I know very few people who feel they exercise enough. Everyone knows that they should spend more time exercising but very few people do. However if you look at where they put their exercise equipment, it is no wonder they don’t exercise. Buying an exercise bike and sticking it in the corner of your basement is going to make it hard for you to want to actually go down and exercise.I think the ideal setup for exercise is to have your exercise equipment tied into your television, so the TV doesn’t work unless the exercise equipment is being used. Better yet, if the exercise equipment had a generator on it, so you had to pedal in order to produce the necessary electricity.
You can get many of the same benefits simply by putting your exercise equipment in front of the television. What seems to work well for me is to pick a television series I haven’t seen that is out on DVD and promise myself that I’ll only watch those videos while I’m exercising. Most television shows are 35 to 45 minutes long (once the commercials have been removed) which can give you a decent workout without eating up your entire day.Of course exercise equipment is only useful if it is actually used, but why not set things up to favor your success.
On a related note, if you are looking for an exercise bike, ski machine, etc. start by checking in the paper, or online classifieds. There are thousands of people out there who have purchased machines, stuck them in their basement where they were never used and are now looking at selling them for cheap just to get them out of the house. My wife found me a very nice NordicTrack for $5 (they usually sell for over $600 new) that I use almost every day.
three words: RIDE TO WORK.
I’ve lost about 18kg in a year(that’s almost 40 lb in your archaic American wrongism :-P ) without hardly exercising at all.
How did I do it?
I cycled to work.
It’s motivationless exercise: you don’t need to make any beat yourself up, use “discipline”, plan, or even go out of your way.
You just get up in the morning and go to work. Except on your bike. I ride 8km, but I know of beginners working up to a 25km commute in the space of a month (this guy lost his license).
Who needs to do all that bollocks with the DVDs (which is a good idea BTW), just get your exercise instead of sitting in the steel-cage-queue. You’re better than that.
A nordick Track for $5? Is that even possible? Why would anyone sell it so cheap?
@Humairah – We got an unusually good deal, but used exercise equipment is very cheap compared to its new cost. Many people are just trying to get rid of stuff so they can get back some space. Checkout Craig’s list. You can find a bunch of equipment there for a fraction of what it would cost new.
@Brent – I use to bike or walk to work. I guess I still walk to work, but it is a very short distance to my home office. :) A few other things I’ve done to stay in shape: Use the stairs for anything less than 5 floors. Take the first parking space at stores and consider the walk to be good exercise. Any time you can make exercising part of your existing routine it is easier to keep it up.
Thanks Mark! I did look up on Ebay after reading your post. I’ve moved to the UAE so it’s quite difficult to get things here online (too few sellers), and no one uses craigslist either [it was quite useful when I was in Toronto] Nevertheless, I’m going to keep looking.
Great post. What was new for me was getting a TV series on DVD and only watching while exercising.
That’s doable.
Keep up the great posting.
Craig