For those of you who exercise....

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How did you get into the habit and how do you stay with it? I've gotten into it a couple times but if I skip it one time it's like I have to get use to it all over again. Any advice?

Tie other parts of your routine to it.

When I eat, when I bathe and, brush my teeth are all tied to me getting my exercise in. I feed my dogs after I do my laps, there is no way my dogs are going to miss a meal, so there is no way I am going to miss my laps!
I also do not let myself get on the computer until I have done my laps.

It took me a few weeks to get started but I took time and figured out how many laps to start with, at what rate will I add laps, how many days a week will I do them and finaly how long until I add more things to my routine other than laps. I even planned out my route in advance.

I haven't broken this routine in almost 3 months.

Doing something with other people helps. If you are alone all the time it can be difficult to stay motivated.

My exercise is walking to and from work every day during the work week. It's about 1.2 km (3/4 of a mile) each way, and takes me between 15 and 20 minutes, depending on the traffic lights (there are six along the way).

My doctor says he recommends 30 minutes a day, three times a week, and breaking up the 30 minutes into two 15-minute sessions is okay. Walking to and from to work as I do is perfectly acceptable, he says.

What motivates me? In the morning, it's not wanting to be late for work. In the evening, it's wanting to get home.

In any case, walking is excellent exercise. And having some kind of portable music player (walkman, cd player, mp3 player) helps.

I was tired of being fat, got pissed and started to sweat it off. I'm funny like that. I couldn't swim or be taught to swim for years as a kid. I sat in the corner of a public pool frustrated after repeated attempts and failing. I got so mad that I decided I'd go for it and maybe I'd drown for all I cared. Next thing you know I'm swimming.

When I first started to try and create an exercise program I mostly just stood in place and made up my own routine. I just decided I'd practice types of punches. Right hook, left hook, right uppercut, left uppercut, jab, jab. I'd do this at an increasing pace for about an hour and you'd be surprised how much a sweat you can work up like that.

Later on I started lifting weight and that's mostly what I do now. I was burning myself out trying to cram in upper body and lower body in one session. It was taking over an hour to finish. So I started splitting workouts to upper body one day, lower the next and so on. I've pretty much stopped lower body working out altogether though. I further split my upper body routine into chest/biceps one day and triceps/shoulder presses the next. It's not alot but I buffed up quite a bit and doing what I do maintains me if nothing else.

Thanks for the tips. I think I will start going for a mile walk around here before I turn on my computer everyday. I use to be a bronze god before I moved away from my hometown and since then I have been mostly sedentary and have put on about 30 pounds.

Wow. For me, the routine was the easy part! Don't have to think about it: just throw myself out the door at 6am for my 10k run. Been doing it almost 15 years now, exact same route, exact same direction.

In fact, this is one of the things that led me to suspect I have AS.

Once it becomes part of the routine everything will be great but just trying to modify my routine and put my internet obsession on hold for 30 minutes to exercise is hell.

I've been trying to get the will to workout for a few hours now. Sometimes I'm all for it. More often than not I have to will myself. I find it easiest if I just commit to getting up. Blanking my mind to indecision and the thought of not wanting to. I just get up, walk in there where the free weights are, pick 'em up and get going. After that it's no problem carrying on. Doesn't hurt that I know I always feel more alive after I finish my sets.

I've been running for as far back as I can remember, and there isn't a day I go without it, so... I really can't answer your question.

I am with UncleBeer and IdahoRose on this issue ! !

I do alternate 5m / 7 m/ 9 mile runs btween 3 and 6 times a week .

I do the same three routes every time and , of course, time myself EVERY time ! !

Am I alone in hating the first 15 minutes of each run ( although it is uphill for first 15 minutes lol ).

Something happens after about 45 minutes jogging -I feel as thoughI could run forever but sadly that feeling only lasts about another 20 minutes

Zincubus

I live in Holland (but I'm American!), so hills aren't an issue.

I admit I'm occasionally less than enthusiastic the first 5 minutes, but I can honestly say I've never *regretted* going out for a run, despite, gale-force winds, hail, etc.

It's a nice feeling that no matter how weird the rest of your day goes, you've already "slayed a dragon".

I've found the best way to get into, and stick with, a fitness program is to tie it to an interest, e.g. instead of going for a run and lifting weights, take up an exersize-styled hobby like boxing, pilates, TaeKwonDo, yoga, or whatever you think might hold your interest. The best interests normally are ones where you can develop in a comparable way, and you can practice with people, but you can also practice alone.

Football is really popular in the UK, and while I personally hate it, it is a good way to stay fit, and if you like it, have fun at the same time.

Other than that, have a good idea what kind of fitness you're aiming for (I.e. fighting fitness, endurance fitness, sprinting fitness, etc) - to get to a high level in any of them requires different training to each of the others.

The last point is to do a bit of research. Building muscle, for one thing, has its own science to it, that most people hardly know about. If you research what you want to accomplish beforehand, you'll get much better results.