That exercise post I mentioned

So, a couple of you expressed interest in a post I mentioned about not liking exercise. Here's what I was thinking: that it's just not acceptable in the modern U.S. not to like exercise.

Seriously. People who don't like to exercise are called "couch potatoes." The popular image is that couch potatoes are fat, unhealthy, and lacking in drive or initiative. They are, god forbid, lazy. It's not acceptable simply not to like to exercise. 

But you know what? I don't really like to exercise. 

I feel better when I exercise regularly, yes. And when I've been exercising semi-regularly, if I go about 3-4 days without any exercise - if I really do spend those days doing nothing but sitting, like during finals, for instance - I do start to feel stiff and creaky and want to get up and move. (If I don't get around to it for a few days, though, that feeling goes away.)

When I do exercise, it's because I know I should, because it's good for me, because it benefits my health - kind of like why I brush my teeth (something exercise is often compared to). I don't brush my teeth because I enjoy it particularly. My mouth feels better after I've done it, but the process itself is pretty boring. Similarly, I don't exercise because I enjoy it. The process is pretty boring.

Thing is, I know not everyone feels this way. Lord knows about 90% of my classmates love exercise, in that they have some kind of physical activity they love to do and rush to do whenever they get the chance. (For many of them this is skiing. But there's also snowboarding, climbing, running, soccer, and basketball.) I remember walking by a soccer game on the law school grounds - so just intramural or even more casual than that, not a varsity sport or anything - and watching everyone rush around, and realizing that they did that because for them, it was fun.

For me, honestly, exercise is not fun, and it never has been. I've never liked exercise. From the time I was a little kid, I liked to read, I liked to write stories and keep a journal, I liked to draw, I loved coloring books. I was in band from middle school on and loved it. I played the piano as a kid, then I played the flute. I was in musicals in high school; in college I took voice lessons and sang in an a capella group. I like to bake. I like to play around with beads to make jewelry. I used to collect fountain pens, vintage and modern, and the ink to go with them; now I collect perfume oils. I've volunteered for humane societies. I even like to make soap. (Notice a theme here? The theme is: not a lot of physical activity involved.)

That's actually kind of a lot of hobbies (not that I engage in them all at the moment, but still). But I regularly feel guilty for being a lazy slacker because I don't like exercise, because when I'm looking for fun I don't go out and do something physical. 

(You should see me in REI. That store gives me anxiety attacks because I feel like an imposter every time I go in. It doesn't help that they don't sell a lot of clothes in my size, so I can't even shop there if I want to. Clearly I am a fat worthless pig with no valuable abilities. Though this may just by my own neuroses talking.)

Anyway, some of this is probably just me, but I really do think, what with all the current scare-rhetoric about the obesity epidemic, that there is a celebration of exercise and a consequent condemnation of people who dislike engaging in it. (This is at the same time that it's perhaps not very easy to get exercise? It's a reversal of the class signifiers in Ye Olden Days - you know, it used to be great for women to be fat, because it meant you had a lot a money and a lot to eat; now, being fat means being poor, because you can't afford to eat healthy food, and being thin means being rich, because you have money and time to take part in all sorts of exotic and expensive activities like skiing and tennis and swimming and so on.)

I was trying to think if there's any kind of equivalent condemnation for people who don't like to engage in other activities. I don't get the sense, for instance, that people who don't know how to play an instrument face the same kind of opprobrium. And while (some) people bemoan their inability to speak any language other than English, I don't sense the same kind of societal condemnation of monolinguality as of couch potatodom.

The closest thing I can come up with is not liking to read. There are regular panic-mongering articles about how OMG JOHNNY/JANIE CAN'T READ, and the world is coming to an END because no one reads books anymore (as opposed to teh evil intertubes), blah blah blah. So I suppose saying "I just don't like to read" might be as looked-down-upon as saying "I just don't like to exercise." Or maybe it just depends on who you hang out with?

life_of_a_fool suggested that it was very acceptable to frown on all forms of physical activity, and that really surprised me - because I've never been in a setting where that was the case. So I'd love to hear more from people about whether the very premise of this post - that it's unacceptable to dislike exercise - is flawed from the start. Am I simply paranoid? Is it possible to view disliking exercise as just an element of one's personality and preferences rather than a moral failing?

