This is a great point. My poison of choice is the rowing machine. A good erg piece is hard. The correct pace makes you think, "Shit, I don't know if I can do this" at the halfway point and makes you beg for a quick death at the 3/4 point.

I get weird stares from the folks who flounce around on the elliptical on the lowest resistance setting for twenty minutes and wonder why they aren't losing any weight. Like, I get "baby steps" and all that, and I get the fact that doing anything is better than nothing at all, but for me, the entire point of getting in better shape is to push myself even harder. If you're not pushing yourself to improve, why are you even showing up at the gym to begin with?

I joke that I'm not even getting any fitter; I'm just increasing my capacity for suffering.