[MangoToupe]

>It's crazy to me how many people have miserable health, complain about their body and mental state endlessly, but still put up any roadblock they can think of to avoid exercising of any form.

I don't think it's that weird. Exercising, particularly cardio, for its own sake, without something you're trying to accomplish with your effort, feels very bad.

[reducesuffering]

Humans are evolutionarily adapted to running. Yes, going from a modern sedentary lifestyle to running will feel rough for a few months as you acclimate (and most people don't start off at the slow 11 min. / mile [7 min. / km] pace they should). But there's a reason marathons are so popular, running and exercise starts to feel really good.

[MangoToupe]

> Yes, going from a modern sedentary lifestyle to running will feel rough for a few months as you acclimate

Right. Which is why people don't exercise. That's a lot to ask of people with other things on their plate.

To be clear, I know I should exercise. I just find it very difficult to do so, and it's very easy to convince yourself you should do something else with that energy.

I think team sports are probably the best way to get into exercise. This allows tying the benefit directly into a reward system. I ran long-distance in high school and, without teammates to let down, it was very difficult to push myself beyond the bare minimum effort. Most of us don't have the ability to summon a team sport into our work schedule though.

[CTDOCodebases]

The problem with exercise is that we have evolved to be energy efficient and this includes being lazy when we have food/shelter so the resistance to it is high.

However once we start exercising for any period of time and observe the positive outcomes then the difficulty drops and it becomes enjoyable.

The problem is peoples expectations and approach.

> Yes, going from a modern sedentary lifestyle to running will feel rough for a few months as you acclimate

This is a terrible idea and for someone who has been sedentary they will likely just injure themselves and/or feel miserable. People don't have realistic expectations. It's better to do something like "couch to 5K" running on a grass or a dirt track. In a couple of weeks they will feel good after a run (if they are not too distracted and outward looking) then from there the runners high reinforces the behavior and they will look forward to exercising.

[reducesuffering]

Many people find the data and record-breaking in running a good reward system. There's all kinds of goals to try to achieve, from your best time at 10 different distances, to weekly miles, to a longer and longer distance like a marathon.

Team sports are harder to work into a schedule, which is why running is easier to start for many people because it just requires a pair of shoes and leaving the house yourself. For others, there's a parallel social angle where you can also make many friends you see regularly at clubs and enjoy the same activity together.

[pphysch]

"Not exercising" also feels very bad, just on a different time scale.

[mrguyorama]

A time scale that the human brain is terrible at recognizing or adapting to or internalizing.

Our reward hardware doesn't work well for exercising because it wasn't needed for exercising. You either did physical activity or you starved to death.