Comments

[Feminist Avatar]

You should move to Scotland- a country where people innately do not like exercise and where people who do like exercise are looked upon as a bit 'odd' (or in some circles as impressive, because look at their will power- but still odd).

This is not to say that people don't exercise- but it is a massive sacrifice of money and will power- a martydom to the temple of the body.

The only exception being if you work in a sports industry (as my SIL does) where there seems to be a lot of internal pressure to be super-active and happy about it all the time. But, the rest of us look on in bemusement.

On saying that, I have recently got a garden (after being in a small flat) and I am enjoying the physical exercise element of gardening- but I think that is because it has a purpose (veg and not annoying the landlord) rather than exercise which has no purpose (other than health).

[Mountainmums]

I'm a graduate student in a cognitive psychology/neuroscience lab, and also what you would probably call a sports fanatic. I love exercise, and before entering graduate school had only been in environments where that was deemed ok (still too extreme for many but still ok).
Now in my lab, there are professors, research scientists and engineers who haven't done any exercise since high school, and for some of them, that's a long time ago. These people look down on me because I like sports and that all my pursuits are not intellectual. They call me crazy to my face (maybe better then lazy, but still . ..)
Of course, this is in France where we don't have the obesity epidemic and where intellectual environments are notoriously snotty.
All this too say the interpretation of liking/ not liking exercise all depends on the surrounding culture. And since I believe that French and American moral standards are reasonably similar, I'd say that not liking exercise has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with what the cool kids have decided is "in".

[Bardiac]

I think you're right, and especially right to notice the class component in the US.

I had to laugh at the REI bit, though. Walking into a Nordstrom's has much the same effect on me. When I needed an interview suit, one of my friends took me because I'd never shopped for anything like that and had no clue how to do it.

[Freckles]

I enjoy some forms of exercise, but I totally get why some people aren't into running/lifting weights/playing soccer. However, I do find that the same people who so vehemently say, "You *have* to exercise" and get all high-and-mighty about how often they work out are the same jerks who won't walk two blocks to the store or will circle the parking lot (at the gym, no less) to get a close spot.

[Ricky Nelson]

I agree with other commenters that this pressure to exercise is primarily an American thing. However, Western European countries differ significantly than the US because their cities and even smaller towns are much more walker and bike friendly. Their food is also better (both in taste and healthiness) than American food.

To answer your question of whether its flawed from the start to dislike exercise depends on what you mean by dislike. If you mean "dislike but still do exercise" then it's not really a problem. We all do things we hate. But if it's "dislike exercise, and thus don't exercise," there are some reasons why that is unacceptable for society.

The biggest reason is that people who have a BMI above 25 are shown to be more at risk for certain very expensive medical conditions and illnesses. When you are at a young age, you can abuse your body quite a bit and not take care of yourself. When you get older, your muscle mass starts to break down and your body stores more of its weight in fat. If you didn't have much muscle to begin with and more fat than you needed, you are going to run into problems (diabetes, heart problem, the usual) when you start hitting 50. Then everything becomes a question of who is paying for your illnesses. The answer is everyone (to an extent) through their increased insurance premiums. And I don't think it's unreasonable for people to apply some social pressure on you because your unhealthy habits are going to be an unnecessary burden on society.

However, there's being healthy and then the health industry which has latched onto the current craze to be healthy and made people feel like crap for not having a ripped body with 6-pack abs or a "bikin-bod." While all of those characteristics are good to have health wise, it's not mandatory to live a healthy life. Various companies have been able to market off the craze and I don't think it's wrong to be a little disgusted with people who buy into the marketing aspect.

[Bright Star (B*)]

I hate exercise. Hate it. I think I hate it because I was terrible at it. It's not what I have a natural inclination to do, and when I have tried to improve, the improvements were so minimal. I may write my own post about this so as not to take up your comment box.

