Advice on Exercise

TLDR

I am absolutely unqualified to give any advice on exercise and you should immediately return to somewhere safe.

In short

My advice is:

You should exercise as much and as often as you can mentally tolerate

Emphasis on “mentally”.

Why?

I hate exercise. I love being active, but even after a few years of consistently adding exercise to my weekly schedule, I simply don’t like it. Pushups, crunches, running, lifting weights, yoga - I don’t like any of it. But, I’ve consistently noticed that regular exercise improves my mental wellbeing. Perhaps it has physical benefits too, I imagine I’ll find out in 30 years or so, but in the short term I notice substantial improvements in my mental health when I regularly exercise.

Some days it’s really fucking hard. Some days I skip it entirely, even when it’s on my schedule. But as much and as often as I can mentally tolerate it, I exercise. And it helps.

Today that was 10 minutes of jumping rope during my lunch break. I feel better than when I started, but it took basically all my willpower for the day to make myself do it. That’s OK. The habit is what matters; the regular activity of moving my body. At least that’s what I tell myself:

The habit is what matters

(wait what, are there two pieces of advice in this post or what???)

This is going off the rails, let’s end with a simple loving-kindness-inspired phrase:

May you be safe, may you be happy, may you be healthy, and may you live with ease.