What types of physical exercise do you enjoy the most?
Mostly just asking this for a college assignment since I'm a student there, and this is the one I picked out of the twenty I came up with.
Feel free to also answer why you do such exercises, describe the last time you have engaged in physical exercise, and provide any additional thoughts.
Hiking, for me. There's a variety of trail difficulties, so you can do something more casual if you want to, and aside from the great cardio, you're out in the beautiful outdoors.
Same for me, hiking is my favorite way to exercice.
Sex
I was waiting for this one. 😂
I scrolled too long to find this lol
Running. I do it 4 times a week, and my last time was yesterday. I took it up late in life, and found that I love it. Imagine my surprise, given that I'd spent my life telling myself I don't like doing physical activity
How long do you run? I tend to get bored while doing any monotonous activity. That’s why I don’t like walking. I run a mile or real regularly. But want to run for longer without getting bored.
I don't find it monotonous for some reason. At the moment, my longest runs are about an hour, but in the before times, I used to run longer than that
Walking the dog is all I’m capable of at the moment. Trying to walk an hour at a time, twice a day. Some days it works.
If you can do 2 hours of walking a day you're doing far better than most people.
Even an hour of walking would be better than most, if that's all you're capable of then you're capable of plenty! Keep it up!
I take Hippocrates' "walking is man's best medicine" advice when it comes to physical activity. It's good for the body and mind and also good for interacting with people.
He said it but that lazy bitch never walked hardly at all!
I go to the gym three times a week. I started working out to lose weight and improve muscle mass and tone, and because I fell out of love with running. Last time was yesterday - bench press, overhead press and chin-ups. There's something primal about lifting heavy weights that makes it enjoyable (much like the other poster said about boxing).
Cycling. I love to just go out and discover the countryside on a bicycle and climbing mountains to descend them again.
Swimming laps
First, why do you like to do swimming laps? Also, when is the last time you have engaged in physical exercise, and do you have any additional thoughts?
I like swimming because of the no impact when swimming. Another reason is because its like meditation for me, I don't think about anything else when I swim. The last time I engaged in physical exercise was on Thursday so 3 days ago.
It's also swimming for me. I used to swim combative during my time in school, but stopped after I graduated. I didn't do any sport regularly for about 10 years and picked up swimming again a year ago and I love it.
It gives me a break from every day stress. Once I'm in the pool, all the noise gets drowned (literally and figuratively). I totally agree that it's like meditation. Concentrating on your breathing and feeling your body float in the water you either think about nothing, letting your body do the moves you practiced a million times over and over, or you try to feel every muscle and the feedback of the water to try to perfect your stroke by making small adjustments. No distractions, no phone in your pocket, no music in your ears, no one trying to talk to you. Having my routine and knowing how long it takes I don't even have to check the clock.
Also I like that you don't have to rely on the weather. There's no excuse not to go because it's too hot, or raining or whatever. In an indoor pool you always have the same conditions no matter what.
I know it's a typo, but "swimming combative" makes me think of 007 fighting someone underwater lol
Cycling. I don't (yet) have all the fensi equipment nor an expensive bike and don't do long, exercise-like laps. It is much more incorporated into my daily life. I have an oldschool road bike which I use for my commute and then every day after work go around the city with it for some hours (with small breaks for say shopping/eating; ca. 25-30 km per day). Longer rides on the weekends (average ca 100-120 km per weekend). Never was keen on sports but was always into little daily adventures and this combines the two. Last time: yesterday.
Jiu Jitsu. Really fun to grapple hard against an opponent. Unlike striking sports, you can practice pretty hard and mostly avoid injuries. There is a thinking component and a mental strength component making it much more fun than other workouts I do.
Human chess!
Grappling is great because not only do you need to learn strategy, patience, set ups, push pull, etc; you also have to train your body to do what your mind is thinking.
If the body is capable but the mind is weak, you suck. If the mind is capable but the body is weak you suck. And if both are weak, your just like me!
Also it's gender semi neutral. Women can absolutely dominate against men using skill. Same with Davids vs Goliaths.
Yeah same here. The problem is that as I get better, I put in a lot less effort. I lost like 15 pounds from white through blue belt. I've gained back 8 during purple. On my way to being a stereotypical bald fat brown belt.
Cycling. It suits my personality best. I love some alone time with my music/audiobook for an hour or two and it doesn't even feel like exercise.
God bless all you people who have time to exercise.
Climbing. Go three times a week and it's just fun and challenging.
There's a bouldering gymn near my house and my fourth-grader has gotten really into it. She would rather swim when the pools are open, but once the weather gets colder we'll be there every weekend. I can do all of the beginner tracks and most of the 0-1s, even some of the 2s, but the difficulty goes up to 16 and the climbers who do anything above 5 seem to be thinking about the sport in a way I cant even visualize.