You've said this before, and I think it makes sense -- your current location amplifies your feelings about this issue. When we live in places where being super active is prevalent, you're likely to notice this stuff more. My colleagues are not that into exercising, and those who are do not really talk about it too much. I have a friend whose colleagues are very into exercising, and I see her as being very active, but she doesn't see herself as being active in comparison to her colleagues. It's relative.

That said, when I was my most active was when I had to move around for transportation. I lived within walking distance of where I worked. (I consider walking distance to be within a mile and a half or so.) Every day, I walked a few miles. That's what I wish for -- a lifestyle that made movement and exercise more integrated into my life (because I acknowledge the health benefits, even if I don't personally love it). My lifestyle is too sedentary, but I don't need one more activity to schedule.

[Notorious Ph.D.]

I also don't like to exercise. I like having exercised, and as soon as someone figures out a way to have exercised without actually exercising...

There is one exception: bicycling. I love it. Love. It. Not "put on spandex and go 40 miles" cycling, but "get on the bike and ride to work" cycling. Probably not coincidentally, I loved biking when I was a kid (and otherwise, I was just like you, preferring to read a book or just sit and imagine things). It was, and continues to be, the one physical activity I don't think of as "exercise."

[Laura]

I like going on leisurely walks, preferably on nature trails. I'll walk for miles that way. In part, that's why I thought it would be good to sign up to do the 60-mile walk thing. I could never do a run for charity and I thought, hey, I like to walk, this will work out fine. And it has, sort of. I still like walking, but two things. One, knowing that I *have* to walk takes some of the fun out of it. I prefer seeing that it's a nice day and deciding to strike out for a walk. Two, my teammates, athletic. Makes me look bad. I'm talking sculpted muscles and everything. So annoying. I can't quite keep up with them, but whatever.

I used to like playing soccer, but now that doing so would involve playing with actual athletes, I'm not so thrilled about it. I guess I need to do things with people who aren't trying to buff up, but are just moving around in a casual manner.

I agree, though, that it's unacceptable in the U.S. to not enjoy exercise. I have had a few people look at me funny when I choose to sit on the couch vs. get out and run 3 miles.

[life_of_a_fool]

I think it is amplified by your current location, which does seem to be super active. And you're absolutely right about the class/race dynamics of it all, and when/for whom it is "easy" to exercise.

I still think that your attitude -- you hate it, but you do it for health reasons -- is the dominant attitude in the U.S. (or maybe the dominant attitude is just to hate it and not do it, or not think about it at all). There's a glorification of sports, and *watching* sports, and certainly subsets who are very into doing some type of sport. But, it seems more common for people to do it, if they do, in a way akin to brushing their teeth. They want to lose weight, they want to be healthy, but they don't *like* it. Notorious PhD distinction between fun biking and unfun exercise fits here as well.

I know what you mean about feeling like an impostor too -- I started running a few years ago, and have only slowly started referring to myself as a "runner," or thinking I have any "right" to be in a running store. I run more than your average person, but I'm NOT an elite runner or particularly fast, so therefore I'm not a "real" runner. But I think that's my issue. :) And I like it more when I'm done, often, than when I'm doing it.

I also don't care that I'm mediocre. I try to improve, but I'll never be "good." and that's fine with me. Not being fine with that might contribute to some people's hatred of it, as a lot of people don't like to do things they're not automatically good at. I'm not crazy about team sports because I don't like feeling responsible for other people's failures and I'm *terrible* at any team sport I've played, but if it's just me, that's fine.

[Vellum]

THIS: "I also don't like to exercise. I like having exercised, and as soon as someone figures out a way to have exercised without actually exercising..." (Thank you, Notorius, for putting into words my exact sentiments on the matter).

New Kid -- thankfully, we no longer live in a time where people who move slowest get eaten first, so I think we're safe :) (confession: I do binge stationary-bike every 12 months or so out of body-image panic and depression, especially in the winter when I get sad (SAD sad) :( )

[af]

I love walking, and swimming, and kayaking, and sometimes yoga or tennis. But I don't love them because they're "exercise." In fact I start to dislike them (especially tennis) when they begin to feel like "exercise."

