Regular Exercise, How do you do it.

Jerry1, Get yourself a gym buddy. My father found someone at the gym that goes the same time that he does. They plan their workout times so you are forced to be there. Make sure you do exercises that you enjoy. My mother goes to yoga and Pilates with a friend.
 
Like others here I enjoy exercising so it's easy for me to get out there almost every day. If you're not quite as enthused, here are some practical suggestions, one or more of which may be of help:
Attitude - like starting a diet to lose weight, the first day can be hard. So, just do something on day 1, vow to do something the next day, etc.
With time, you my find one or more particular exercises are more fun than others. Focus on doing more of those enjoyable ones.
If time of day is an issue.......find a time of day you like more!
There are many online training logs. Using them can be inspirational to keep going. For example, I strive to do an AVERAGE of one activity a day. You may want a lower goal, but the training log can motivate you to achieve that.
If walking/running/bicycling is one of your goals, find a nice big park to do it, even if it means driving there. It can be a LOT prettier, and motivating, to run or walk in a park than on streets.
 
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Right now I go down to the basement and use the elliptical....on 'interval' with somewhat high settings. When the weather improves I'll likely give the outdoor stairs another shot.

DW swims three or more time a week.

(Oh, following the recommendation of a poster here, we've purchased, and both use, a vibration machine.)
 
Hi Jerry1,
Kudos for trying to make health a priority. Getting and staying fit is a lifestyle that after you get into the rhythm it's becomes just a part of what and who you are. Getting started with a trainer is a great idea. Learn basics of how to work out correctly, safely and get results. After some commitment you will begin to see the benefits and that is a incredible motivator! Enjoy your work outs, it's something that I always feel better about when I complete a challenging ride or strength training session. If you miss a few sessions, it's OK. Just go back the next day. One obstacle I hear often from my workout buddies is that when they miss a workout or two, they get discouraged or just don't get back to the gym. If you miss, just go back the next day :)
Everybody is different and you will find what works best for you, just keep on going. I have a routine I like but I do adjust it every few months and try some different things to keep it interesting. I'm pretty fit now and I plan to stay that way. In brief, I cycle ~100 miles weekly in the summer, ~60 miles in the winter. I use an awesome set up with a smart bike trainer by a company Wahoo, and an app Zwift. It's a virtual cycle riding app and lots of fun riding with people all over the world. I also have a strength routine I do about 4/5 days a week. And of course I maintain a healthy diet.
Best of luck to you with your fitness quest!
 
I do cardio for 45 minutes every day with very few exceptions and have for about 30 years..

The turning point for me was buying my own equipment so that I don't have to leave the house. I used to belong to a gym, but found that having to take the time to drive there PLUS work out was a big reason I wasn't going consistently. (Small thing I know, but for me, a key reason I wasn't working out actively).

I've had a Precor Elliptical for ~20 years and a bunch of ski machines before that. Used the Precor almost every single day during that time, until the doc told me I needed to cross-train as I was killing my knees with the repetition. Recently bought a Precor Spin Bike (way better IMHO than a Peleton, but that's a subject for another thread) and now alternate between the two daily. We also have a weight machine, but while DW uses it I rarely do. (More into cardio to keep myself from getting overly porky).

It's also a heck of a lot easier in my experience to exercise first thing in the AM. Once you get settled into your day, there's any number of other things that can get in the way - or, you just don't feel like it at that point.

Might be worth investing in some home gear so that you can work out without leaving the house..and do it first thing in the morning if you can. I did both and probably work out at least 350+ days out of 365, every single year..
 
RunningBum said:
probably not of use to most but I sign up for marathons and such which is a huge incentive to run regularly,otherwise I'll suffer a lot more in the race and also be unhappy/embarrassed by my time.
Click to expand...

And it doesn't have to be marathons. My city has a very large corporate athletic competition every spring/summer and I still compete as a retiree. They love me because I'm up for the harder events (3-mile bike ride, mile run, half-mile run, swim meets where you have to show up in public in a swimsuit) where there's very little competition in my age group (65-69) and I rack up points easily. Even signing up for a 5K can be motivating if you're a beginner. I'm also motivated by calorie burn- about 600 calories for a workout according to the machines. I like food!:D

My schedule is different from most. I work out every day with rare exceptions. I hate early-AM workouts. I'll do them if I have to but my "sweet spot" is late morning. I can get some housecleaning and Internet-surfing done and then head out. I usually run a few errands on the way there or back- pick up my mail at the PO (I have a PO Box), the library, the grocery store, etc. and then have a late lunch. This works better for me because I get bored during long afternoons.
 
