Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

Just to give some context, I've been a marathon runner for 7 years. I have a PB of 3:24, and I'm training for a sub 3 hour marathon right now (logging around 70 - 120km per week). I run 6 times a week, and work out at the gym 3 times a week. I consider myself to be in my all-time peak athletic shape right now.

I don't mean to be rude, but this comes from years of people picking fights with me about exercising and easy ways to get fit.

You're looking for an easy way out. There isn't any. Or there shouldn't be. If you want to really stick to an exercising habit, you have to either do something you really love doing, or just pick something and stick to it. If there isn't some sort of physical activity you love doing and could potentially do effortlessly, you have to start from scratch.

That means putting in the work and becoming disciplined. Building a habit. Which means you have to work against yourself so you can, in the future, be in a position where exercising is at least neutral and effortless. Only then will you know whether or not you'll enjoy it. Never before that. If you have an open mind and patience, you probably will.

You could also just keep trying several other options, until you find sometimes that you seem to enjoy. But chances are you'll probably get tired of it soon.

I'd honestly advise you to work on habit building skills rather than trying to find something you'll be able to do effortlessly, just like that. If you pick something, stick to it, be patient, study it and put your mind to it, I promise you, you'll eventually start enjoying it.

I followed Start Bodyweight for a while, seemed pretty good. The emphasis on being able to manipulate one's own bodyweight appealed to me, and end goals of the progressions like one-armed pushups/chinups/etc are pretty cool. Minimal equipment required, mostly just access to a bar for pullups/chinups and somewhere to do inverted rows and dips, though it's usually advised that you add deadlifts. 30mins 3 days per week is about what's required.

The Bodyweight Fitness subreddit provides similar routines, as well.

http://www.startbodyweight.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/

There are also a lot of resources on youtube if you want video demonstrations/walkthroughs. Calimove was pretty useful for me.

https://www.youtube.com/@calimove

That said, I was probably in the best shape of my life back when I used to do indoor rock climbing three days a week. It incorporates a satisfying combination of technique/problem-solving and physical strength/endurance.

I started working out at home. I really like the exercises from Caroline Girvan, especially the Iron Series ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhu1QCKrfgPWmStsg7imo... ) I've done this series 4 times and I can say that I see results (including feeling better). It was hard in the beginning but now I'm (mostly) looking forward on doing the exercises.

I use a mat, a (round) resistance band, a (small) yoga block, and some weights: two dumbbells of 5/10/15/20kgs each (we now also have other weights, like 3/8kgs). It took me some time to use the 20kgs weights. A chair/sofa/bed I'm surely you can already find at home.

Including the warm-up (do it!) you'll need a little more than 30 minutes, but not a lot more.

I was a gym rat pre-pandemic. Fitness-wise, I never recovered from the gyms closing - partially from loss of social motivator of gym and partially due to health reasons. Some of my gym friends switched to home workouts and YouTube. One that got high praises from my friends is Heather Robertson's channel.

In shape or fit is several levels below what you describe. Personally, I find running a marathon near lunacy. You may like it, but it's not healthy in the long run.