When I was in Russia a while back, I mentioned to a Russian woman that I didn't smoke. She looked at me with an extraordinarily deep look of disdain and said, "And you jog." (Think of "jog" said in a Russian accent, with about five syllables.) I did not, in fact, jog, but that's what she thought of us crazy healthy Americans.

[Carin]

I'm with Bright Star: for me, for as long as I can remember, exercise qua exercise has been a misery, and phys ed at school a site of failure and humiliation. When I see masses of children out on the soccer fields in the suburbs on weekends, I recoil as if I'm seeing publicly-sanctioned child abuse. I have a complete failure of empathy and imagination when asked to believe that this could be fun.

My exercise aversion started so early - my school reports comment on it from the time I was 4 - that it must be inborn. That said, there have been periods when I've danced quite seriously, and that I loved for its own sake, pain, sweat, and all. I often think that I would have grown up healthier and better-adjusted if forms of exercise that didn't involve competitive sports and running in the hot sun had been part of phys ed at school - dance, aerobics, yoga, Pilates, etc.

Since the time my joints gave out completely and I stopped dancing, the time I've felt most free of the exercise-guilt complex was when, as B* says, my daily routine had exercise built in - when I lived in west-coast city without a car and walked everywhere, including a hilly mile to work, through an environment so stimulating I never noticed it was a schlep. Every couple of weeks, I'd remember that I wasn't feeling guilty about not exercising or worried about having to schedule exercise, the way you occasionally notice you're pain-free.

[Rokeya]

I think the disdain for not exercising or actively seeking out exercise is problematic (for all the race/class/gender reasons alluded to already) but knowing that doesn't get rid of the fact that it's hard to *navigate* the disdain. I've done a lot of reading/reflecting on body acceptance and fat acceptance in the past few months (as you know) and perhaps the most powerful thing for me has been to foreground pleasure and self-love, not just in exercise but in all of my activities. Re: the exercise part, that might mean that I don't get regular exercise and that I'll never be an "athlete," but it does mean that whenever and however I choose exercise, it's *because* I want to enjoy myself and my life. I'm not going to force myself to do something that doesn't bring me pleasure, and frankly punitive exercise is (to me) more harmful than good in the long run. Why should we treat ourselves with the mindset that if we just ate some cake we need to punish our bodies with excessive workouts afterward? That's not us talking, it's the magazine cover (representing a construction of hetero male fantasy) talking.

This has actually made me more excited to explore and find different kinds of exercise I *do* like/alternate my routines more because it's all about finding things I like, with no apologies for not going back to it a second time if I hate it. That is exciting, rewarding, and worth my time.

One last thing: I want to acknowledge (since as far as I know no one's brought it up) that there is a great deal going on around this issue re: size privilege. As a genetically small-boned, short, slender woman it's a lot less socially "risky" to exercise infrequently or not do it than it would be for someone larger. It's important not to conflate size with health (part of the problem is that others will conflate it for you even when you're careful not to, and it sucks to always be read through that lens).

[Anastasia]

I was going to say something like what Rokeya added, which is that you can sort of get away with not exercising (even because you don't like it) if you're thin(ish). If you aren't, forget it. As Ricky Nelson so helpfully pointed out above, if your body doesn't conform to accepted standards, you are therefore Death Fat and will kill Society when you finally explode into a ball of flames. At that point, you should at least have the decency to head to the gym, if only out of shame and do what all the virtuous (excuse me, I mean thin) people do.

As a parallel phenomenon, I'm struck by how many of my friends have a system that automatically updates fb on how far they just ran. I find it pretty irritating, actually. The culture of loving exercise manifests itself in advertising exercise. And that that point, it feels like saying "I'm not one of those terrible unhealthy people responsible for the world's ills!" Or something. And you know, I'm not a fan.

