I pay myself to do the things I want to

[andrewducker]

I've been meaning to get myself back into some kind of basic fitness for a while. I've so busy and stressed for goodness knows how long that I kept starting things and then something would happen that would throw me off, and I'd make excuses and stop again, against my better judgement.*

So, having bumped into a few people using BeeMinder to keep track of what they were doing, and spur them into doing it more, I signed up at the end of March, determined to go from a fitness of "fuck all" to "do something basic".** So I told it I wanted to start at 5 push-ups, and be doing 50 by the time I get married. And today I'm halfway there:


Now, BeeMinder can just keep track of things for you. But if you find it easy to drop out of your goals then you can do what I did. I bet them $5 I'd stay on track. And so far, I really have. I get a daily email from them, telling me how long I have until that yellow line catches up with me, and I make damn sure I can stay above it.

You can see how I'm doing here, if such things interest you (and also see the legend for the graph, if you want to know what all the different things mean).



*An effect known as Akrasia.
**I learned a long time ago that you have to start small and go for small increments. I watched a couple of flatmates start off a new exercise regime by pushing themselves too hard, pulling muscles, and never doing it again.

Comments

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

Quick suggestion - doing a lot of push-ups is how I bulked up a few years before I met you, but it gave me some problems subsequently.

Make sure you're exercising the opposing muscle groups too (don't know what they are off the top of my head, but Google will), and some pec and lat stretches probably wouldn't go amiss. Otherwise you're risking nasty side-effects from pec and lat tension, which can include, say, RSI.

[andrewducker]

Thanks, well worth knowing!

I'll probably switch over to something else once I hit that goal anyway - it was just something to get my exercising kickstarted. But I'll take a look into it to make sure I don't do something nasty to myself.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

50 is a lot. Once you can do 20+ (as you can) they won't (probably) make your muscles grow as they are insufficiently challenging. try elevating your feet that's harder. Stamina isn't everything.... [well, might be handy for some interesting activites ;-) ]

Yeah, totally 2nd the "use opposing muscle groups" thing - Rows or chins are the opposing action. There's an excellent book for bodyweight no (or minimal) equipment exercise which I am just in love with and can't recommend highly enough. You Are Your Own Gym

Its "Eating" section is pretty damn near perfect too (I think I can fault it on only ONE really minor technical point).

[andrewducker]

At the moment my stamina isn't up to a huge amount. Getting back into badminton (or jogging, or something else similar) will probably help a lot. I don't like getting out of breath after five minutes of exercise.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Have just bought that book - if I can find a way to exercise without doing my knees in that would be great!