Rewards For Exercise

Post Reply New Topic

I sure miss my cycling days, I had two recumbents that I can't ride anymore due to hip and knee arthritis.

There are apps out there that gamify walking and turn it into more of a fun competition. I used one called Ingress (?) for a while and had a group with a few people in my neighbourhood competing against a bunch of other people in the area. I've thought about creating my own one in the past, but it's on a To Do list below a couple of other projects that need doing first!

^
I have a theory that maybe with the use of a computer program and some clever peripheral device it would be possible to do just enough exercise to very slightly improve physical fitness every day. That way, exercise would never cause me any more discomfort that it had to in order to achieve the desired result, and I'd never overstrain my muscles by doing too much exercise. Maximum bang for buck. There are many things I don't do because I'm not convinced they're good value for the effort I'd have to put into them, because it's anybody's guess whether or not that would be the case. So it would be nice to have a "God machine" that knew and just told me.

I think this is a counterproductive mindset.

Having to add an extrinsic reward for exercise is basically convincing yourself that exercise is fundamentally undesirable and not a reward in itself.

You're basically making an association in your brain as exercise=chore.

A better solution would be to find exercises you enjoy. Do you like running/walking with music? Swimming? Playing sports? Do you like doing a few pullups and pushups every day? etc

when my body was fresh and young and wasn't stiff and didn't ache all over, exercise could be fun and life affirming. but in my senescence, it is an unavoidable chore. ouch.

For me the best reward is the increased levels of dopamine and endorphin afterwards. Besides that I like the long term benefits like overall better wellbeing and a better physical look.

I think decades of vigorous exercise have both aged me as well as helped me be leaner than I otherwise would be in my present old age.