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Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?

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Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?

#261

Post by lkbm »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #220
0x5f3759df-i wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are ignoring the amount of time saved from motorized travel

In Portland, Austin, and New York City, I have found it exceptionally rare when friends in a car would arrive at destinations before I would on a bicycle. That only gets flipped when the trips go suburban.

I bike twelve miles a day in Austin (from UT area to Ben White, and back in the afternoon, going along Congress most of the way). 30-40 minutes. Currently I'm borrowing my friend's motorcycle, and when I ride that instead, it's more like 15-20 minutes, taking I-35.

Judging by traffic on the other side of the highway, I'm guess it's because I'm commuting the opposite direction of most people. If you have parking, and traffic isn't terrible where/when you're going, the bicycle is usually slower.

But, on the other hand, riding a bicycle is so much more _fun_ than driving a car. Riding a motorcycle can also be fun, but still always doesn't beat a bicycle for me.

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?

#262

Post by wdewind »

oh_sigh wrote: post #232
wdewind wrote: post #9

Strength training 3x a week. Why strength? Strength is the most generalized adaptation there is. Training to be strong improves every component of fitness: strength (duh), power, agility, balance, flexibility, endurance (all 3 types) and coordination. I would also make the argument that in day to day life strength is the most important attribute of fitness for someone in the western world. The ability to carry a bunc…

I agree with you completely, just adding my two cents: I've done strength training for 5 years and am just now getting into volume training(strength is basically moving high weights for low number of reptitions, volume is moving medium weights for a high number of repititions). If I could go back, I would do a mixed routine from the beginning. Strength gains are nice, but the aesthetic gains from a volume routine are…

Sure, this thread is about health, which true volume training is not necessary for.

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?

#263

Post by sliverstorm »

computerjunkie wrote: post #130

Eat well, sleep enough and walk plenty. Sleep is something which is seriously overlooked in general. From personal experience, getting enough sleep and eating well are requirements that need to be met first before exercise. There is nothing is worse than exercising whilst you are deprived of sleep and mal-nourished. Speaking about exercise, don't get hung up on dogmas and "this is the only way" personality that is co…

There is nothing is worse than exercising whilst you are deprived of sleep and mal-nourished.

Which is my personal battle. I don't want to sleep the 9 hours I seem to need, and my eating habits are insufficient, to the tune of 1k+ cal on some days. (young male, active)

My latest revelation has been a good fitness tracker that estimates the caloric cost of my various activities, and is finally forcing me to get enough calories.

It's also throwing my poor sleep patterns in my face, so we'll get to those soon...

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?

#264

Post by gwbas1c »

This is what I do:

- Try not to use an alarm clock - Get 8 hours of sleep a night. (I find that sometimes I need to take melatonin to avoid insomnia.) - Walk the dog every day at lunch time for about half an hour - Try to eat vegan most of the time - Limit myself to 1-2 beers / glasses of wine a day - Don't smoke tobacco

If you research what we really know about living healthy, it comes down to two things: 45 minutes of walking per day is what most people need for exercise; and modern Americans eat significantly more animal products than what our ancestors ate.

Thus, it's not very hard to stay healthy, as long as you can get over not eating a T-bone for dinner every day and aren't an alcoholic.

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?

#265

Post by sliverstorm »

chuckcode wrote: post #218
wdewind wrote: post #9

Strength training 3x a week. Why strength? Strength is the most generalized adaptation there is. Training to be strong improves every component of fitness: strength (duh), power, agility, balance, flexibility, endurance (all 3 types) and coordination. I would also make the argument that in day to day life strength is the most important attribute of fitness for someone in the western world. The ability to carry a bunc…

Starting strength and similar routines are great but be very careful of starting light and maintaining proper technique as getting injured can really impact your health and happiness in a lot of ways especially as we get older. It is very easy to get injured doing squats or power cleans with any kind of sizable weight. For example the injury rates in CrossFit are estimated to be between 20-75% [1,2] of participants w…

Good technique can be tough to get right without somebody on hand who really knows what they are doing. It has taken me years to get to a textbook squat.

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?

#266

Post by kaitai »

0x5f3759df-i wrote: post #210
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a fellow bike commuter, it blows my mind that other people pay money (in the form of fuel+payments+insurance) to get in worse shape, while we get healthier for effectively “free”.

You are ignoring the amount of time saved from motorized travel

Not if you only have to bike six miles and you have to park 15 minutes from your office.

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?

#268

Post by mikeytown2 »

streblo wrote: post #225
mikeytown2 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly recommend Keto. I started Keto 4 months ago and a couple of my coworkers have joined in as well. Not a lot of research has been done, but you can find some interesting information over at http://www.reddit.com/r/ketoscience Current research being done with the Keto diet: ALS, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and just about anything else that involves the brain like brain cancer. It's been proven to help ty…

Counterpoint: I've heard from a lot of people that ketogenic diets have made their LDL and apo B shoot through the roof. This is how you get atherosclerosis (aka clogged arteries) and eventually heart disease/heart attack/stroke. A lot of these people look great and say that they feel great.

Thanks for bringing up this important point. Getting blood work done before & after is important when doing a diet change. Rob Rhinehart from soylent fame gets his blood drawn fairly regularly if I remember correctly. The community over on /r/keto is pretty good with helping out, see http://www.reddit.com/r/keto/comments/1j5yi8/help_me_rketo_h.... Due to genetics keto can be a bad idea for certain people.

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?

#269

Post by melindajb »

1. Sleep a minimum of 7-8 hours a night, and go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time.

2. Screens off after 8:30pm.

3. Stop work at 6pm and spend time with family or doing things I find fun, stimulating. After about 40 hours of work the brain isn't any more effective. This forces me to ignore social media and get stuff done during the day.

4. Exercise: run 3x per week and one additional strength training session as well as a walk etc on another day.

5. Eat sugar, bread, alcohol and pasta in very small moderate amounts.

6. Use my time thoughtfully. say no a lot. get clear on my priorities and ruthlessly get rid of things not moving me forward.

7. Go outside after lunch for at least 15 mins, ideally 30. I walk my dog but you can just go outside.

Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?

#270

Post by jclos »

chuckcode wrote: post #218
wdewind wrote: post #9

Strength training 3x a week. Why strength? Strength is the most generalized adaptation there is. Training to be strong improves every component of fitness: strength (duh), power, agility, balance, flexibility, endurance (all 3 types) and coordination. I would also make the argument that in day to day life strength is the most important attribute of fitness for someone in the western world. The ability to carry a bunc…

Starting strength and similar routines are great but be very careful of starting light and maintaining proper technique as getting injured can really impact your health and happiness in a lot of ways especially as we get older. It is very easy to get injured doing squats or power cleans with any kind of sizable weight. For example the injury rates in CrossFit are estimated to be between 20-75% [1,2] of participants w…

While I agree with your point (start low, build up slowly) I wish you hadn't used Crossfit as a textbook example of weight training. Weight training has one of the lowest injury rates in sports.

Reference: http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Safety.html

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