Ever since a nasty concussion stopped me playing rugby when I was 18, I struggled to exercise regularly. I tried plenty of workouts, dabbling in everything from CrossFit to Zumba. While some were more enjoyable than others, I hadn’t found a way to keep a consistent, disciplined regime without it feeling like a chore. I’m 28 now and work from home. My commute from bed to desk is 15 steps. Given the health risks of sedentary lifestyles, I had tried just about everything to break my lazy rut, and then something worked: watching television.
Well, OK, not just watching television like a modern Jim Royle, who reached Olympic levels in The Royle Family, but I imposed a rule: if I want to watch TV, I have to do so while sitting on my exercise bike (the one cardio exercise I can tolerate). The result? I’ve been cycling roughly six hours a week for months now. Generally, I watch a lot of sports: if there’s football, rugby, tennis, boxing, NFL or cricket on, I’ll watch it. So invariably through the year I find there’s roughly two hours of sport on three times a week I want to watch. By combining this with exercise, I find I am able to do so without feeling guilty.
Most of the sports I watch have intervals, so I tend to cycle moderately during the action and then start to pedal my way quickly through another Jamie Carragher tirade or some inane ad breaks. I usually burn about 500 calories during a two-hour session. Sometimes my drink of choice while I cycle might even be a non-alcoholic beer. Bliss.