for about 45 minutes per workout. You Squat every workout, three times a week" (http://stronglifts.com/5x5/). I haven't dived fully into the program, but the prospect of a few "compound exercises" is enticing, especially if they each develop several muscles at a time, so that with just these I will work out my whole body. This is a time-tested program, recommended by many people, and invented by the guy who trained Arnold Swarzenegger.

(2) Finding out that walking is good enough. Even the gym rats say that the best way to lose weight is walking, especially before breakfast. Okay, I sort of enjoy walking (sometimes). So if I feel like walking, I will! I have, and it is sort of addicting. Unlike running, which makes me never want to do it again (the same goes for all other intense activities that certain people consider fun, like swimming, HIT, surfing, rock-climbing, soccer, football, and so on.)

Complete and total lack of motivation here.

The main problem for me is that my only motivation for working out would be to gain muscle for the purpose of looking more attractive to the opposite sex. I'm married and my wife is happy and during a two-year stint in my 20s when I actually took it seriously (personal trainer and everything), I ended up getting almost no visible results (gained strength but I need only enough to tap keys). For whatever reason, I struggle to gain weight the same way people struggle to lose it (though, admittedly, it's a lot easier to have my problem). I've been underweight since High School with the warning given to me by my friends/family that "it'll catch up with me when I'm 'x'" (where "x" is an age I've passed already, and y, and z). I get yearly physicals and have my cholesterol levels (and others) checked. They're all where they should be (or better). I've had a lot of other things checked, too -- always happens when I get a new doctor and he starts inquiring about my diet -- which, we'll just say, includes a 40-oz chocolate milk shake[0] most nights and goes downhill from there.

Having "bigger muscles", which wouldn't serve much of a purpose for me, isn't nearly enough motivation and I don't particularly enjoy working out. And having no other reason means I have zero motivation.

[0] I know the precise size of the milkshake because that's the size of the cup. I joke that I own one of those health-nut blenders with the pretty "running girl" on the front drinking a likely-tasteless smoothy. I bought it because I hated cleaning the big blender every night and fill it with things that would warrant a different looking person on the box.

Edit: 64 oz didn't seem right so I looked at the container, it was 40 oz.