The gym

Darwinschild wrote:I don't know how people muster the energy to go to the gym after work, especially if they have not had dinner yet. These days, I get out of the hospital around 5pm. By the time I am home, all I want to do is vegetate and do nothing. In fact, I refuse to buy myself a television because if I had one, I would never get any work done. I would come home and watch TV until I go to sleep, which I really cannot do. Not only do I need to study for upcoming exams, prepare for tomorrow's cases, I also need to eat and, would also like to, ideally, exercise.

For those of you who exercise after a full day's work or class, how do you do it? I barely have the energy to heat my left-overs for dinner.

Have to do it before dinner. Once I eat anything more than an apple you need several hours to digest the food, and then its bedtime.

In any case, between 5 pm and whenever I go to sleep, there are 7 to 9 hours. I guess without the gym I have nothing to do with the time except watch Netflix.

Darwinschild wrote:What is the 30-60-90 rule for exercising? 30 minutes of exercise for 60 days? Than 90 days?

Your suggestion is not a bad one, but realistically, I cannot imagine myself exercising for more than 8, maybe 10 minutes at most. For example, when I am on my bike trainer, I can feel each and every second pass by. It is painful. I tried distracting myself with my laptop since I do not own a television, but even if I am not consciously counting the seconds, the gnawing ache in my leg muscles was enough of a reminder. Every minute felt it would never end. After three minutes, I was pretty much ready to call it a day.

Behavioural adaptations in the brain occur at discrete intervals, with a large measure of the rewiring achieved at the 90 day mark. 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days are the initial adaptative milestones towards that behavioural goal of complete mental commitment.

As an example, if you assigned 8 to 10 minutes each day to the study of multivariable Calculus, what level of proficiency will be achieved by the time you reach your exam?

You will feel far more aches and pains-and be easily distracted-in your study of the subject if you place less emphasis on its mastery than more.

It's kinda hard to explain to those who don't know the architecture of my house, but I actually run at home. There's a roofed, sort-of-external narrow area about 20 meters long by the side of the house. I just play some "energetic" music at very high volumes on my ipod and keep running back and forth back and forth back and forth, with all lights in the house turned out when possible. I don't stop until I have felt thirsty enough to drink three or more liters of water while at it. Sometimes I don't feel like running at all when I start, but after an hour or two I don't want to ever stop.

The music part is crucial for me. It doesn't really have to be fast-paced, just... "energetic", or repetitive. I tend to mostly use specific pop/electronic songs for exercise. Not only a matter of taste (it's only a fraction of my musical taste) but also of neurobiology, as it seems. The most aggressive/loudest/etc. music is only good in short bursts, or else it gets tiring. Steady repetition keeps it going.

Some representative examples of songs I use:

Loud, aggressive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxxajLWwzqY
Loud, melodic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV2Dqz7h4PE
Loud, repetitive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL5k_WYHzyY
Repetitive, melodic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVpu-rrPvZw
Repetitive, upbeat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMa_mMTyZGw
Repetitive, relaxing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azrKHpCwvm0

And so on. (By "repetitive" I mean based on sounds repeating in quick succession.)

As long as I choose something I actually feel like listening at the moment when I switch songs, it keeps me going indefinitely. Incidentally, this works not only for exercise but also for work (except that in the case of work I use a broader selection, as it's not physically demanding, and it takes longer timeframes). I can't do any work at all without music.

I appreciate the replies and thoughtful suggestions. It gave me a few things to think about over the weekend. For the first time in a long while, I actually don't feel doom and gloom at the prospects of exercising. Thank you.

Darwinschild wrote:I appreciate the replies and thoughtful suggestions. It gave me a few things to think about over the weekend. For the first time in a long while, I actually don't feel doom and gloom at the prospects of exercising. Thank you.

The best cure for doom and gloom with exercising is to either find something you enjoy, or set yourself a goal to complete. My enjoyment was and is martial arts, my goal was to join the army. To that end I spent about 20 hours a week exercising hard for over 2 years. I still do about 8 hours a week, but since I've got nether a good gym nor a good club near me at the moment, my options are limited.

15407 wrote:

Darwinschild wrote:What is the 30-60-90 rule for exercising? 30 minutes of exercise for 60 days? Than 90 days?

Your suggestion is not a bad one, but realistically, I cannot imagine myself exercising for more than 8, maybe 10 minutes at most. For example, when I am on my bike trainer, I can feel each and every second pass by. It is painful. I tried distracting myself with my laptop since I do not own a television, but even if I am not consciously counting the seconds, the gnawing ache in my leg muscles was enough of a reminder. Every minute felt it would never end. After three minutes, I was pretty much ready to call it a day.

Behavioural adaptations in the brain occur at discrete intervals, with a large measure of the rewiring achieved at the 90 day mark. 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days are the initial adaptative milestones towards that behavioural goal of complete mental commitment.

As an example, if you assigned 8 to 10 minutes each day to the study of multivariable Calculus, what level of proficiency will be achieved by the time you reach your exam?

You will feel far more aches and pains-and be easily distracted-in your study of the subject if you place less emphasis on its mastery than more.

I use the Blade Theme.

Honestly, the gym is a place where I don't have to give a $#%^ about anyone, nobody has to give a $#%^ about me, and I can feel good about myself.

I hate going to the gym, mostly because I don't like the atmosphere. I do love to exercise though. I do at least one hour of cardio every night, it really helps me sleep. Force yourself at first, it will get easier and eventually you might enjoy it.

Do I enjoy exercise?
Nope.
Do I care about my health, looks, etc?
Nope.

Well, guess I won't be going to the gym any time soon.

Velociraptor wrote:Do I enjoy exercise?
Nope.
Do I care about my health, looks, etc?
Nope.

Well, guess I won't be going to the gym any time soon.

Sums up my attitude pretty well

I Like the gym as I go at a time when it is mostly empty so there is little to no chance of people talking to me. I try to focus on just lifting the weights and/or the music I listen to. Basically I turn whatever machine or free wight area into my own little escape from reality.