I’m no where near a pro…intermediate at best. I generally climb v-grades around 7-8. I know this feeling you’re talking about very much. Sometimes I revisit where I was, and where I’m at, and what once felt impossible to even imagine now just feels intuitive (of course it’s all relative, as anyone climbing v10 and above look like magicians to me). It sort of just happens naturally through practice and experience. Learning a skill is so wonderful!
Playing Switch games while walking on a treadmill. I always found exercise boring before, but the split controller of the Switch makes it easy to play while walking.
I have found I don't even notice I'm walking and look forward to it since I'm actually looking forward to gaming.
Dark Souls while walking is the best. I've walked about 140 miles in the last month.
Long distance walking. I usually pick a direction, put on a podcast or some music, and just vibe as I walk and listen.
I do it because it's not overly complicated, allows me to relax and enjoy something to listen to as I walk, gets me out of the house and maybe towards another activity I'd like to do, and it helps me sleep better at night.
On a light day, I might do it for 30 minutes. I might go for 2 hours if I'm in good condition. I think my record was over 5 hours.
A good game of football/soccer with friends
I had horses for 10 years, and riding was by far the best exercise for me. I have fibromyalgia, so I can't do many exercises without causing me way too much pain. I last rode in 2014.
I also love kayaking but haven't gone in a long while because of kayak transport issues.
Yoga is also fun. I play the Nintendo Switch game Yoga Master and do yoga like once a month.
I have a very hard time with exercise. I do get about 20 mins of cardio each night catching my ducks to put them in bed.
Cycling. The wind on my face and being able to go sightseeing makes in very enjoyable in addition to the dopamine boost from increased activity.
Does it have to be non sexual, or?
Roller skating
I enjoy boxing immensely. Not only is it a full body workout, but there is something deeply, instinctually satisfying about punching a bag really hard. Ive fallen off the wagon recently, I should really get back to doing it.
I do multiple forms of exercise, but probably enjoy tennis more than the others.
I think that's because I'm learning a new activity and the exercise is just a side effect.
Weightlifting.
I don't particularly enjoy physical activity and so I try to maximize my time spent exercising. I use a couple of those adjustable dumbbells and spend a few minutes every day just doing some reps. If I'm feeling more motivated I will also mix in some calisthenics.
If you want more data, my wife enjoys walking and insists on walking 10k steps every day since she got her Fitbit 2 months ago. She hasn't missed a day yet.
Stationary rowing, 5 days/week. It's a good whole-body exercise, heavy on cardiovascular & low impact, but not particularly strengthening. Can sit in front of a movie and just go. Got a tracker to record performance & heart rate, and I really like seeing new bouts appear in the graph. That may be more motivating than the nebulous protection from future cardiovascular disease.
I like climbing and biking. Biking because I love how far a pretty simple exercise can take me and I love that it's practical, I don't need a car as long as I can bike there. Climbing because I like an exercise that feels like a fun game but is truly a challenge for the human body, I've gained a ton of muscle in my body without trying.
Running. My brain struggles to start with anything that requires a lot of actions to get started. Going to the gym, for instance, requires me to grab my stuff, bike to the gym, change clothes, and then keep switching exercises. Any of these actions require me to get over a mental "bridge", and can thus cause me to stop.
With running I change clothes, put on shoes, and just start running. I can be outside very quickly, before my brain realizes what's really going on. And once I'm going it seem to cost me more mental energy to stop than to keep going. So for my brain it's perfect. Barely any setup and almost no "bridges" to cross.
Climbing.
It became an instant obsession when I tried it 3 months ago and have been going 3 times a week for a couple hours ever since. Such an amazing sport and after 3 months has me stronger and fitter than at any point in my life (I'm in my mid 30s).
Skipping. I just feel it perfect for me. Can be a time pass or intense, any day , any time. I thought ( in my school days ), it as a teenage game and was not interested. Couple of years ago, I saw Arthur's skipping in Peaky Blinders. Man, that did it for me.
I cannot even describe the feeling I get skipping instead of running. It's like I'm faster and on a planet with less gravity and I love it.. 😃
I love aquafit -- guided aerobics in the pool. Easy to modify for whatever physical issues you have. It's social, low pressure, and a great instructor makes it surprisingly fun. It looks really easy, and then the 80 year old ladies kick your ass at the exercises.
When it's not hot AF I quite enjoy trail riding. I haven't been in two years though because it's quite hard to find that much free time (~4 hrs) when I have two kids under 6. I enjoy feeling the breeze as I ride, the constantly changing scenery, and the random challenges of rough terrain and steep hills. It's also quite fun to use GPS and map your ride and see the stats.
