I’m also on Mastodon as https://hachyderm.io/@BoydStephenSmithJr .

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: October 2nd, 2023

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  • Podcasts or music are not essential to my gym experience, but they are important. My pace on the treadmill certainly suffers if I forgot my headphones.

    A few weeks ago some “commedian” decided he needed to get my attention (pause playback, turn off noice cancelling, “yes?”) twice for idiotidic jokes like “When are you going to be done with that machine, because there aren’t any others: gestures to empty gym with only He and I”.

    He did pay me an appreciated comment during one of those interruptions, but overall his behavior was grating and made the session worse than average.

    I haven’t yet found a combination activity where I still feel like I’m getting sufficient exercise. I think combination activities work better for many people and you gotta find a way that exercise works for you, or you really won’t get enough.


  • There are places I could get to on a bike, but none that are currently in my routine errands. I suppose I could hit the post office on the bike.

    I set time goals for my 5k treadmill sessions, but I only meet then by converting over to a pace and setting the treadmill there. I continue to increase my weights, too, though I generally don’t go up until I can do an “extra” set.

    I get close to the NIH recommendations and I keep pushing myself to be better, and I still dislike exercising. It’s just non-optional maintenance for this shell until I can shed it.


  • I have tried swimming and hiking, and while I can enjoy doing those activities, I fail to maintain an elevated heart rate if I’m enjoying them.

    I live in a rural area, the Grocery store I use is 15+ miles up a US Hwy.with narrow/shoulders in places. I can’t do errands on a bike. I haven’t actually been on a normal bike in years, but on the stationary bikes at the gym, it’s another scenario where I won’t maintain my heart rate.


  • I dislike exercising, I often have to “parent” myself into starting, I have to fight the urge to stop several times during a session, and I almost always feel worse immediately after. Sore, tired, sweaty, or various other uncomfortableness, and I haven’t found a recovery activity that erases that temporary badness.

    But, my life when I’m not exercising has gotten better, and it’s at least partially due to the exercise.


  • I’m the opposite. Never much liked sports, and when I am not held to a pace like a treadmill does, I’ll not maintain enough heart rate elevation.

    So, for me, if I don’t get to the gym a couple of times a week, I fall well short of the NIH guidelines.

    The full report is quite clear that heart rate elevation is the most significant population-wide contributor.to general health. 150 “points” per week, which you can in theory knock out with one long (~75 minutes) high-intensity work out.

    Resistance training across all major muscle groups is secondary, and really only needs one set, on two separate days each week. Your don’t need to build bulk or anything, just keep then fully active. Add some weight if you could do an extra set before exhaustion.

    Stretching is good, in particular if you don’t reach a range of motion, you are likely to lose it as you age, but no specific recommendations are given