So maybe it is the whole ZOMG OBESITY KILLS rhetoric that produces the need to publicly identify as Not One Of Those People by declaring a love of exercise...? Or perhaps by reporting how much one exercises?

I don't know but I don't like it. I do think not liking to read is more or less on the same level. I don't really read for pleasure, for instance, but I've learned not to say this sort of thing. Likewise, consuming Important and Serious Cinema. I don't. Don't care to. And I think not reading for pleasure and preferring Anchorman over whatever Stanley Kubrick did lately is the wrong taste for my social sphere.

[life_of_a_fool]

Rokeya makes great points. I still think it's more about hatred of fat people than glorification of exercise, though. So, yeah, some people can "get away" with not exercising, as long as they conform to mainstream body ideals. And isn't that our mainstream ideal, especially for women? Be thin and beautiful without any effort?

I hate the conflation of health, appearance (thinness), and exercise. Yesterday, I went to a triathlon, and one of the great things about it was that the athletes came in all shapes and sizes. Obviously all very fit, but they didn't all look the same. Some fit mainstream standards and others didn't, but they could all complete a triathlon. Again, I think Rokeya (and some others who have commented) has a great attitude -- it's not about burning calories, it's about finding activities that you enjoy. For many people, finding that activity can help with body acceptance because it becomes more about what your body can do than what it looks like. That, I think, is a healthy approach to exercise, rather than "must exercise to burn off that piece of cake I just ate." It's the conflation of all those things that irritates me.

(sorry for the multiple long comments! This is a fascinating discussion!)

[Bright Star (B*)]

I want to return to Royeka's writing about punitive exercise. For me, because I prefer to do things that I feel like I am good at doing, and I am not coordinated or very good at physical activity, when I have purposefully tried to schedule "exercise," it has felt to me like punishing myself for being fat(ter than I wanted to be). That's how I would think of it in my head. Literally. I had to go to the gym and work out to punish myself for being fat. Otherwise, why would I work out? To relieve the public humiliation of being worse (slower) than everyone at running or publicly getting a failing grade at P.E. because I could not serve the volleyball over the net? I can relate to mathematics anxiety because I have serious physical education anxiety -- the difference being that my failure to be competent in P.E. was highly public and I believe that people only sometimes feel publicly not competent in math class.

I have issues.

People say -- go do something that is not competitive. I used to like roller blading. That didn't feel like exercising. That felt like flying! wee! I should do that again, just because it was fun, and I felt cool for being able to do it (because when I first tried, I couldn't, and I eventually got better at it).

I have thought about trying yoga, for the relaxation and mental health reasons.

I refuse to engage in punitive exercise any longer, but I do think it would be fun for me to do things that require me to use parts of my body other than my brain -- to celebrate myself, to mentally relax, etc.

I also wonder about the posts on FB about how and when people exercise, but I take them like my posts about traveling. It's just random sharing about what people are doing. They use an application to update their physical activity. I use an application (Dopplr) to update my travel activity.

[Belle]

Exercise is, for me, something I do for health. I don't like it. Never have, for all the reasons noted above. Like Notorious, I like the after-feeling, but not the doing. The only activities I've ever done that can be considered exercise that I truly enjoyed were swimming (even laps was fun when I was doing it for fun) and walking, especially in natural/beach situations. Hiking in Crete was great fun, and I never feel like that kind of stuff is exercise - it's a sensual excursion.

But going to the gym? I do it 3-4 times a week. Kind of like a duty call on an irritating relative.

[maude lebowski]

Excellent discussion!! I find that when I exercise with the sole purpose of losing weight, i.e. the punitive form, I do not enjoy it at all, and I've been pretty active my whole life. When I'm exercising for other reasons, I enjoy it much more and am more likely to stick to it and find that the weight loss just happens naturally.

My SIL is thin, but probably one of the most unhealthy people I know. She has no muscle tone whatsoever; however, since she's thin, she thinks she's the authority on health and complains a lot on her blog about how fat people are a drain on society, but she restricts her not yet two year old son's diet (already!!) so he won't be a fat baby, but as far as I know, doesn't let the kid run around or take him to a park or do anything like that. I think she capitalizes on what others above were saying--that there's the assumption that if you're thin, you *must* be healthy. Some of the thinnest people I know are the least healthy people I know. But she knows that because she's thin, people will assume she's healthy, ergo, she can run off at the mouth.