Kids definitely make things harder don't they? Mine are 2 and 5 and so even if we go out, they walk slow as shit, and if I turn up the intensity in hide and seek it's over before it starts. I like to think I'm essentially exercising most of the time though, because they can certainly get my heart pumping.
I joined the gym last October, I usually road cycle 100-150 miles a week, come winter I'd hook my bike up to a turbo and spend winter indoor training, but by God it was dull, this past winter was amazing, 3 times a week strength training, yoga twice a weekend, pilates once a week, spin classes a couple of times a week, winter has never passed so quickly. Come summer the weather has been shit, barely done 1000 miles outdoors, usually would have done that in the first two months, carried on with strength training, yoga and pilates, but not so much the spin classes.
Oh,and I walk the dog 6 miles a day
Rowing. I found rowing through a friend, and while I only do it indoors with a machine, it works for me.
Social dance, followed by swimming and biking, then distance cycling. Cycling is the most common one I do, followed by swimming in the summer.
To explain the distinction I'm making between biking and cycling: When I say "biking", I'm talking about lower-speed, exploratory riding; usually a very dense saturation of a smaller area, often on trails set aside for recreation. When I say "cycling", I mean high-speed, linear riding, focused on covering distance or getting from one point to another; typically on through streets, dedicated bicycle infrastructure, or highways.
For social dance, my favorite is Ceilli, then various mosh pit styles, followed by square and contra, but in terms of how ofen I do them the order is reversed.
Running and swimming.
People enjoy exercise?
Yeppers. It triggers the brain to feel the big happy. Usually I'm not too happy when I try to start moving or when I'm just moving. But once I'm running I'll usually have some point between 0-3km where it starts feeling good. And from there on out it keeps feeling good even if I'm tired.
I love lifting weights and LISS like long slow bike rides or runs. Intervals suck but I do them because they're good for me. So I guess my answer is yes. If I had to pick a favorite it would be biking.
P90X for fitness, kickboxing for fun. Got a 100 pound Muay Thai heavy bag and an Aqua Bag slip bag at home.
Weightlifting and stretching. I love reformers pilaties because it incorporates both.
Weight lifting 3x per week. It feels good, and I’m too lazy for cardio.
Les Mills metabolic strength conditioning and, machine-wise, nothing beats the Jacob's ladder
Swimming, but no time for that :(
Pickup sports. I can run all day playing football or basketball.
Since that isn't an actual option I have anymore, I mostly actually use an exercise bike. It's low impact and I can do it while my brain is occupied elsewhere. I'd like a rowing machine because it's a big full body power workout, but I have no room for one.
I enjoy things when I have a sense of progression I think. So I most enjoy lifting because of that, and when I could, the novelty of strongman was great to mix in.
I used to swim all the time but I burned out on it. I was just adding mileage and I think the only thing that kept me going was the whole body exhaustion/relaxation afterwards. As well as buying myself some bone conducting earphones so I had something to listen to instead of my own thoughts!
Alongside lifting I walk and run around with my dog for nearly an hour a day. I love my dog but we go on the same tracks around the property all the time, so it would be even more monotonous without all the podcast I listen to. Right now she's a bit puppy-crazy, so training new things isn't as effective, which could make it more interesting. Plus there's no heel/agility training I can work on until she literally grows her joints.
I also kayak once or twice a month for a few days. I like it for both the adventure and the people I paddle with, even if it can feel a bit tiring being in a social situation for an extended amount of time. It's probably my most enjoyed activity quite easily.
Powerlifting. (Tldr: 1 repetition max in squat, bench press and deadlift).
I don't know why but I don't like endurance training, I find it very boring. So I do the extract opposite.
Swimming. It's the only time I can move fast and it doesn't hurt half my body. Running sucks as a tall fucker. My knees hate it.
I'm primarily a runner but I've been combining swimming for the last 10 years or so and it's been great. Swimming is fantastic cross training for runners. It lets you maintain cardio fitness while you give your "running" muscles a break. It teaches good breathing techniques. It works other muscle groups like upper body and core muscles which are important for stability. And most of all, for me, my partner loves to swim so it's something we can do together.
Pickleball.
CrossFit. Lots of varied movements and love throwing around some good sized weights.
I skateboard lol. It's quite fun just zooming through the streets.
Exercises that don't require equipment, just using your body. I like push-ups, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, but I love bicycle crunches, I just like how the burn feels when doing it.
Dancing, Aerobics, Jazzercise is my favorite. Because it is exactly complicated enough that I can turn my brain off and just dance. Running is so monotonous I can't stop thinking.
What I do now is yoga and lifting and walking, because that's what I have available here.
I'm mid 50-s and have never not worked out. Last time was yesterday, first time when I was maybe 7? Did different sorts of dance practice for a long time, then ran when that was the only possible workout, have to move physically or I get anxious.
Long walks, tricep pushdowns, bicep curls and leg press.