Every therapist, every article, every person I've spoken to mentions exercise as part of managing depression. I believe them. The evidence is there. When I do move my body, I feel marginally better. I know this from experience.
The problem is that depression is specifically the thing that removes the capacity to act on what you know. I know exercise would help and I cannot make myself do it. The gap between knowing and doing feels unbridgeable on the days when I need it most.
I don't want a list of tips about putting your gym clothes out the night before. I want to know how people who genuinely, structurally struggle with motivation — not just laziness, but the full absence of drive that depression creates — have found ways to move. Small things. Honest things. Things that actually work for people in the thick of it, not people who just need a little nudge.