Since I actually enjoy exercise most of the time and dream of being mega-active once again (I find that for me, when I'm my most active, I have a high level of confidence and this has a direct correlation to how well I perform in my teaching and scholarship), I am a big proponent of it. I think it is something that should be incorporated into one's life, much like brushing one's teeth or eating one's vegetables. But I think dancing around your apartment to your favorite music three times a week does as much good as any other kind of aerobic activity. I think, too, that if cities in the US were more walk and bike friendly, the "need" to exercise to make up for sedentary lifestyles would be less of a issue.

But I think there's something to be said, too, that exercising is very trendy right now (as someone above mentioned)--the biggest Hollywood stars are not necessarily the thinnest ones (though they are on the thinner side), but they are the ones in the best shape. The most beautiful are the ones who are the most fit (unless your Angelina Joli--she seems to get a pass). When people talk about how hot Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston are, they also talk about how tone and fit they are. 20 years ago, that wasn't the norm. In HS, the athletic girls were not the "pretty" girls or the popular girls, unless they were the best ones on the team, and even then, they were only popular with the other jocks. No one joined a sports team to be thin or pretty or popular (unless you were a cheerleader), but with all the sports activities I see my friends' kids doing now in jr. high and HS to be popular I think illustrates that it's the "in" thing.

Sorry to take over your comments. I didn't mean to rant. I've been struggling with a lot of the same issues myself this summer.

I wonder, too, if there's any difference depending on field, too, the degree to which one might be looked down upon for not exercising. Like I remember there were periods during grad school where I was looked down upon for exercising for pleasure--if I was exercising, then I wasn't pursuing scholarly interests (as I think someone else mentioned a similar issue)--that exercising betrayed a lack of intelligence. But, George Bush makes time to run, and that's evidence of his leadership capabilities. Nobody was saying, "uh, maybe if he spent less time running and more time running the country..." Anyway, sorry. I'll stop now. I've gone on long enough. Thanks for starting this discussion!

[maude lebowski]

I'm so sorry, again, that my comment was so long.

[Krazy Kitty]

I don't exercise. Exercise was the bane of my middle school years (it was better in high school but I still hated it) and as soon as I could get out of it I did.

I walk a lot. I dance. I swim once in a while because I love moving in water. I do some physical therapy exercises, which are far from a work out and don't take more out of me than brushing my teeth. (I find the teeth brushing comparison ludicrous. Brushing your teeth takes only a few minutes a day and doesn't make you sweaty and uncomfortable)

But I don't work out. My choice.

[dance]

Right there with you about REI. I like going there in a frilly skirt and impractical shoes because I deal with imposter-syndrome-in-stores by challenging the store. (Related: the Can I stump the Apple Store employee? game)

But I'm also coming down on the side that you must just not have found the physical activity you like to do yet. I'll show up at the gym for step aerobics 5x/week and enjoy it, but not because I like to exercise. I like *step*, because it's basically an energetic type of dance. (Running: fun in no way whatsoever)

Re your analysis, though: Physical activity leads to endorphins is such conventional wisdom I think that's probably playing into what you read as social condemnation, too. But isn't there a lot of self-deprecating talk from the fittest/thinnest people about how they don't like exercise, how painful the gym was, etc?

And re your location---outdoor sports, which are dependent on the weather, are likely prone to producing a lot of "ooh, gotta do this now!" talk and attitude, which is probably exacerbating your sense that people enjoy exercise. But I think you need to separate enjoy nature, enjoy skiing, etc from enjoying exercise. Do you really hear people saying "hey, let's go to the gym! so fun!"

[dance]

Uh, PS. There are only occasional weeks where my liking of step overrides my dislike of leaving the house as many as 5 times.

