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Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

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Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#171

Post by Hydraulix989 »

projektir wrote: post #158
rjbwork wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be condescending, but I think it's correct. I'm a pretty overweight guy who has dropped over 35 pounds in the last year. I pretty quickly noticed an increase in energy and mood. I've gained some back recently due to injury and not exercising, and I pretty quickly noticed a return of worse mood and energy levels. Maybe it's just true for most people, but not everyone?

It would seem more likely to me that you are feeling better/worse because you lost/gained weight, not because of exercise. Weight gain is pretty well studied and is connected to a lot of bad things, and, from everything I've seen, has a much bigger effect than lack of exercise on the average person. I've never been overweight and exercise is not really related to weight control for me. Most people don't exercise in t…

Denying that exercise is helpful to most people goes against scientific results in mainstream medicine in so many ways.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#172

Post by sharmi »

projektir wrote: post #135
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #112

I have to exercise or I feel like shit. I think that people that don't exercise have accepted feeling like shit as the "default" and somehow don't mind it. For me, the difference in my mental and physical health, to say nothing of my alertness and mental clarity, is night and day when I'm running every day. I run 3 miles a day (been running since I was 12 years old, sometimes competitively -- at my best, I was one of…

This is a fairly boring example of the typical mind fallacy. Or, the typical body fallacy, if you wish. I exercise and it doesn't have any significant effect on "feeling like shit" for me. I sometimes lose mental clarity from exercise, feel more tired, have less energy. The benefits are absolutely not obvious in my case. Unfortunately, this fallacy seems to be present every single time this topic is brought up. It's…

I do not know about your situation but I would like suggest something based on my experience. Would you be putting in late nights and working out? That makes you feel more tired. It is better to sleep and skip exercise rather than workout in a sleepless state. It worsens your health. Also not drinking enough water and staying hydrated can create a mental fog.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#173

Post by initram »

For me, I just despise everything about working out in the usual ways. Gyms are pretty disgusting for a number of reasons. People who don't wipe down the machines, people judging each other, the smell, etc. It's also boring AF. I can listen to music or a podcast, but they usually have 3 TVs on all tuned to either sports, which I don't enjoy, or politics, which I don't really want to share with people at the gym. And the 24 hour news channels are basically just death and yelling 24 hours a day. Don't need that.

Working out at home means either buying a big expensive piece of equipment I don't have room for, or prancing around the neighborhood. I'd rather not do either.

Also, it makes me feel gross. I'm not at all out-of-shape. My weight/BMI/whatever is in the "good" zone. My eating habits are reasonable and my cholesterol and other levels are fine. I walk regularly, use a standing desk for a portion of the day, etc. I don't like how I feel when or after working out.

Doing it or discussing it with other people makes me sad. So much pseudoscience, so much bad technique, so much judgement. Fuck it. I've got better things to do.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#174

Post by forgetsusername »

initram wrote: post #173

For me, I just despise everything about working out in the usual ways. Gyms are pretty disgusting for a number of reasons. People who don't wipe down the machines, people judging each other, the smell, etc. It's also boring AF. I can listen to music or a podcast, but they usually have 3 TVs on all tuned to either sports, which I don't enjoy, or politics, which I don't really want to share with people at the gym. And…

>People who don't wipe down the machines

Just wipe it down before you use it.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#175

Post by forgetsusername »

thenomad wrote: post #13

Most recently, what's made me start exercising (more) is room-scale VR. Gyms are boring. Cardio in gyms is incredibly boring. Trying to beat my highscore on Holopoint whilst hologram samurai rush at me and I'm dodging missiles flying from all directions is not boring. ( And now I'm developing room-scale VR games, that goes double. I'm currently covered in sweat in the middle of a work day after spending an hour balan…

>Gyms are boring. Cardio in gyms is incredibly boring. Trying to beat my highscore on Holopoint whilst hologram samurai rush at me and I'm dodging missiles flying from all directions is not boring.

There's a big benefit gap between working up a little sweat playing a video game in your living room versus doing actual weight training at a real gym. They are no substitutes.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#176

Post by alecdbrooks »

sharmi wrote: post #172
projektir wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a fairly boring example of the typical mind fallacy. Or, the typical body fallacy, if you wish. I exercise and it doesn't have any significant effect on "feeling like shit" for me. I sometimes lose mental clarity from exercise, feel more tired, have less energy. The benefits are absolutely not obvious in my case. Unfortunately, this fallacy seems to be present every single time this topic is brought up. It's…

I do not know about your situation but I would like suggest something based on my experience. Would you be putting in late nights and working out? That makes you feel more tired. It is better to sleep and skip exercise rather than workout in a sleepless state. It worsens your health. Also not drinking enough water and staying hydrated can create a mental fog.