After retiring from the work force working for someone else the gym became my job with me reaping the benefits. I do not have a set time that I go for the day but try to do it after a couple cups of coffee while checking some of my favorite web sites (ER) then maybe light breakfast. If I have to blow snow or have and appointment then it I will go after lunch I like my gym because of the variety it has to offer so I don't get bored doing the same thing every day. I feel the gym is a must for me because my eating habits are not the best. Another push for me to get to the gym is I'm frugal and if I spend $450 annually I'm going to get my moneys worth. The more I go the better the deal! Keep variety in your gym routine!
 
For me, reading your posts Jerry, I think my hurdles would be that you have placed exercise behind getting to the gym - even though it's close. Also, the "first thing" idea - would be a non-starter for me. Also, for me if a habit isn't 5-6 days a week, it's not gonna stick. So 3 would never happen.

Again, for me, what would work, is to commit to doing "something" almost every day, before lunch. And that give you mental flexibility

Somedays, that something can be just a 20 minute walk
With the gym only a half mile away, on other days, walk there, do 15-20 mins and then walk home (or just 5 mins if you really aren't into it, you are there after all, and then it's really easy to talk yourself into another 5 mins once you've started)
Put alerts on your calendar (even if you don't normally use one) - block the time

I don't eat breakfast besides a long slow coffee while I wake up, but I like to get a run in most mornings usually around 10-11 ish.
 
I have no schedule for exercise. Most of the year I play a lot of golf, walk the dog and ride my bike. But this time of the year when its cold and rainy I slack off a bit. Probably do need to set a schedule and stick to it. I can always ride my indoor bike and have some weights I can use. Maybe I will start tomorrow. ;)
 
I alternate days of 4 mile walks & 40 minutes of home exercise. Probably miss 1 day/wk. Times of day are all over the place around other things scheduled & weather for walks. Just ingrained exercise habit starting in late 20s. I still don't like it.
 
I used to run before going to work, cycle early in the morning, and back when I was a young guy of 73 I've been known to walk over to the outside stairs at 4 a.m.

Now I'm slower.
 
I have always been a very early AM person. I still get up without an alarm around 4:45 am. (I am asleep at 9 pm, lol!) I love the early morning. And, like others, if I do not exercise first thing in the morning, it doesn't happen. One change since FIRE, though, is that I relax with some coffee for a while. When I worked, I had to hustle right to the treadmill.

I've had the same inclined pedal treadmill (i.e. no plug, I turn it with my foot power!) in my bedroom for a couple of decades. It's relatively easy to turn on the television (previously it was some On Demand program, now I can wait for a news program) and treadmill away.

I haven't succeeded in any other exercise program (other than ladies' pushups, which I can usually manage on the same days I treadmill). I dropped out of every gym program I signed up for, even if I paid money. I hated the gym! I hated transporting myself to the gym. I hated the noise, the wiping down of machines, the heat - or the cold.

My challenge is to somehow find a way to add some strength training and balance training. I haven't succeeded yet.
 
My attitude is that once you retire, your only JOB is to stay healthy. You only get out of fitness, is what you put into fitness. You'll find the time if you want it.
 
Treading water and light weight lifting (along with walking my lab for an hour) seems to work for me. I can feel the difference in my abdominal, leg, neck and arm muscles when I get lazy about treading. I don't use a weight belt which forces me to work harder in deep water. I tread for an hour, water running, twisting around and use my legs without arm support for part of it. It helps stability as well. Full body workout.

The light weights for my bones.
 
Haven't been to the gym in many years.

My main and most enjoyable exercise is running. Most of the time that's just around my neighborhood, which is fairly quiet and has sidewalks. I've found that the best time is between 8 and 10 in the morning, since the kids are in school and most people have already gone to w*rk. By then I've already had a couple of cups of coffee and I'm fully awake.

I also have a treadmill, stationary bike, rowing machine, and some free weights at home.
 
I always hated to exercise in the morning, but about 13 years ago my DW pushed for us to give it a try in the morning. When working, we would get up at 4:00 AM to do an hour of workout every morning. (Yes, everyone thought we were crazy.) However after many years of trying to maintain an exercise schedule, this one finally stuck. Now in retirement we still exercise at least an hour a day, but we get up later now (~5:00) and we lounge around for 1 to 2 hours prior to starting our daily exercise. We do a lot of other outdoor activities most days, but that is all "In addition to...not instead of".


I completely understand the best things of retirement from your original post...

Quote: ........My goal/desire is to go first thing in the morning, but therein lies one of the hardest problems for me. Getting up early is a lot like work and goes right to one of the best things I’ve found in retirement - getting up and having no commitment to do anything...

