Hi everyone,
I figured this might be a good place to post something I personally find myself frequently procrastinating on. I am aware there is a list of activities members recommend other than gaming, and I have absolutely no problems trying new things, but I find that without gaming, most of my time continus to go into activities involving the mind. I've done walks or jogs occasionally, but not much else that is physical.
To give a brief background, I've only spent about two weeks without gaming, but one of the habits I'd like to return to is getting regular exercise. I don't have a tremendous amount of confidence in this area, as I've never kept a consistent exercise regiment before. There were times I'd go maybe 1-3 months spending an hour 3 times a week on various forms of exercise, but the habit would eventually break down if I didn't have access to a treadmill or ran out of good audio books while running. I'm hoping it will be much easier to develop these healthy habits now that I'm no longer gaming, but even so, I thought it made sense to communicate with everyone here to discuss what forms of exercise you all had personally found most beneficial and realistic to begin with.
Some of the main questions I had are as follows: 1. What forms of exercise have you enjoyed most? 2. How long did it take you to develop good exercise habits? 3. Does it make more sense to "start small" and begin with easy goals, even if it's just getting exercise an hour a week by going on a hike?
I'm happy to provide my own suggestions as well. If anyone can think of additional important questions involving exercise, I can also edit this post later and add them to the list.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts
For me I enjoyed swimming which I learned from scratch. Being in a new medium was very nice, and I enjoyed the 'fun' aspect of it. I also had something to keep learning every day so that was good.
With pretty much any exercise, starting small REALLY helped. Otherwise I was hypermotivated and then the next day felt huge pressure to match up to that and basically quaked and panicked. Doing it slowly meant that I built up the ability to not 'feel' it as work - so incremental increases worked for me.
Right now I'm not doing any exercise consciously :( Wantto get back on that as soon as I fix my sleep.
What a good topic, I have never been a fan of excercise and have not really found a sport I like to participate in, I even told my Husband when he asked me if I wanted to join him on a run that I don't "DO" running! So I have thought about what I could do, since making the decision to stop gaming I feel I do need to do something much more active, because being sat vegetating at the computer is not good for your health nor waistline! I also wish to do something WITH my Husband so we can share some quality time together whilst doing an activity, we talked of starting up swimming again, as this was something we did use to do in the past, so that may well be my excersise of choice, also when the Spring arrives, we did like to go for long walks along the canal together, which was not only a nice way to get out of the house, but was good to be in the countryside and enjoy the outdoors together.
Hi,
Nice topic.
Going to gym was the first activity ive implemented in my journey of quiting gaming. It took me about 1 year to make courage to go to a gym. I was afraid, i was not looking very good, i wasn't in shape you know... and i thought the people in gym would make fun of me... I was dead wrong lol. First day was pretty painfull, i expected that. I went alone because i did not have any frriends who enjoy gym, only gamers... Then after one month i did not see any progress and i was not very confident with going to the gym anymore but i don't know what happened... I just kept going to gym. After two months i became so strong, i was feeling great in the gym. unfortunately i injured my shoulder on the 7th month and i took some breaks. Now i still go the gym. It feels just great being there benching and rowing. I use a full body workout focused on strength.
This week i also started to run. I use a 8 weeks begginer program. This week i have 15 rounds of runing for 30 seconds then walk for 1 min and repeat.
Also because of gym i learnt how to eat healthy and at first i wanted only to get in shape but now i am motivated to go hard and achieve a nice body! Why not?
I think physical activity is very helpful for us gaming addicts because it represents the exact opposite of the sedentary isolation sitting around gaming involves. I however HATE exercise. So I have to do something I find fun. I have been going on 3 mile walks with my dog as many day's as possible at least 3-4 a week and it really does help. I like being outside and we are lucky to have a really nice walking trail through a golf course in my neighborhood. I often listen to audiobooks which along with just getting outside kind of gives me something to look forward to.
Another activity I really enjoyed is racquetball in the past. They are building a new gym by my house hoping they have courts since I have a friend in the neighborhood that is interested in playing too. It is real fun to play and a hella good cardio workout but you feel like you are just playing a game not exercising.
"Yesterday is History, Tomorrow a Mystery, Today is a Gift, Thats why it's called the Present"
Thanks for all the responses. I'm glad you all agree that this is a valuable topic.
Iamhuman-I agree that swimming is a great option if it's available. I also think it's true that starting small is still a step in the right direction.
Seen_The_Light-I definitely think hiking, running, or walking are all good options. Having a person with you can also help keep you motivated.
Avlad-Glad to hear you were able to get the gym habit going! Perhaps I'll have an easier time with it now that I stopped gaming, but I still have some doubt about starting at the one here. I suppose it can't hurt to give it a try though. I think it makes sense to experiment and see what I enjoy the most.
Reddog-I also agree that exercise is very helpful for addicts that are used to a more sedentary lifestyle. It certainly makes sense to find the things you enjoy. It's hard to stick with something you hate, especially if there are more enjoyable alternatives available. I found racquetball fun in the past as well, but I don't know anyone who plays.
I had recently thought of including DDR. Even though its technically gaming, I view it as more of a physical activity. I also recall that in the past I'd never be able to play for longer than an hour or so if I tried the hard songs. After that, I was far too tired to continue, so I don't think I'd need to worry about playing for extended periods of time or anything. Does anyone have any additional thoughts?
One concern I have for myself is that partly because of excessive computer use, I have really bad posture and weak shoulders. Because of that pretty much any exercise I take up seriously seems to lead to injury - even just lifting light weights, because I don't have proper form. I can't do push ups or anything. It's really frustrating for me because I WANT to exercise and I like it, but I've become so fed up with how it ends up playing out. Even with something as harmless as swimming, I strained my shoulder and neck.
Does anyone have any suggestions for improving posture/form in general?
I think any back exercise is good for posture.
You should just keep on exercising with low weights until your ligaments and bones get stronger and you should have a very good diet. Oats are great for minerals and vitamins. I eat 100g everyday. Also gamers have a very big problem with bones because we do not receive enough sunlight and we have vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is crucial for a healthy body.
I agree with everything Avlad said. I would also recommend some flexibility training, and after you get the hang of the basics of flexibility, including yoga. I am pretty tall, so my posture also got terrible as a result of slouching all the time/not liking to do stretches while exercising. Naturally, I regret my former laziness, as my flexibility is awful now. Nevertheless, we can always improve on these things, which is what I'm trying to do now.
I tried some yoga yesterday, but it was far too advanced for my rather limited flexibility, so I'm going to focus on basic stretches to improve my flexibility first. I found a few youtube videos that give good demonstrations on the basics and are geared towards beginners/more inflexible people. Hope that helps, though I could definitely use recommendations myself on additional videos to watch
Thank you! Will try the yoga - I used to do some of that before, and I had forgotten how much it helped. I remember it took me just 3 days to see a visible improvement in flexibility. Actually the entire 40-odd minute yoga workout used to feel lovely, I think I just stopped doing it out of laziness/stress. I think that would be a good step towards correct posture. Now to just start and sustain it. Thank you for putting that idea in my head!!
My knees are shot and I cannot run or do yoga (tried:(
My goal is to walk 1 hour per day. Also I bike everywhere.
I am on a skiing trip now. My brother bought me a season pass for $900. The daily pass is $95. So I have to ski 10 days to get his moneys worth. So far I skied 11 days. That includes the 7 days I had to rest my leg after an accident.
I am being lazy today today and staying home on my computer. I hope to catch the 1.30pm bus and at least get an hours skiing today.
Olga/non member since Dec. 2008 Check out my latest video on Gaming Addiction and public awareness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-6JZLnQ29o