{"id":758,"date":"2012-04-20T10:15:28","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T16:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antone.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/?p=758"},"modified":"2026-10-24T13:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T19:40:17","slug":"how-i-finally-started-exercising-consistently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeta.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/how-i-finally-started-exercising-consistently\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Finally Started Exercising Consistently"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you're anything like I used to be, getting regular exercise is a chore that you have a hard time sticking to for long. Hopefully my experience slaying that dragon will help. (Plus, you can download a free script I created to help near the end of this post.)<\/p>\n

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I'd known for years that I needed to exercise more. But most days, about all the exercise I got was walking up and down the stairs to my office.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, I'd started getting up early and jogging a little, but as soon as the weather soured, so did my motivation.<\/p>\n

Not too long ago, I was thinking about all the reasons why it was so hard for me to keep motivated enough to exercise regularly:<\/p>\n

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  1. It takes too much time.<\/li>\n
  2. It's too cold or too wet outside. Or at least it is some days, so I know I won't be able to establish a consistent routine.<\/li>\n
  3. Some parts of the year, it's impossible to run outside because of snow and ice.<\/li>\n
  4. I don't like running in my neighborhood because I'm always having to weave around cars or crooked sidewalks, cross streets (the blocks around here are very short), etc.<\/li>\n
  5. I don't like running in the dark because my neighborhood isn't entirely safe. (I don't know that people get attacked around here, but it's certainly not a crime-free area.)<\/li>\n
  6. I don't want to pay for a gym membership, especially since past experience suggests that I wouldn't use it often enough.<\/li>\n
  7. I don't want to drive to a better place to exercise anyway, because that takes more time and costs more for gas.<\/li>\n
  8. I don't want to buy expensive exercise equipment that I might not use.<\/li>\n
  9. Exercise is tiring\/no fun.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So I spent a little time thinking about how to solve those problems without moving somewhere that's right next door to a free, fun, indoor workout location (I should be so lucky!) And I finally came up with a solution that I've stuck to.<\/p>\n

    It takes too much time<\/h2>\n

    I ran across an article that said that 20 minutes of intervals (eg. alternating between 1 minute of high-intensity exercise and 1 minute of low-intensity) will give you the benefit of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise.<\/p>\n

    It's too cold\/wet\/icy\/dark outside<\/h2>\n

    I exercise in my basement.<\/p>\n

    Running in my neighborhood is too inconvenient\/unsafe<\/h2>\n

    Once again, I exercise in my basement.<\/p>\n

    I don't want to pay for an expensive gym membership or exercise equipment<\/h2>\n

    All it takes is a computer and a decent pair of shoes.<\/p>\n

    Exercise is no fun<\/h2>\n

    Well, I still wouldn't call what I do fun. But I've discovered that doing intervals helps in several ways:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Keeping a count of how many segments I've completed helps keep me going.<\/li>\n
    2. The shorter workout offered by intervals brings the end of the entire workout quite a bit closer.<\/li>\n
    3. At any point in the workout, I know I'm within 1 minute of reaching a goal (completing a high-intensity segment) and getting a break (switching to low-intensity).<\/li>\n
    4. The way I do the workout means that I'm always even closer to the end of something. Let me explain...<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The workout that I settled on is, as I mentioned before, intervals. What I do is run back and forth across my basement (and walk back and forth during low-intensity minutes -- I imagine I'll speed that up a bit as I get into better shape).<\/p>\n

      So I'm always just a few steps away from turning around. That may seem like a small thing, but I really do think it helps keep my mind off of how long and tiring the entire workout is.<\/p>\n

      When I first started, I would touch the floor each time I turned around, but I quickly discovered that my lower back wasn't up to the extra strain (I've had back problems since I was a kid). So I switched to a sort of a hop-turn (to minimize any torque on my knees). My last step in each direction is followed by a hop-turn, so my foot comes down pointing the other way, and the other foot comes down behind me to complete the stop and push off to start in the other direction.<\/p>\n

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      To time my workouts, I created a javascript interval timer<\/a> (click to download -- unzip it and you can run it right off your computer). I just crank up the volume on the computer in my office so that I can hear the sounds telling me when to switch between high and low intensity and when I'm done.<\/p>\n

      I've kept at it for several weeks now. And it's not difficult to motivate myself to do it, so I expect I won't have any trouble sticking with it for the long haul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      If you're anything like I used to be, getting regular exercise is a chore that you have a hard time sticking to for long. Hopefully my experience slaying that dragon will help. (Plus, you can download a free script I created to help near the end of this post.) [afterburner]show=large_rect class=afburner_float_left program=adsense _sort_order=[\/afterburner] I'd known...
      [      read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeta.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeta.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeta.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeta.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeta.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zeta.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"https:\/\/zeta.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeta.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeta.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeta.geckotribe.com\/alpha-gecko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}