However in the end, nothing is free. Only you can decide if a healthy retirement is more important than a "no commitment" retirement.

Below are a few things that help my us to continue our exercise program:
- DW and I do it together, such that one of us can always push the other person on days we might not feel like exercising.
- Since we rarely exercise on vacations, we make it a point to start back up the FIRST morning upon our return home.
- We exercise at home (in a dedicated spare bedroom) to cut down on the time commitment required each day. I too like my hours of "no commitment" within retirement. :dance:

Well, got to go now. It's past 7:00 now. It's time to exercise.
 
I started doing sprint triathlons. The sprint are the short races, typically 700 meter swim, 12 mile bike and 5k run (or walk). They really aren't that hard and training for them can be a lot of fun as you will mix up the three disciplines. Yesterday I went to the gym and ran 2 miles and then swam 1/4 mile. These are called "brick workouts" because your feet feel like bricks. I have encouraged my wife, kids and a few friends to sign up and we train together too. Last summer we raced as a team in the Nantucket Tri. I swam, my daughter biked and my DW ran. Turned it into a vacation and had a blast. If you're interested there is a wealth of info at:

https://beginnertriathlete.com/

The big thing is, once you sign up for an event you rarely miss a workout.
 
I don't like the gym, so that doesn't work for me. I like being outdoors.

I walk at least two hours a day with my dog, sometimes three. He keeps up a pretty good pace. I also go for a bike ride a couple times a week. I enjoy both of those activities in their own right, apart from any exercise benefit. I never feel like I am pushing myself to do them.

That's the key for me -- find something you enjoy doing for its own sake, regardless of the health benefits. I've tried "disciplining" myself to stick with a regular exercise routine that I did not enjoy (e.g., treadmill, jogging), and although I did it for a while, it never held up over the long run.

In the evenings, I'll do a little resistance exercise -- push-ups, squats, that sort of thing. Helps me relax my body before bed.
 
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I developed the habit of running 5-6 days a week while I was working. I was what we call a Clydesdale runner...I was just into the obese category on the BMI. I did lose a little weight but not much. My other health numbers improved significantly, and I grew to enjoy and look forward to my morning runs. I got serious about it in 2016, and instead of just running, I “trained”, meaning each run had a specific purpose and goal, to help me get faster, have more endurance, and in the end lose weight. My goal was to be able to run a 5k in under 24 minutes and a half marathon in under 2 hours. Having this goal, in addition to loving the feeling I was getting from running made it pretty simple to get up and go. And I met those goals...not in an official race, but in my own time trials for upcoming races, and I lost a lot of weight in the process. I ended up not being able to do the races because my wife got sick. I’ve never liked weightlifting nor the gym, but we did get a membership and had a personal trainer for 6 months. That drained the budget without producing much in the way of results for me because I didn’t enjoy it. The biggest problem was that we travel a lot, and if you put the weights down for 3 weeks, then pick them up again where you left off, you get sore again. So, I was sore, all the time. Not the good kind, but seriously sore. We ended up dropping the personal training.

My point here is that you’ve got to find something that you enjoy doing. I never enjoyed weights, so without a trainer I wouldn’t really do it. And with our travels, well it just made things worse, because I wouldn’t do the body weight stuff our trainer gave us to do, because I didn’t enjoy it and couldn’t see any results anyway. But I did enjoy running (I’ve been suffering from an injury, so it isn’t as enjoyable at the moment, but I still do it, just less than I’d like). You may find that you like something that is a different kind of exercise that what you’d do at a gym. Maybe ballroom dancing. Maybe beach volleyball. Maybe running, supplemented with some swimming and biking. If you get into that, you may find that setting a triathlon goal might be helpful to keep you motivated. You don’t even have to do the event itself...just compete against yourself. Or compete against the results from a local triathlon, or 5K race, or half marathon. I’ve done that for all three. Loved it. But finding something you really enjoy doing, and setting goals to get better at it is, in my view, the key. For me, without these, I just won’t do it.
 
I used to need to exercise in the morning. 1.5 years into retirement, I'm enjoying the fact that it can happen at any time of the day.

I go to a yoga class 2-3 times a week. Only exercise I've been able to stick with (12+ years now) because I truly like it. You many not like yoga, but keep looking until you find something you do. Weight lifting, whatever. Liking it (and the instructor) makes it much easier to get to the class.

I was afraid of falling off a two wheel bike, so I bought a Terra Trike. I love it, but we live where it snows, so there's usually a month or two where I can't ride it. In the summer, I do make myself get up early and go before it gets too hot. We also bought a used, step through stationary bike which isn't as fun, but gets the heart pumping when the weather isn't cooperative.

