I feel you. I am like this with so many things.

When I started going to the gym, the only way I could get myself to go was to watch a show on my phone while working out. The catch is, I told myself I was only allowed to watch the show while I was working out. If I want to know what happens next, I had to get on a treadmill.

I fell out of the habit last summer and getting back into it has been a huge struggle.

In my youth it was rock climbing. You can’t really quit something if it means falling to your death 🤣

But seriously anything that keeps your brain occupied. For me it was competitive sports. Basketball, ultimate frisbee, anything like that. Now that I’m old, it’s getting up from my chair to go pee. I also like what I consider “exercise games” like Beat Saber.

Tl;dr… anything that tricks your brain into seeing it as fun and not exercise.

Would Ultimate HIIT Workout for People Who Get Bored Easily - Fat Burning HIIT Cardio Workout hit the spot?–I mean, HIIT the spot?

Someone else mentioned VR games, if you can afford the gear I second that recommendation. Some games can be quite the workout, and it doesn’t feel like I’m convincing myself to exercise because I’m just playing video games.

Whenever I fall out of my exercise routine, I rebuild it in small chunks. At my peak, I was waking up at 4a, walking to the gym, doing 60+ minutes of weight lifting, 30+ minutes of cardio, then walking back home.

So, when I’m starting from zero again, my first goal is just to walk to the gym and back each day. I don’t even go in, I just force myself to get up (probably not quite as early), and go through the motions of walking there and back.
Once I have that down, I start trying to get myself up a little earlier so that I can go in the gym and actually do something. That something should initially still be something easy, so it might just be walking on the treadmill for 15 minutes before heading back home. Every day/week, I try to increase the duration/intensity until I get back to my ideal routine.
Some days I have a serious case of the "I don’t wanna"s, and on those days, I tell myself that I just need to walk there, and if once I’m there I still want nothing to do with it, I can leave, but I usually end up staying for most to all of my typical routine.

I find that setting myself small, incremental goals is way more effective than setting one big goal, because with one big goal, if I can’t do the whole thing, then I failed, so why do anything at all?

Once I get into the routine, I find that it really helps me in so many ways, and definitely helps my ADHD. I really like morning workouts, but my friend does much better with evening workouts. Try different times of day to see what works best for you.

Do it with a friend! It worked great for me: my friend and I both tend to get distracted easily but working out together helps us keep each other on track and also the workout goes by faster when you have someone to talk to. Also we motivate each other to push ourselves as well!

Find yourself a gym buddy, it might be what you need!

My method for hacking my brain is wakeup exercise. Finding a short exercise which I can do faster than I can talk myself out of it. I started with 5 pushups. That’s all. A tiny number, 10 sec exercise which I do as I get out of bed in the morning.

The important part is not to “push the envelope” or whatever. The amount of exercise should be small enough that it doesn’t bother you. And only do the exercise today. Don’t think about yesterday, don’t think about tomorrow. You only have to exercise once. Today. Easy. 10sec, 30sec, whatever. Then move onto whatever weird and cool shit you wanna do with the rest of your day knowing that you have exercised.

I feel like I’m cheating, cos it’s so simple yet so effective. I now do a lot more than 5 pushups, but the concept hasn’t changed.

Not quite related but when I have no motivation to clean I set a timer for 5 minutes per room. It becomes a race for me to see if I can get it done in time. I might do something similar for exercise.

Side note, I have a notification for daily tasks that notifies me every hour until I do it. It annoys me enough that I do it.

Not everything works for everyone though.

I got really caught up in the “make number bigger” cycle of lifting, and each 5lbs I added to any lift was a huge dopamine spike. Obviously you can’t keep increasing weight forever, but I found that the steady and easy dopamine hits from noob gains were enough to establish it as a habit in spite of my attention span

I haven’t been able to exercise successfully since I moved from home.

Where my parents live there was a great 5km run which included hills, scenery and if you did it backwards it was more strenous. They sadly exploited the fuck out of it and built a railway across it.

Where I live now it’s boring, hard to get to or too slopey.

I have found money to be the best tool. I work as a delivery driver right this moment but I have been a removalist and a baker before, all three of which are very physically demanding roles. I have also worked in physically undemanding roles and just couldn’t make myself do any intentional exercise consistently.

I am planning a switch into nursing over the next couple of years and my plan is to work full time in nursing with one or two shifts a week doing delivery or rubbish collection for the workout.

Also, rock climbing looks like fun, I am planning to try the local university gym for rock climbing, maybe a class or a social aspect will help.

Other than medication, the only thing that works for me is going consistently with someone else. Playing games like tennis or racket ball also keeps my brain from giving up. Indoor bouldering where I can make progress on smaller routes can keep me from losing motivation or getting bored, too

Personally I hated team sports and things like going to the gym, but bouldering is really fun for me. It doesn’t feel like it’s forced or repetitive and you can choose what you want to do and it feels more live solving puzzles than sport. Am only a 5A+ so far but having fun.

What also helps is the atmosphere is very chill in the boulder gyms near me.

Does running up and down the stairs repeatedly because I keep forgetting things upstairs count?

Find an exercise that works for you, I tend to like cycling or spinning so that’s what I’ve stuck to, and schedule recurring time to do it (ideally on a calendar that beeps at you, i.e., your phone). Until I scheduled time to exercise regularly I never remembered to do it. I’m also extremely calendar driven, so if something isn’t in my calendar it may as well not exist in my world.

I’ve also heard of people having success with setting an arbitrary personal rule — like not showering at home and only showering at the gym. Then once you’re there, just do something small like walk on treadmill for a few minutes, and maybe you’ll catch a groove and decide to continue.

If you decide you want to lift at a gym, I found it super helpful to have some sessions with a personal trainer to put together some workout sets that you can cycle through. If you don’t have the money or don’t want to get a trainer, there are tons of forums out there and well used and liked workout programs that you can follow. Google is your friend here.

Consistency is key! Find something that motivates you and take advantage of it!