How long do I have to work out before I start to enjoy it? Will I ever?

It's a drug, you feel good when doing it, but you feel like shit when you start withdrawing. Except unlike most drugs, it is good for you.

Hey no one can make you go except you yourself. I don't give a crap - I'll just look better than you and have an easier time with the girls.

And you don't go back to a natural state that quickly, which was a surprise to me.

Although part of me finds this post whiny, I commend you for seeking motivation to go to the gym one way or another. That you made this post shows that you at least have some intention of getting up and improving your body and your health, which places you in the minority of people who want to take care of themselves.


My response:

1. It all depends on your state of mind. I personally find it boring to just be going on a treadmill every time, but part of the thrill of going to the gym is getting better as you go along. When you first start out this is very apparent. You start out weak but every time you go you'll be able to feel yourself getting stronger - you're going to want to lift heavier weights little by little, you'll be able to and you'll feel your body getting stronger, like some kind of monster. I personally think that's a really fun feeling. It also helps if you have friends who go with you who you can improve alongside.

2. Remember that motto the US Marines have? "Pain is weakness leaving the body" sure your body is sore after a workout, but as you get used to going to the gym and getting more fit, the soreness becomes shorter and less intense. You'll also notice feeling better in general in your activities outside the gym. The intense soreness that lasts a few days is something that only happens the first two or three times you do a particular exercise - it's your body using muscles in ways it's not used to.

3. Don't think of it as some drug you go on and off - when you go to the gym and give a damn about your health, that's a switch you're making in your lifestyle that you make to improve yourself. Going to the gym only produces real results if you stick to it for a long time, in the neighborhood of a few months. Going to the gym shouldn't be a modification you make onto an unhealthy lifestyle, it should be part of a whole lifestyle geared towards making you a better and healthier person, which should be your default lifestyle.

All that and I'm sure you'd enjoy looking better, fitting into clothes, having more capacity to enjoy life, getting more girls/guys/whatever you like, I could go on...

Nobody really LOVES the actual act of working out. If I could stay in the same exact shape without exercise, I would sure as hell not exercise. I would go to the pub. You have to have goals, preferably which you can measure. The scale is one way to measure, but i never really got excited by that. As musclehead as it sounds, try a max bench rep goal. Or a timed mile goal. Or a continuous jumproping goal. Talk about it with your close friends so they give you positive feedback - it's not really bragging, its just conversation. It's like when your friend gets a new car, or has a hot date, you say, "wow playa good job". They will complement you on your exercise progress, it's meaningless but its also motivating, it's just what friends do. When I was starting exercising, I got really motivated by being able to bench 135 (bar plus 2 big weights), then 185, 200, 225 (bar plus 4 big weights), etc. It's as simple and dumb as being able to say "GWB was bragging he could do 200, I can do 225." It doesn't matter what gets you motivated, as long as it helps you exercise.

Once you begin to see results that will help. Bring an ipod/discman/cassette player to the gym. You wouldn't believe how much easier it is to work out when you've got some of your favourite music to work out to.

But ya, for the most part, it's a bitch and not much fun. The actual working out part. It's up to you whether feeling better/looking better is worth it.

You may want to try a sport that has the side benefit of getting you in good shape, e.g., martial arts, rock climbing.

When you start seeing results and you want more

I doubt that you have been going long enough to see them

a friend of mine worked for a moving company over the summer in between summer classes. He got paid like $400/week for a part time job where he moved heavy things. Not bad, since you have to pay to do that at the gym anyway.

+1, you don't necessarily need to be in the gym to maintain a healthy body.

I think that it has a lot of it has to do with investment. Most people don't get "addicted" to working out; they get "addicted" to the benefits. Once you start seeing and/or feeling the benefits of working out, you become invested in maintaining or even enhancing those benefits. One guy might like his sexier physique; another might like his improved athletic performance; yet another might notice that he's sleeping through the night and not needing to nap during the day. It's different for everyone.

Not long ago I was very sick and couldn't go to the gym for almost 3 weeks. I started craving the gym, not because I like working out, but because I could feel my gains slipping away.

If I'm right about this, then you're probably never going to enjoy the gym because you seem to visit it sporadically and without clear goals or a program. My advice, then, would be to decide what you want to achieve, select a ready-made program targeted at that goal, and then follow that program religiously for several months. If you experience progress, you will probably get hooked.

You will like it as soon as people start commenting about the positive changes you made to your body. Whether it's outright compliments or women checking you out on the street, you'll be hooked. Then eventually you'll start to feel better about yourself and you'll be REALLY hooked.

If you're looking for day to day changes it's going to be very hard to see which is probably the #1 reason most people quit the gym. They spend 30 minutes a day on the eliptical and wonder why they don't see results after a week. Even if you have a program that is actually effective you can't be studying the mirrors every day looking for changes, you'll just get discouraged. The trick is to not look for the changes at all, just let them happen. Take a before picture of yourself the week you start training. Then for 8 weeks, avoid looking in the mirror. Shave with an undershirt on if you have to, but force yourself to not look for the changes. Like working out this requires discipline. Then after 8 weeks, take an after shot and see the results. If you've worked hard they should be quite easy to spot. Repeat the cycle until you arrive at your genetic potential.

As for the return to the so called "natural state" well, you'd be surprised at how strong a motivator the idea of going back to being either a skinny bastard or a fatty is at keeping you in the gym. Being fit is a taste of the good life, and once you've tasted of it, you will never want to go back. Staying at a level of fitness is remarkably easy when compared to the hard work you put in trying to reach the next level. If you find your motivation waning, pull out old photos of yourself, see how much harder you work the next day.

I used to think exactly like you. It took me a couple of weeks to really enjoy lifting and now I look forward to my days when I do lift. Off-days feel really incomplete for some reason.

I think the key for me was quitting smoking and getting on a proper nutritious diet. This gave me the energy to get myself to the gym in the first place. The next step was studying proper lifting technique and getting on a good program. I'm doing starting strength right now and I can physically feel myself getting stronger each time I go to the gym. I like the idea of progress when it comes to tangible results. Putting on another 5 lbs to my squat/deadlift/bench is something tangible I can measure. Furthermore, exercise has many beneficial health effects, not the least of which is to increase my testosterone (a feeling I missed due to years of poor diet, rampant alcohol abuse, and sedentary lifestyle).

I think you have to set goals and you will find motivation to achieve them. For me, learning the science behind nutrition/strength training was pivotal in deciding to be healthy and fit. Before, I never made the commitment to go to the gym because I would do random exercises to achieve fleeting 'pumps' in the gym in order to just look stronger. Now I know I am getting stronger and know the positive adaptations going on in my body are taking place. Looking a lot better is merely a great bonus.

It's never all that fun. But it's about constantly pushing yourself, right? Set goals and try to reach them (distance, speed, strength, etc) Having a challenge makes it more interesting.

I try to be healthy in all aspects of my life, and spending time in the gym is certainly an important part of that. I find that there is some sort of positive feedback into the rest of my effort to be healthy when I am more committed to my gym workouts. Simply, when I work out more, I want to eat healthier, drink less, get good rest, and generally take care of myself to make sure I get the most out of my workouts.

I think being healthy also plays a role in a positive feedback loop into my overall well being. When I am healthy, I feel better, and I am in a better mood, and that in turn improves the moods of the people around me.

I don't really use that as a direct motivator, but when I'm not sure about taking a few moments out of my day to go to the gym, I can easily think about it being the right thing to do, and that I will benefit from it in one way or another.