I haven’t missed a daily workout in over 12 years.
Over the years, I have done workouts on airplanes, in airport lounges, hotel rooms, remote beach resorts, and even in my storage unit. During the pandemic, I spent over a year doing home workouts.
I’ve done full workouts with a single resistance band, and with no equipment at all.
That said, I have found that going to a gym is the best way to sustain a consistent exercise practice and to get the type of workout that will give you the full spectrum of physical, cognitive, and emotional benefits that exercise promises.
Home based workouts are good as a back-up, and they’re certainly better than nothing, but they’re not nearly as effective as getting out of your house and getting to a gym.
(And by “gym” I include any type of fitness studio.) This is especially true for people with ADHD.
Environment is More Potent Than Willpower
The main reason that a gym (or fitness studio) is better than your home can be summarized by the principle that environment is more potent than willpower.
Our systems feed off of contextual cues. Those cues come from the environment and the people in it.
Your home is full of reminders of other work and chores that you need to do. The gym is an environment that is designed for the singular task you’re going to do there, and it also contains people who are doing that activity.
If you want to drill a little deeper, here are 3 specific challenges that people with ADHD have with exercise that make the gym a better environment than your home.
(1) Activation
People with ADHD often struggle with task initiation. It’s not that we lack motivation — or a motive — for exercise. You likely know all the benefits of exercise and the ways it can specifically help address ADHD symptoms.
The challenge we have is the gap between motivation and implementation.
When you have a task to do, it’s easier to do it if you’re in a space that is designed for that task.
Even though I exercise daily, on days when I can’t make it to the gym and I’m forced to work out at home — like on a snow day, or because the gym is closed — I notice how much I putter and procrastinate before getting started.
It might feel like a lack of “motivation,” but really it’s a lack of activation or initiation energy.
What’s missing is the the spark plug.
To be sure, you can get the spark plug by having a dedicated starting ritual or finely honed warm-up sequence. But even if you have those rituals solid (which I do), it’s still hard to activate on your own, especially when you’re in your own home.
The visual reminders of all the chores and tasks you need to do create a significant cognitive obstacle to getting started. It increases the starting cost of the activity. In lifting terms, just starting becomes your heavy lift.
Not only does a gym provide a physical space and people that prime you for the activity, it also removes you from the distractions of the other things you need to do. For those of us with ADHD, out of sight becomes out of mind.
It also helps with the next piece.
(2) Focus
One of the most significant benefits of exercise for people with ADHD is that it helps train neuromuscular coordination. But to train that coordination you must be able to nurture the mind/body connection, and that requires dedicated focus and attention.
Even in the most ideal environments, it’s difficult for ADHD brains to stay focused for long stretches of time. You know you don’t even need visual stimuli to be distracted.
The gym at least removes you from the main sources of cognitive distractions that would try to occupy your brain space. You can more easily tune out random phones ringing because you know they’re not yours.
If you’re at home, even if you’re in a separate “home gym,” your brain is aware of what’s on the other side of the door. Even if you have someone else around to answer the phones or the door or tend to your kids, or whatever the other things are, part of your mind is fixed on something other than your body.
That leads to an ineffective workout and also will fail to nurture the mind/body connection that you need.
(3) Intensity
I used to be the first one to say that not every workout needs to be intense. Any movement is better than no movement at all.
This is still true, but with a caveat.
Over the past few years, I’ve discovered that not all workouts are created equal when it comes to managing my ADHD symptoms.
What I’ve found for myself, and what research shows, is that people with ADHD need a higher level of stimulus to “plug in.” In order to get that dopamine boost you are seeking from a workout, you need to push yourself a little beyond what’s comfortable.
A slow walk on the treadmill in your basement isn’t going to trigger that dopamine boost.
In fact, I’ve found that workouts that lack a certain level of intensity can actually be physically painful. This doesn’t mean you have to redline or max out until you’re crashed on the floor. It means you need to up your game:
- Lifting heavier
- Conditioning for longer
- Changing up your movements
- Trying new exercises
All of these are more effectively done in a gym setting, where you have people around who can give you that extra push that you’re unlikely to give yourself.
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