Exercise makes me miserable

Can you video the physio demonstrating the moves?

I’ve got lots of friends in their 80’s and I can honestly say that the ones who have regularly exercised are no fitter than the ones who haven’t. Two friends who ran and cycled very frequently have Parkinson’s and another who more or less devoted his life to sport can hardly walk due to knee and hip problems. Another friend who spends lots of money on a private trainer has recently had breast cancer. I think unless you drink or smoke to excess or take drugs life is a lottery and there’s not a great deal you can do to control your health, unfortunately.

Cc That made me laugh!

I’m 80 and have done keep fit , yoga gym sessions on and off all my life. I’m on so many heart pills now which like the earlier poster have decreased my metabolism plus weight gain although eating less and my energy is just enough to do shopping, cooking and tidying up! I was given a Fitbit watch and aim for 3,500 steps a day. I can top it up if I haven’t reached my target by walking around the kitchen table!! I think this is par for the course and don’t intend to be miserable pushing myself - sorry to all you fitness folk.

cc

I was sent to some exercise classes at the hospital run by the physios. It turned out to be more about balance than exercise and was really a complete waste of time for several of us there. However they did give me a referal to a council owned gym in a leisure centre where they have "e-gym" equipment which adjusts to suit your abilities. I just go for 45 minutes, two or three times a day and it really has made me feel much fitter and helped me to lose weight (very slowly!). I've actually joined the gym now and hope to keep going until I fall off my perch.

I have just come back from doing exactly that, cc. My circuit is 30 minutes, but it takes a lot longer than that to get changed, get to the gym and home again, and I'd need to shower and change again if I wanted to do anything with the rest of the day. 30 minutes twice a week sounds like nothing, but it's actually quite a commitment when you take it all into account. I didn't hate it when I was there, but it has taken a chunk out of my day, and has to be done at particular times, so I can't fit it round my usual routines.

It was my first time after the induction today, so whether I will feel fitter after a while remains to be seen.

If you hate exercise it will do you more harm than good, a disco dance teacher told me that years ago and she's was right. I only walk to the bus stop now.

You’re not weird at all. It might subconsciously remind you of the dreaded school days too much! Hard to comment without knowing your health issue but maybe continue the group one if you feel you can and abandon the practice at home. Or maybe replace that longer term with something you prefer. I like dancing ( on my own at home!) and tai chi. There’s also a good fb page if you’re on there called something like Easy Fitness over 50 …lady with short blonde hair doing stuff in her home..it’s quite good..

If you're weird, then so am I

I don’t fancy going to a gym, but just put on my all time favourite pop songs and dance vigorously around the sitting room, then some ‘ballet’ to classical music so I’m puffed. Puffed out tells me it’s enough.
I’m lucky to have big sandhills at the bottom of the road and treading sand is a good exercise!

BrandyGran

I’m 80 and have done keep fit , yoga gym sessions on and off all my life. I’m on so many heart pills now which like the earlier poster have decreased my metabolism plus weight gain although eating less and my energy is just enough to do shopping, cooking and tidying up! I was given a Fitbit watch and aim for 3,500 steps a day. I can top it up if I haven’t reached my target by walking around the kitchen table!! I think this is par for the course and don’t intend to be miserable pushing myself - sorry to all you fitness folk.

Good for you!!
The Brontë sisters often got exercise by walking round the dining room table.
You are in good company.

Good to know that Babs 03. I’ll think of them as I do my table walking!

That's what I thought when I read it!

I've always loved walking with my 2 labradors and have often covered several miles before breakfast. However, I now have arthritis in my ankle and am waiting for an op. For the last 2 years I havent been able to walk more than a hundred yards without excruciating pain. I'm in terrible shape for the first time in my life.

