Do you enjoy working out?

Somewhere along the way, trainers started selling exercise with a promise. You don't have to like it. Just get through it. Trust me, you'll feel great afterward.

I've said it. I've said it to clients standing in front of me who clearly wanted to be anywhere else, and I meant it as encouragement. It turns out we built that whole pitch on the one part of the workout that predicts nothing.

In 2015, Ryan Rhodes and Andrew Kates reviewed research in Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Four studies had measured how people felt while they were exercising at a moderate intensity, then looked at how active those people were later on. All four found the same thing. Feeling better during the workout predicted more exercise afterward.

Nine other studies asked how people felt once it was over. Six of the nine found no connection to future activity at all. Two found a connection and the last study was mixed.

Here's the reality. Almost everyone feels better after a workout. It's over, you did something good for yourself, and you survived it. That's true for the person who trains for the next twenty years and equally true for the person who quits in six weeks. Both of them feel good when they're finished and walking to the car.

So the question I get asked most is the wrong one.

People want to know which program is optimal. Which exercise gives the best return for the fatigue it costs. How many sets, how many reps, how much cardio, what's the most efficient way to spend forty-five minutes? Those are fair questions, and I can answer them.

There's a better question underneath. Do you actually like doing it?

If you hate running, I can hand you every reason running is good for you. That doesn't make it likely that you'll still be running next spring. But maybe you like cycling, lifting or pickleball. Or you look forward to walking the dog before work. Once we identify something you enjoy, we have something to build on.

The same thing applies inside the gym. Take the group class instead of the meticulously designed program sitting in your phone. Keep using the machine some influencer called useless. Buy the shoes that make you want to walk. Drive the extra ten minutes to the gym where you like the people. Train with the friend who makes you laugh.

None of that is optimal on paper. You are not on paper.

Enjoyment doesn't repeal physiology.

You still have to challenge your body enough to make it adapt. Walking the same twenty minutes at the same pace for three years is a habit, and habits are worth having, but your body stopped paying attention around month four.

There's also a difference between enjoying something and finding it easy. Plenty of people love lifting precisely because it's hard. What they enjoy is the effort and the evidence that they're getting stronger.

There are usually a dozen routes to the same place, and you don't have to take the one you hate because somebody called it four percent better.

I've trained people for a long time, and the ones who stick with it for years almost always find something in it they look forward to. The gym becomes where their friends are. They get attached to a trainer. They like getting stronger. Tuesday's class becomes something they don't want to miss.

Exercise stops being a thing they make themselves do and becomes just another thing they do.

So here's a better promise than the one I used to make. You don't have to love every minute. But if you dread all of it, that's not a character flaw you need to push through. That's information, and it's telling you we have to find a different way to move.

A perfect plan you abandon in March loses to a decent one you're still doing in December.

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Reference Link:

Can the Affective Response to Exercise Predict Future Motives and Physical Activity Behavior? A Systematic Review of Published Evidence

Ryan E. Rhodes Ph.D & Andrew Kates MSc
Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Published 29 April 2015

Click Here for the Study: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-015-9704-5

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8/18/2026