People need to be outside in the middle of the day and moving. That's what's natural.
Don't feel like exercising? Maybe it's the wrong time of day for you
41–50 of 63 posts
Re: Don't feel like exercising? Maybe it's the wrong time of day for you
#42The man who goes to the gym every single day regardless of how he feels, will always beat the man who only goes to the gym when he feels like it.
Yes but I would add 1) a tiny bit of cheat for self awareness. like if you REALLY don't want to go, you don't have to. But you REALLY have to NOT want it and 2) making it fun just changes the threshold so much. Commenter above indicated Rollerblading - it was the same for me. I can Rollerblade every day without having to convince myself, that is powerful.
But you do have a point and it is strong.
"Just Go" irrespective of how you feel about it, it's like "Going to Work" - like you get dressed, you drive there, you do the thing ... similar.
Re: Don't feel like exercising? Maybe it's the wrong time of day for you
#43The man who goes to the gym every single day regardless of how he feels, will always beat the man who only goes to the gym when he feels like it.
Yes but I would add 1) a tiny bit of cheat for self awareness. like if you REALLY don't want to go, you don't have to. But you REALLY have to NOT want it and 2) making it fun just changes the threshold so much. Commenter above indicated Rollerblading - it was the same for me. I can Rollerblade every day without having to convince myself, that is powerful. But you do have a point and it is strong. "Just Go" irrespecti…
If you really don't want to go, just show up and do the little you can. Showing up is the hardest part. After showing up, you'd often find you want to do more than you originally anticipated you were capable of.
Re: Don't feel like exercising? Maybe it's the wrong time of day for you
#44The thing that kept screwing up my exercise regimen was external factors like weather, overcrowding, etc. The exercise itself is already hard enough. Fighting a crowd or a blizzard makes it even more difficult.
I found that an indoor erg (rowing machine) to be the best way to solve the problem. I have total control over my environment. I know exactly how much it will suck and there is zero anxiety about getting to the gym before a certain time, checking the weather, etc.
Effectively, I have eliminated all potential excuses for not doing the exercise. The only remaining one is tired/sick/etc., but as long as I draw breath I can move a make believe rowboat at a non-zero speed.
Re: Don't feel like exercising? Maybe it's the wrong time of day for you
#45The man who goes to the gym every single day regardless of how he feels, will always beat the man who only goes to the gym when he feels like it.
A man who goes to the gym three days in a week and knows what he is doing will bet a man who goes to the gym everyday just for the sake of "going to the gym" and handing out with his gym buddies here.
Re: Don't feel like exercising? Maybe it's the wrong time of day for you
#46I never feel like exercising, doesn't matter what time of the day it is. In the morning I feel the need to get to work (I'm a night owl so get up later). But by the time I'm done working, my ability to motivate myself is used up. I managed some consistency after I read "10k pushups and other silly exercise quests that changed my life[1]." I modified the plan so I'm doing pushups and squats, so going for 10K of each.…
You made me smile when I saw the reference to my pushup essay. :-) I have updated that post a few more times since it originally published and am now starting to train for my first Ironman event.
Just a little bit of exercise a day can change youe life!
Re: Don't feel like exercising? Maybe it's the wrong time of day for you
#47I exercise 3 times a week (running, martial arts, weight lifting). I ran marathons, I exercised 5-6 times per week for the last 5 years.
I am truly fit, but … I still don’t feel like exercising.
Most of the time it’s like brushing my teeth, it is just something I do because it is right.
Re: Don't feel like exercising? Maybe it's the wrong time of day for you
#48The man who goes to the gym every single day regardless of how he feels, will always beat the man who only goes to the gym when he feels like it.
Taking care of yourself is not a competition, nor a zero-sum game.
Re: Don't feel like exercising? Maybe it's the wrong time of day for you
#49I’m not sure about all of this. I’ve been sedentary for 34 years, and I somehow still am. But I discovered rollerblading at 34 and now I’m part of a rollerblading course in a skatepark at a fixed time in the week, just after my biggest day of work. And going to the skatepark is boring, I need to take a bus to nowhere land and then walk in nowhere land for 10 minutes. I’ve always been happy to go to it. And even the d…
> Because it’s FUN. I don’t feel like I’m exercising, I’m just having FUN.
First step is throwing away the idea it has to always be fun. You even said right before this:
> And even the days I didn’t felt it, I never regretted going for it anyway.
So it's not always fun and you always don't feel like it, but you connected it to other side of not regretting. That's discipline. The next step IMO, is to embrace when it sucks. Look at the upside that you're not only exercising your body, but also exercising your discipline when you don't feel like it - good for you!
A small example of embracing when it might suck is to not avoid rain. Instead of running, embrace the rain. Relax, smile, and be ok with getting wet. It's temporary. Same thing when you don't feel like doing something you know you need to do, like exercising.
Re: Don't feel like exercising? Maybe it's the wrong time of day for you
#50From the Washington Post today, for those of us with Type 2 diabetes:
"The effects — and implications — proved to be especially striking for people with Type 2 diabetes, according to the analysis. For them, exercise later in the day tended to result in substantial and lasting improvements to blood sugar control."
"Want to control your blood sugar? Here’s the best time of day for exercise." https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2026/04/15/exercise-... https://archive.ph/oO7Q1