My daughter (a nurse) informs me that the key to good health in later life is strength training and enough protein in the diet.
However sadly I HATE exercise, I hated it at school was always the geeky academic child never great at any sport and this continued in adult years. I have dabbled with exercise classes over the years although never the gym which horrifies me as an idea! I find exercise very very boring! I find that when I get exhausted, I feel physically sick and sometimes pass out! so I’m not going to put myself through that.
I don’t smoke, never have, don’t drink and eat a vegan diet that is as good as it gets for me 😳

I love gardening, cleaning, sewing. Craft etc .
Very active and involved but hate " exercise" Like to swim but going every week is tedious

jenpax my doctor daughter said exactly the same to me. I'm finding it difficult to add more protein to my diet as I eat lots of vegetables and fruit rather than meat and I don't really want to add calories but I'm finding doing weights classes are starting to show that even at very nearly 77 I can still get bigger and stronger muscles!

Babs03 I had a vision for a moment there of the Brontë sisters walking round on their dining table!

I hated PE at school, I wasn’t good at anything. I find exercise in itself supremely boring and my brain is always whispering ‘You could be gardening/getting the dinner/doing the shopping/cleaning the loo’ to me. We had a personal trainer for a year and apart from a bit of improvement in my balance and making me more aware of my posture, I don’t think it made any perceptible change in me despite three/four sessions a week.

I keep quite active in my daily life and garden and look after GC as well as caring for my unwell Dh. Hopefully that will see me through. My parents never exercised in their lives and dad lived to the age of 92 and my mother is 98 this week. My mum was always bustling about until two or three years ago, but my dad just went to work and came home again plus a bit of gardening. He weighed the same all his adult life - lucky genes, maybe!

On Wednesday I finish the course of exercises I was "put on" by the Pulmonary nurse. I have begrudged the loss of time to do "useful things" and having to get up earlier in the morning to get to the class. I must admit I was attending in a bit of a bad mood for a while, but now I have decided to sign up for classes which I will have to pay for!

My walking is so much easier, I can do my gardening with less effort as my muscle tone and strength has improved, I can even get in and out of the bucket seat in my daughter's car without struggling and I am feeling brighter in myself.

I love exercise! However, on my own instigation. Walking and swimming are my two. If I could not do these I would go crazy!!!!

short local hilly walks for me but I prefer cycling. During bad weather I can use my bellicon rebounder

I don`t do much set exercise at all, only enough to keep my heart pumping and my muscles strong but I do get out as early in the day as possible and that sets me up. Standing up and moving around the house, up and down stairs, allotment and gardening, fetching and carrying is also exercise and I do that for much of the day. I don`t have to think about it

My DDs love exercise and think nothing of running 100 miles over hills. One has done the ironman triathlon three times. They do not get that from me

I'm pleased that I have passed my love of sport and exercise onto both my daughters. The doctor daughter volunteers as an expedition medic in her spare time and gets to do all sorts of exciting and interesting things in exotic places! I live vicariously through her!

My daughter runs daily and does several marathons a year. I don’t know where she gets it from.

I hate exercise too and do the barest minimum. I used to love tennis but can barely go for a nice walk now due to ill health. Chair yoga doesn't appeal! Doing anything to get out of breath has me quite virtuous, the only positive side of it for me.

OMG I HATE exercise! The only exercise I love is running 20+ miles and swimming - I do several lengths at a time, but other ones bore me to death.

I absolutely detested the school exercise classes, the frame climbing scared me silly, and I could never get the idea of the horse or that stupid one where you have to pretend to be in the sea when the teacher would shout something and we'd all have to run for the frames to cling on.

And the outdoor exercise of rounders and basketball..... cod, they were piggin' boring!

I've never set foot in a gym and never will, and I can't abide the ideas of pilates, yoga, etc.!

As an ex-professional dancer/acrobat, studied ballet took all the exams, I can sympathise, exercises are a pain where the sun don’t shine. When I hung up my g-string (no one loves a fairy when she’s forty) I thought at last no more exercises. How wrong I was. After two babies I suddenly found my hips were seizing every time I stood up. I had physio for a while but eventually I was told it would help if I exercised. I’m not exactly at the same standard and believe me I don’t break into a sweat but it helped, hips ok knees, well that’s another story. Just do a little of the exercises that you’re comfortable with. I certainly do not do an hours class. Choose the ones that you like, well sort of. I did yoga for a while but found I dreaded going and doing an hour. Good luck.