I could be wrong, but I don't think projektir means they "feel like shit" even when they exercise. I think they mean they occasionally feel like shit after exercising, which obscures the benefit.

If so, I'm in projektir's camp. I often feel better after exercising, but sometimes I feel worse. Also, I don't necessarily see a clear day-to-day improvement.

There are definite health benefits to exercise for most people [0], but I don't think subjectively feeling better is necessarily as widespread as some exercise proponents think.

[0]: Video summary of the evidence for exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFBBjynBpSw

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#177

Post by ethbro »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #117
harveywi wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Powerlifting is amazing, and it is amazingly safe [1]. It is the perfect complement to a programming job, because you can bang out a massive workout in the morning and recover physically the rest of the day. Take "advantage" of your sedentary opportunity! Sports Injury Rates (Hamill 1994) Sport Injuries (per 100 hours) Soccer (school age) 6.20 UK Rugby 1.92 USA Basketball 0.03 UK Cross Country 0.37 Squash 0.10 US Foo…

Make sure you use the right lifting posture and don't overdo it with weight, or you can seriously and permanently mess up your back. When I was 16 years old, I somehow twisted my spine in my lower back in a way that it wasn't meant to be twisted doing 250 lbs max rep seated leg press, and ever since then, my lower back has been alternating between bouts of sharp pain and dull pain (but never subsiding) ever side for…

Have you talked to anyone about nerve cauterization and whether you might be a candidate? I had a family member who fairly severely injured her neck in an auto accident. Of all the solutions she tried, she swears by it as most cleanly fixing pain problems. And given that the nerves grow back in ~5 years, it's a nice balance between "not permanent" and "long enough to be worth it."

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#178

Post by projektir »

alecdbrooks wrote: post #176
sharmi wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not know about your situation but I would like suggest something based on my experience. Would you be putting in late nights and working out? That makes you feel more tired. It is better to sleep and skip exercise rather than workout in a sleepless state. It worsens your health. Also not drinking enough water and staying hydrated can create a mental fog.

I could be wrong, but I don't think projektir means they "feel like shit" even when they exercise. I think they mean they occasionally feel like shit after exercising, which obscures the benefit. If so, I'm in projektir's camp. I often feel better after exercising, but sometimes I feel worse. Also, I don't necessarily see a clear day-to-day improvement. There are definite health benefits to exercise for most people […

I meant that I don't associate my non-exercising existence with "feeling like shit", nor do I find that exercising improves my existence to an extent far enough that I could call the previous existence "feeling like shit".

I probably feel somewhat better after exercising in the long-run. But that's about it, somewhat. And most of it is extrinsic - not feeling winded is nice, having a lowered heart rate is nice. Other things have contributed a lot more to improving my general well-being than exercise.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#179

Post by projektir »

sharmi wrote: post #172
projektir wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a fairly boring example of the typical mind fallacy. Or, the typical body fallacy, if you wish. I exercise and it doesn't have any significant effect on "feeling like shit" for me. I sometimes lose mental clarity from exercise, feel more tired, have less energy. The benefits are absolutely not obvious in my case. Unfortunately, this fallacy seems to be present every single time this topic is brought up. It's…

I do not know about your situation but I would like suggest something based on my experience. Would you be putting in late nights and working out? That makes you feel more tired. It is better to sleep and skip exercise rather than workout in a sleepless state. It worsens your health. Also not drinking enough water and staying hydrated can create a mental fog.

My exercise is scheduled, so if I am working late, I'd just have to miss it or do it another day. My exercise right now is either in the morning or shortly after work.

I drink 32 oz of water during the day before exercise and then I try to drink the same amount after. I think the question of how much raw water one should drink per day is kind of disputed right now, though.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#180

Post by projektir »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #171
projektir wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would seem more likely to me that you are feeling better/worse because you lost/gained weight, not because of exercise. Weight gain is pretty well studied and is connected to a lot of bad things, and, from everything I've seen, has a much bigger effect than lack of exercise on the average person. I've never been overweight and exercise is not really related to weight control for me. Most people don't exercise in t…

Denying that exercise is helpful to most people goes against scientific results in mainstream medicine in so many ways.

We're not disputing the claim that it's helpful, we're disputing the claim that those who do not exercise necessarily "feel like shit" and would cease to "feel like shit" and/or would feel significantly better if they did exercise, when controlling for everything else.

Please don't put words in my mouth.

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