I recently bought a Samsung Active 2 watch, and it pesters me if I don't move enough each day. It's pleasant pester, so I'm complying.

Finally, the dog's pathetic eyes get to me every single time. "Mom, walk me, PLEASE". Lots of dogs in our neighborhood, so it's also a social activity.

Good luck and I hope something in my diatribe helps.
 
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There are many small things that count as exercise. Gardening, mowing, parking far away, vacuuming, cleaning, taking the stairs even traveling. Walking distances in an airport, carrying luggage. Before we bought our ranch style house, we had many stairs to bedrooms and to basement. I used to run up and down the stairs. We also lived near good sized hills. We walked up and down those hills everyday. Now we live in corn/bean land, flat and boring.
 
I hike on local rural land trust and conservation land/parks every day after lunch with our two dogs. We did 485 miles last year. Been FIRE'd 3 years, and lost 24 lbs since retirement. I don't eat stupidly, but don't deny myself any food, trust me. I do find that when I prepare my own food, I generally make smaller portions.


When I lost all that weight in the first year, I seriously thought something was wrong. I was having some other minor symptoms with energy and nausea that were never diagnosed and have since went away. I used to tell my self my goal was to walk 6 days a week, but in truth, I generally make 7. Goal is 500 mi this year, that is about 1.37 mi a day average. I am not a morning person either and while our hike time is right smack in the middle of the day, it works fine. All my "busy" stuff is on my own schedule and I can make it work.



Our dogs drive me sometimes, the oldest turns 13 this summer. They STARE at me after lunch intently watching my every move, all hell breaks looks when I get my hiking boots. Occasionally on days when I really think I'd rather not walk, I get stared down and they make me go. New England winters can be tough. Cold and ice don't slow us down (I have spikes for my boots) but any moderate/deep snow and we don't fortunately, we are on schedule so far this year, January has been kind.

This is also my 44th year playing racquetball. I play twice a week, evenings, for 2-3 hours. On those days we take shorter walks, usually just about a mile. On most days, when I am playing, I feel like a 35 year old.

The morning after I play hard, I feel like a 78 year old.......!
 
No training scheduled workouts for me, but not that I probably should. I walk, bike, hike, work on everyday projects and do work at the ranch etc.. I split wood all wood by hand(axe) and snow shoe, do many manual tasks during a weeks time.
 
Jerry1 said:
Getting up early is a lot like work and goes right to one of the best things I’ve found in retirement - getting up and having no commitment to do anything. And, if I don’t get the exercise first thing in the morning, then it rarely happens.
Click to expand...

I agree that getting up and having no commitment to do anything in retirement is a great thing. However, one great motivator for me is, the better physical shape I am in, the more options I have to choose from in what I decide I want to do. That makes it easy for me to get up in the morning - it will *help* support not having any commitments and give me a wider range of things to choose from.

My current schedule is going to the gym for a 90 minute elliptical/aerobics/weights workout every other day. On days I am not at the gym. I look for another activity to keep me active for at least 90 minutes. Examples including golfing by walking the course with a pushcart (a side benefit in in cold weather is that it keeps me warmer that riding in a cart, so I can golf in colder temperatures), a brisk (at least 3 miles/hour) walk, mowing using a push mover, bowling, a hike with changes in elevation, etc. Then there are the informal things such as running errands and doing as much walking as possible.

Getting those out of the way early makes me feel better for the more sitting (but not for too long) activities later in the day. In fact, I find that this level of exercise helps to clear my mind and helps with the mental pursuits I enjoy, like writing programs and playing with various software and hardware technology.

DW always kids that, because she has received compliments about me from her female friends who go to the same gym, perhaps she should "ban" me from going there. In truth, a big motivation is that DW really, really, likes the way I look... and that I have the stamina to back up what she sees :D. The compliments from her friends do not hurt :).

At 61 I have no idea how much longer this will go on. That in itself is a motivator. Make hay while the sun shines. :)
 
It is one of those things you just need to decide to do. I've always been a runner and enjoy getting outside, so that part is not a big deal. However, I prefer to run somewhere between 10AM and 3PM, keeping early morning free and relaxing. Late afternoon I rarely have the energy to go.

Lifting weights, which Dr. Doug says I need to do more of these days, is a different matter. I despise doing it though, over time, I do see benefits. I decide each week when I will do it. I try to balance lifting 2 days a week and running 3+ days a week. I hope to keep it rolling forever...I know...:crazy:
 
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