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Comment by AstroBen | Hacker News Reader

It's only unpleasant and stressful when you're unfit. I cycle 4-6 hours a week and it's wayyy more pleasant than sitting around at home

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People who enjoy exercise are in the minority. Literally doing anything I find interesting would be preferable to exercise, I exercise because I have to, not because it is enjoyable in any way.

I think it depends. People should branch out more and try different sports. I'm sure there's something most people could find that just happens to be exercise

I was like that when I was into lifting weights. I wanted the results, but found the process incredibly grueling

With running/cycling I like the activity, not that interested in the results

Agreed, cardio is actually generally enjoyable, hence the massive popularity of run clubs and marathons. It is unpleasant for the first couple months of someone 20 years sedentary and overweight going into 9/10 effort runs though (when they should jog)

> the massive popularity of run clubs and marathons

A few hundreds/thousands members in cities of millions doesn't equate massive popularity. Doing cardio is unpleasant to most people, I don't understand why it's so important to cardio enthusiasts to frame them as being liars or unaware? That's not convincing anyone and your energy would be better spent trying to find other ways to entice people.

How many yearly events are drawing tens of thousands in cities? About 15% of the US runs regularly per stats, cardio is even more because cycling is also huge.

Of course cardio is unpleasant to most people, 73% of the US is overweight or obese. I'm saying for healthy individuals with a small modicum of fitness (like their bodies were evolutionarily designed to do, we are the animal kingdom's top long distance runner after all), cardio is generally enjoyable.

It's the "forcing yourself to do something unpleasant" part which improves mental state, not the fitness itself. I suspect that people who find exercise enjoyable, or are forced to do it, don't get the same benefits.

This article is basically just the marshmallow test: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experimen...

And 4-6 hours a week would be a low week for me =)

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