Fit-beards Revisited

Last week I warned you folks that we would talk about exercise this week, and here we are. I wanted to revisit a topic I wrote about way back in February. I had a pretty good summer, (lightly) training for the Warrior Dash and successfully running that race at the beginning of June.

But since then I’ve let myself get distracted by other pursuits. It is very easy to let myself feel like I’m busy with other things and don’t have time to work out in a given day. Somebody very smart said, “If you’re too busy to exercise, you’re too busy.” So I’m trying to refocus myself on Fitness. I am a little surprised my attitudes about it have changed considerably since February. This is due to a variety of factors.

First of all, my wife has been exercising like a champ. She did a Couch to 5k training program about a year ago. She kept going into the new year and ran an 8k in the spring. She did the Warrior Dash with me in the summer. Now she’s doing a half marathon program and will be running that in November.

I don’t want to gloss over that in one paragraph. That is pretty amazing and inspirational! In the space of one year, she went from a relatively small amount of working out to running a half marathon. She has certainly lost a few pounds along the way, and now runs 5 miles on an “easy day.” I think she’s awesome.

The other thing that changed my feelings was your comments. My “Become a Fit-Beard” column generated more comments than any other article I’ve ever written. There was some very interesting stuff in there like this comment from Jhalen:

“For this reason, I think, maybe Umbran's idea of listening to an audio book while exercising might work for me. It would allow me to do something 'productive' insteading of just wasting precious time.”

In many ways that summarized how I felt about exercising. Then there was this bit by kingreaper:

“Of course, the health of the body actually has a massive impact on the functioning of the brain. So even if you only care about your mind, exercise is still very helpful.”

I care about a lot more than just my mind, but my attitude about exercise was it was rather boring and I needed to find ways to distract myself from it so it wouldn’t be so objectionable. What I’ve come to realize since is how valuable exercise time is precisely because it is “boring.”

Exercise is the one time of the day I can get away from my computer screen, books, the TV, even my family. I can set my body on a path and let my mind roam free. And my mind is doing some amazing stuff with that time. It is coming up with answers to questions or problems that have been bothering me. It is coming up with new ideas for home projects, book chapters, ENWorld columns, and the games I run.

This effect has been so powerful, it’s not just a happy side effect of exercise. When I find I’m struggling with any question or problem, or I simply want some inspiration about a topic, I go out for a walk. It clears my head, gets my blood pumping, and the ideas and answers just flow. Every time.

That is of course on top of the other benefits of exercise. Feeling generally fit instead of bloated is always nice. And the endorphin rush and sense of accomplishment after a workout is hard to beat as well.

I know I’m stating the obvious, but I guess it feels like I’ve finally had that “ah ha!” moment, allowing me to actually enjoy my exercise time rather than simply endure it. I want to thank all of you that posted comments which helped inspire me. I hope I may repay that inspiration in some small measure each week.

What kind of shape are you in? What kind of exercise are you finding easy to keep up with? Where are you drawing your inspiration?

 

[Fiddleback]

Hi [MENTION=99]Rel[/MENTION],

I would be interested, given your background and experience, in hearing about ideas for 'gamifying' fitness and excercise. Beyond the general health benifits, it is often difficult to find motivation for regular and consistent excercise that is not tied to a sport or athletic game. Being that we are all, to one degree or another, tabletop gamers and enjoy gaming of this nature, is there a way that we can take our gaming motivations and extend them into the realm of health.

Note that I am not talking about games that 'teach' health principles. No one, I think, genuinely enjoys those sorts of things and they don't necessarily help motivate people to do more in maintaining their own health.

So, how about it? Are there ways to gamify fitness and health that feed into our already highly motivated gaming interests?

 

[reveal]

Burnie Burns, of Red vs. Blue fame, lost a lot of weight a few years ago. I thought his method was pretty ingenious; he set up a treadmill in front of a TV and would play video games, like Halo, while he walked at a decent pace on the treadmill. By taking his mind off of the walking, he found himself losing track of time and he said it never really felt like exercise.

