Fitness, fun or both?

[Alex321]

Very much both for me. My ostensive purpose is mainly fitness, but I certainly wouldn't keep it up if I didn't find it fun.

This last few weeks has been really frustrating, with such good cycling weather, but unable to take advantage of it.

 

[Kajjal]

I enjoy mountain biking in the drier months and so I can enjoy it as early as possible in the year I do road biking in the wetter / colder months to keep my fitness up. It is a way of keeping fit I enjoy so no real motivation issues.

 

[Scotchlovingcylist]

Also falling into the both camp.
Cycling was the only activity I really enjoyed barring hiking, the fitness aspect was always a by product for me. Nowadays it's certainly nice to see my fitness improving and has since spurred me on to run a couple of times a week and I've recently started yoga which I'm not ashamed to say I love.
In addition, it often keeps me motivated to eat healthy too and while the physical health benefits are obvious my mental health is the best its ever been.
As soon as exercise feels like a chore I tend to give up which I why I never really stick at anything else.

 

[PaulSB]

I ride my bike because I love to do so. I walk because I enjoy doing this with my wife and friends. Both of these keep me very fit.

I have a morning stretch routine which is intended to keep my 67 year old body flexible. I usually have a training programme of some sort going on but it's targeted at an event not fitness. I'm hoping to ride the 312 next year and I've just started working on a climbing regime.

Calorie counting is my thing though. Every meal I work out every calorie. I find it's very beneficial for portion control and weight loss.

 

[Time Waster]

Years ago I got into whitewater kayaking. If I wasn't doing that of a weekend I was walking. These were things I did and were to the exciting and challenging end of the spectrum. Walking is an understatement, I was scrambling and free climbing easy climbing grades as part of the walk. Not bad for someone who's knees knock on fear 3 steps up a ladder!

The effect of challenging my fear of heights and drowning in a waterfall or rapids made me gain confidence from a very low level after school years. The physical aspect was good and part of why I did it, but the mental health aspects were the best part I just didn't realise until later on.

The social aspect too. I used to work then go home and isolate. I'd go to the gym but isolate myself doing it. Hobbies included driving around the lakes all day and walking in the lakes by myself. When I joined clubs for mountaineering and kayaking I was forced to be social and I loved it. Great friends come from the knowledge people have your back on a river, will rescue you and put themselves at risk doing it too. Even though I lost contact I still see those people as friends.

So imho exercise can be more than just the grind you need to do to keep fit, it's a holistic activity too if you do the right one.

So my answer is both and so much more.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I was scrambling and free climbing easy climbing grades as part of the walk. Not bad for someone who's knees knock on fear 3 steps up a ladder!

Didn’t realise you were American. Funny how some phrases give it away.

 

[mustang1]

Fun for me. Fitness is a side benefit. But the more fun I have, the fitter I get. Double win!

 

[fossyant]

Both here, but I'll add in a third of 'commuting' - good for mental health and 'cheaper' travel that's more reliable time wise. Nothing worse than being stuck in a car/train when you know you've got to be somewhere. Bike, I can be at work/home within a specified time, give or take a couple of minutes.

It's a circle though - if you don't ride enough, you lose fitness, then things become less enjoyable, especially when chasing mates up a big hill (road or off road). Commuting is a good way of maintaining a base which makes the fun stuff more enjoyable as you've got good fitness.

 

[Alex321]

Didn’t realise you were American. Funny how some phrases give it away.

Which phrases do think those were? I can't see anything in what he wrote that I wouldn't expect from British friends.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Which phrases do think those were? I can't see anything in what he wrote that I wouldn't expect from British friends.

Free climbing is a very definite American phrase. In Britain you’d say trad climbing, or more usually just climbing.

 

[Alex321]

Free climbing is a very definite American phrase. In Britain you’d say trad climbing.

Not true. I've heard both my brother in law and my stepson use the phrase free climbing, and never heard either of them use the phrase "trad climbing". Both are British (Welsh) climbers.

If they weren't using the phrase "free climbing", it would be "soloing".

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Not true. I've heard both my brother in law and my stepson use the phrase free climbing, and never heard either of them use the phrase "trad climbing". Both are British (Welsh) climbers.

If they weren't using the phrase "free climbing", it would be "soloing".

Then they have picked up the American phrase rather than what’s been used in Britain for a very long time. Free climbing is not the same meaning as soloing.

 

[Alex321]

Then they have picked up the American phrase rather than what’s been used in Britain for a very long time.

Maybe, but I would say that means it is in fairly common usage in Britain, so not an indication of being American.

Free climbing is not the same meaning as soloing.

So it isn't. I'd always misunderstood when I've heard them use the phrase, and thought it was. Having looked it up when you said that, it seems from the Wiki article that I'm not alone in that misunderstanding

I'm not a climber myself (though I've tried a few easy routes with them), and always just assumed that when they used that phrase, it meant without ropes. I also suspect that was the sense Time Waster was using it in.

 

[matticus]

Then they have picked up the American phrase rather than what’s been used in Britain for a very long time. Free climbing is not the same meaning as soloing.

<data point> I've never climbed [with ropes-n-shoot] but I follow stuff in the meeja. Read the odd magazine, watched Free Solo, been to a Simon Yates talk, that sort of thing.

In my mind, "free climbing" is the same as "soloing". I'm quite happy to be wrong about this, as I know so little about the subject

 

[Alex321]

Then they have picked up the American phrase rather than what’s been used in Britain for a very long time. Free climbing is not the same meaning as soloing.

Maybe, but I would say that means it is in fairly common usage in Britain, so not an indication of being American.

Thinking about this more, my brother in law (and to a lesser extent my stepson) has climbed all over the world, including places like Yosemite, and he was the first Welshman to summit Everest, so it is quite likely he would have picked up phraseology from other places (such as the US) , even if not all that common usage in the UK.