How to start exercising if you hate exercise

Starting an exercise regimen is hard. No wonder: for most of human history, the idea of scheduling time to expend a bunch of energy for no reason would be laughable. Studies show that hunter-gatherers typically only sit down for two to three hours a day. But as our lifestyles have changed, more and more of us spend most of our lives on our butts. And it’s literally killing us: statistically, heart disease is most likely the way we will die.

There are a lot of systemic reasons why South Africa is a particularly difficult place to get enough exercise: apartheid city planning, poverty, crazy crime rates and a poor food environment have meant that it’s not easy to build sports and movement into your day. Stats show that around half of South African adults live completely sedentary lifestyles.

But even though it’s hard, building a long-term exercise habit is too important for us not to try. The good news is that we don’t have to become marathon runners or cross-fit fanatics: even a little exercise can have huge health benefits.

Here are five practical steps to building an exercise habit. One that sticks this time...

1. Decide why you care

Learning to exercise is tough. There will be many moments you’ll want to give up. So, spend some time at the start being extremely clear what’s motivating you.

There are real benefits to exercise that go beyond looking hot naked. Exercise slows the ageing process on a cellular level. People who exercise are happier and less likely to suffer from anxiety or depression. Exercise lengthens your lifespan (every an hour of running adds an estimated seven hours to your life expectancy). It can boost your brain health and prevent diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Do some research about the health benefits of exercise that interest you the most, and write them down somewhere to remind yourself in those moments when all you want to do is flop on the couch and watch 14 hours of Game of Thrones reruns.

2. Set clear, specific goals

Don’t start an exercise programme with the ambition to run the Comrades: you’ll quickly feel like you’re failing and want to give up. Start with a shorter-term goal, something that’s achievable within 1-2 months, like wanting to be able to run 3km without stopping.

In fact, evidence shows that the “sweet spot” for health outcomes isn’t a crazy amount of exercise: it’s just over 150 minutes of moderate-intensity (eg a brisk walk, ballroom dancing) or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity (eg swimming, boxing, running, soccer) exercise every week, broken down into chunks of time that are at least 10 minutes long. So, something as simple as a brisk 25-minute walk every day can have a huge impact on your health.

When you start, you don’t actually have a good idea of what goals will be realistic for you, so try setting goals around the process rather than the outcome, like “I want to go swimming for 30 minutes, three times this week”, or even, “I want to go to the gym every day, even if all I do is buy a smoothie and then go home.” In the beginning, building the habit is more important than any other goal.

3. Create a plan

Find a programme that suits your goals. If you want to pick up a new sport, research local clubs and find out when they meet. If you want to start running, take a look at something like the Couch to 5k programme. If you’d like to try a gym programme, the Fitness subreddit Wiki has a great list of routines for beginners.

Then, go and schedule it into your week. If you use a calendar app, add the workout sessions you want to do. Figure out the details of how you’ll put your plan in motion.

A pro-tip: figure out what your backup plan will be, in case you aren’t able to do what you planned. If you get stuck at work and will miss your run, can you follow a 15-minute YouTube workout routine at home instead? That way, you won’t feel like you’ve failed if you aren’t able to stick to your plan, and you’ll be less likely to give up.

4. Remove the friction

Let’s be real: Your brain is going to look for any excuse to skip a day’s worth of exercise. So, try to pre-empt all of the excuses it might give you, and remove them.

Imagine that your brain is a whiny six-year-old child who really does not want to do PE. What systems would you put in place to make sure that they have no excuses?

“I caaaaan’t! My running clothes are in the wash!” Make sure you set out your running clothes the night before, or even wear them as pyjamas.

“I caaaaan’t! I don’t remember when the yoga class starts!” Print out the class schedule and keep it on your fridge.

“I caaaaan’t! I didn’t pack a gym bag!” Pre-pack your gym bag and keep it in your car.

Whatever you do, NEVER allow exercise to be negotiable (“I’ll skip the session I planned to do today, and do an extra-long one tomorrow instead”). If you’ve planned an exercise session, treat it like you’d treat an appointment with your boss: you can’t cancel it without a very compelling reason. If you teach your brain that there’s any room for negotiation here, you’ll always find a reason to skip exercising, just today. The tiny six-year-old in your brain LOVES finding reasons to stay home.

5. Get over the discomfort hump

Let’s not sugar-coat it: when you’re starting out, exercising is hard and it feels awful and every second is agony. Luckily, this won’t last forever: most fit people say that they actually really enjoy exercising (which, I know, feels like an impossible concept if you’ve never been fit). The trick is to find a way to distract yourself through the gross bits, until you get fit enough to enjoy yourself.

The best way to do this is to find a social form of exercise that feels more like play. There’s a reason that team sports like soccer and tennis have a stronger correlation with longevity than more serious “exercising” like running and swimming: it’s fun, so you stick with it longer, and being sociable is as essential to your health as the cardio itself.

If that’s not possible for you, try finding a way to distract yourself while you exercise. Say — just picking a random example out of the air, here — by subscribing to a hilarious and helpful podcast about adulting, which you can find on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your favourite podcasts. Ahem.

(Thanks, Murray Hunter for gifting us the term “discomfort hump”).

For more advice about how to start an exercise programme that works, and why it’s important to do so, listen to the latest episode of the Like a F-cking Grownup podcast at the top of this page. ML