 

[Rel]

Thanks for your questions, Fiddleback. In my earlier column linked above, I mention Fitocracy, which is a website that lets you log your workouts and gain experience points and levels, even do quests. I like the concept although I must admit that I've been very lax about logging my workouts there.

In the comments on that previous column somebody also mentioned a number of different apps that help make fitness fun. Check out Nytmare's comments near the bottom of this page: http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?587-Experience-Point-Become-a-Fit-Beard&page=4#comments

Beyond that, I find that simple camaraderie is often the best motivator. I mentioned my wife's path toward her half marathon and she's had a friend going to her running group with her every step of the way. Our housemate is currently getting her fitness regimen back on track and she and I are challenging each other to provide motivation as well.

 

[mythago]

1) awful and 2) joining a bootcamp-type gym, which means that I will tend to show up instead of "eh, maybe I'll go tomorrow".

I agree that camraderie is a good motivator. All of the dudes in my current gaming group are REALLY into being in shape, and happily in a "you wanna do this too? COOL!" way rather than in a competitive, who-can-be-the-swolest-bro way, so that coupled with a job change helped get me off my butt. I'm still not going as often as I'd like, but I'm getting more exercise now than picking up a d20.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Beyond that, I find that simple camaraderie is often the best motivator. I mentioned my wife's path toward her half marathon and she's had a friend going to her running group with her every step of the way. Our housemate is currently getting her fitness regimen back on track and she and I are challenging each other to provide motivation as well.

In my experience the three things that make me keep up with exercise are regularity, camaraderie, and variety.

Regularity: I worked into my schedule an hour to work out during my lunch break. It means that I have to wake up an hour earlier, which means I have to go to bed an hour earlier. Now that I've made it an established part of my routine I exercise consistantly because that time is already set aside for exercise.

Camaraderie: Twice a week I take a high intensity interval class at the gym with a handful of coworkers and another day a week I weight lift with them. Having other people to exercise with makes the workouts more enjoyable because it gains a social aspect. But more importantly exercise partners help motivate me if I want to slack (and visa versa). If I try to slack I have three people stop by my cube to cajole, guilt-trip, or inspire me to workout with them.

Also camaraderie helps push me more. It's easy to convince myself to slack. If I run by myself, I might get tired and adjust my speed to compensate. But if I'm running with others, I'm more apt to dig deep and find the energy to keep up with them instead of slacking. Likewise there are times in that gym class where I try to use lower weights for an exercise, only to have the instructor tell me to put them down and get heavier ones.

Variety: I find that after the thrill of the noticeable physical improvement wears off (be it improved mile splits, lifting more weight, losing weight, etc.) and I'm primarily maintaining my physical fitness, I start to get bored with my workout routines. I find having a variety of workouts helps stave the monotony of exercise. I'm less likely to be bored with something different. And when I'm not bored, I participate with more gusto and effort.

 

[Rel]

Great points all, Wednesday Boy. And glad to hear that your gaming group is providing support, mythago.

In the last week I wouldn't say I've been pushing myself (my right knee is being a little iffy) but I've tried to get significant exercise just about every day. Lots of walking.

 

[Lwaxy]

Nothing really motivates me to exercise except the need of my body to move. What demotivates me is the lack of time - so many things I wanna do, and moving around just takes time off it.

So we put the gym stuff in the gaming room. I can read the flavor books while riding the bike. And no one will disturb me then, either

 

[Darkness]

For a citizen of a modern urban area, my fitness is pretty decent. Still, almost a decade ago, it used to be quite a bit better. Unfortunately, there are a few things that tend to get in the way of my achieving an even better shape again; I hope to improve on this situation in the future.

On the plus side, I lost some excess kilos this year, getting me close to my ideal weight again. Which is very nice.