Apart from the foundational sleep well, eat well and moving your body I combine the later with nature and certain perceptional practices (largely of my own devising, but it's nothing new). Also LEGOs. They are tangible, colorful, goal-oriented, and help in all sorts of different ways.
Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?
341–350 of 370 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?
#342Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm, didn't he just said opposite?
Yes, the person you responded to has it completely backwards. Strength training is important, but volume training is what will give you big muscles. Look for any body building routine(which is solely focused on aesthetics, and not at all focused on strength), and you will see that it has a very large volume. I lifted for strength only for 5 years and saw very little progress in aesthetics. I've seen more progress in…
Do you have any recommended sources for GVT? The ones I have found thus far are fairly suspect and light on details.
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?
#343hot yoga....great counter balance to sitting in front of a screen all day.
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the point about power cleans is fair (although if you read the book they aren't really required, many reasons why you wouldn't do them), but the 5x5 progression is way too much volume way too early.
I've been doing 5x5 for about a month now. Everything except OH Press has been tracking very nicely---a bit of challenge but I can always make it through with a focus on form and be prepared for next workout. But I'd like to understand better your concern about volume. If I face this deficiency, what will it feel like? How should I get around it?
I had problems with the OH Press just because the minimum increase when you're starting out is so much relative to the total weight. I think I started out at 25kg so with the smallest plates at 1.25kg, the first few increases were around 10% each — tough to pull off every week.
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?
#345Strength 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 think most people will find Strong Lifts 5x5 to be a better choice than Starting Strength, as it does not require power cleans, which are usually forbidden in most gyms. They are both more or less the same though, and focus on compound lifts.
Stronglifts is also great because they have a very good app, which was so helpful for me in keeping consistent, which is the most important part of training I had difficulty with.
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?
#346* Strength training: I focus on building strength not size (I'm already a pretty big guy, 6' 1" 220lb). Workout 4 times/wk, 5 sets/5 reps using a moderately heavy weight I could lift 8-10 times (stopping at 5). * Cardio: I don't do as much cardio as I used to due to a knee injury, but I recently bought a standing desk and have been experimenting with cycling on a spinning bike for .5 - 1hr/day on the bike. * Diet: I…
I would check that you're not getting too much mercury by eating sushi that much. Would plug in your intake numbers into the EPA mercury calculator. Tuna has lots, fyi
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been doing 5x5 for about a month now. Everything except OH Press has been tracking very nicely---a bit of challenge but I can always make it through with a focus on form and be prepared for next workout. But I'd like to understand better your concern about volume. If I face this deficiency, what will it feel like? How should I get around it?
I had problems with the OH Press just because the minimum increase when you're starting out is so much relative to the total weight. I think I started out at 25kg so with the smallest plates at 1.25kg, the first few increases were around 10% each — tough to pull off every week.
That's a good point. I kept attributing it to missing form, which is probably not half bad to focus on, but maybe this is more of a mere "suck it up and go" sort of situation, haha
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?
#348Bike commute to and from work. It is the best "energy creator" at the beginning of the day and the best "unwinder" at the end. I get home and am in such a better mood when I walk in the door (albeit perhaps a bit stinky). I'm pretty sure I solve some of my biggest problems while I let my mind wander on my ride home. It can be intimidating at first so I don't recommend immediately hopping on a bike and riding in traff…
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”.
Thinking on getting an e-bike. Sounds like a good compromise between getting to the office soaked in sweat and doing some exercise on my way back and forth.
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?
#349Skipping breakfast. Intermittent Fasting, start eating at 12 noon, stop eating at 8pm.
I'm doing something similar and it's worked out very well. After 10 years of different types of eating habits, I'm starting to think "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" is a myth.
> is a myth
... perpetrated by breakfast cereal companies. That's a 43B market right there.
Re: Ask HN: What are you doing to improve your health?
#350I'm 45 and have tried a number of different things. Here's what's made the most difference for me: - Sitting desk but use TimeOut to remind myself to stand every 30 minutes. I tried standing and treadmill desks but they didn't work for me. - Paleo/keto diet. I have much more energy and my bloodwork's improved. - 5x5 Strong Lifts - 16/8 intermittent fasting - Get enough sleep. This and diet are ridiculously important.…
> I get up at 4:30am
Are you single by chance?