[procrastinator's ponderings]

I never played games at school. Much preferred playing piano and reading books. But I loved walking, cycling and dancing. And I was fortunate that I was slim, even up to age 60. This was possibly due to my genes or my metabolism? It most certainly was not because of consciously taking exercise.

I was never a member of a gym.

However since I retired my lifestyle has become very sedentary and the pounds have piled on. The most consistent exercise I take nowadays is playing the piano, watering plants, feeding the birds, typing on my laptop, putting away groceries and cooking.

I don't feel guilty.

[life_of_a_fool]

I think what led to my initial comment was comments like "I hate exercise! (but I love to dance/walk/hike/swim/whatever)." Umm, so you like some forms of exercise, like 99 % of people who say they enjoy (some form of) exercise. And the people that dance, most recently, but others as well, have brought up who are martyrs to exercise ("oh I hate it, but I must go! see me sacrifice!"). People like that, and some others, seem to think it's cool to shun exercise, or at least it sounds like that sometimes to me. And, I think I hear more people present their lack of interest in exercise as a moral stance much more than I hear people who enjoy exercise present it as a moral stance.

On the FB updates -- I don't do that on FB, but I do keep track how far I've run. I do it because I'm a little anal and like to keep track of my progress and because I'm often training for something. It's not some sort of holier-than-thou statement, and I doubt it is for most who keep track on facebook. It's not about anyone but me. In the same way I don't take B*'s travel posts to visit her boyfriend as some in-my-face because she has a BF and I don't, or that I don't take someone's blog tracker of writing word counts as some strategy to shame me about my writing.

The celebrity thing that maude lebowski brought up is interesting and a good point. There still does seem to be an underplaying of just how much work (and luck) goes into those toned bodies though (and it's also threatening to some people -- see varied comments and obsession with Michelle Obama's arms). That can also contribute to other people's dislike of exercise if they don't see the same (appearance) results from more normal efforts.

(sorry New Kid for the multiple comments, and for totally stalking your blog looking for others' comments. :)

[ferjo]

I just loathe exercise. I do it because I'm supposed to, like paying taxes. It's better if I can do a treadmill and watch a documentary, or listen to music I'm working on while walking the dogs. I used to be a big runner, because it made my parents happy--because it got me out of their house. The television tells all of us we should run around looking like blobs of gristle, slightly burnt by the sun. What's funny, is, as you mentioned--REI--these types of stores that promote the "healthy" lifestyle don't sell clothes to anyone over size 14--the very target audience that is supposed to need to get out there and pump it up. I had Cushing's disease--I went from a size 8 to a size 20 in rapid time. I couldn't believe how differently people are treated. It was an eye-opener

[Jansen]

I like exercise, but not for any weight loss purposes. And I always direct the over-exercisers to this time article: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857,00.html

[phd me]

I absolutely agree with you, New Kid (even if I'm late to the conversation). I think there's an expectation that everyone must exercise today, especially if you're a woman and especially if you're over 30. I'm 38 and I've watched every single one of my girlfriends fall into the exercise mindset as they creep up into their 30s. I know these women and I know they don't like sweat but I've watched them join gyms, train for half-marathons, start biking. And as soon as they do, they start wondering when I'm going to join them.

[Paige]

Like so many others here, I like the feeling of having exercised more than the exercise itself.

The only exception I've found to that is parkour, which, admittedly, takes way more muscle tone than I have to be really good at. But it is, to this day, the only form of exercise that feels like playing more than it feels like work.

[Rose]

I'm not sure if I don't like exercise. I have only "exercised" (walking on a trail and yoga) for the past ten years. I think I absorbed terrible messages about exercise when I was a child, from horrid gym teachers who told me I wasn't coordinated, couldn't run, wasn't strong, etc., and from other children who wouldn't choose me for teams and said I was a klutz. I know I feel better when I walk an hour a day and do yoga. It makes me feel physically strong, calmer, and happier (endorphins?). Mostly gyms remind me of what I was told I couldn't do when I was young. Happily, I think most children now are not told what physical failures they are if they can't run a relay race or throw some object.