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Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

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Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#191

Post by SFJulie »

Nothing.

When I was a coder I was riding my cheap bike to move in the city everyday in Montréal (even by -35°C). And bike is very good for cardio which is a main way of staying in shape. I was taking 30 min to skate from time to time in winter near jobs, and running in summer on the mont royal.

Thanks to this I have free gym 12hr/day in my new work as a mover that I got by looking in shape.

Your body is as much an asset as your mind. Invest in it because else you will have debilitating pain sitting on your chair when you will be ~40 yo.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#192

Post by samsonradu »

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…

In my opinion weight lifting shouldn t be done until 18yo unless you re a professional athlete. Chances are you will get injured sooner or later since your body is not fully developped for it. Also gaining muscular mass at a young age can cause metabolism issues later (after 30), gaining weight easier and such. Studies show it might also stunt your growth in height. Practicing sports only till about 18 then slowly moving towards weight lifting will ensure a fit&healthy body, those big biceps all kids want will come up later in life, no need to speed that up.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#193

Post by ysleepy »

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…

Proof by anecdote. Nice.

Your statement is derogatory and unsound.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but that does not invalidate his or mine.

For me it took some time to get to a fitness level where running made me only more awake, alert and clear - without even a hint of tiredness.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#194

Post by projektir »

ysleepy wrote: post #193
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…

Proof by anecdote. Nice. Your statement is derogatory and unsound. I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but that does not invalidate his or mine. For me it took some time to get to a fitness level where running made me only more awake, alert and clear - without even a hint of tiredness.

I'm arguing against a generalization. All it takes to disprove it is one anecdote.

The typical mind fallacy is specifically the idea that your experience can be automatically generalized upon others, that everyone thinks and feels the same.

I would have nothing against the OP if they just said that they feel like shit when they don't exercise, but they had to generalize on other people and make a judgment. I'm not sure how you see my statement as derogatory but not theirs?

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#195

Post by cauterized »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #6

First, I don't like it. Most of the time, it is awkward stuff, and horribly boring, exercising just to exercise. I'd rather do so much other stuff. Second, I don't usually find the gains to be motivating. I have trouble sticking with it after a month or two. Third, I'm not really willing to spend money on equipment or go out of my way to a gym. I'd rather not be seen.

This is my reason too. The only forms of exercise that I don't deeply dislike for their own sake are prohibitively expensive or require a commitment of 3-4 hours at a time.

I exercise instead when it becomes a pleasant way to accomplish something I have to do anyway. For me the trick is to find good ways to incorporate exercise into activities I'd be doing anyway.

When the weather is nice, I walk to work because there's a lovely tree-lined route and it's much more enjoyable than standing on a loud and crowded subway. If the elevator line is 15 min long, I'll walk a few flights of stairs. And of course, the subway itself plus living in a walkup means a handful of flights daily. And maybe I'll get off a stop early and walk half a mile home, stopping for groceries along the way.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#196

Post by cauterized »

judobuff wrote: post #91

Just to follow up on this question, is there anything in particular for those that do not exercise, that would get you to exercise? There are so many products and services out there that try to get people to exercise. What do you need to get started that isn't already out there? So what would make you exercise?

Finding something that I actually enjoy doing and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Oh, and not having to either be active before waking up properly or work a second shower into my schedule.

I might consider a treadmill or stationary bike desk if I didn't have to commit to buying it before knowing if I'll like/use it. Or didn't have to figure out how to build one myself (in a carpeted NYC apartment with a hammer and screw gun but no saw) and then somehow lug it to work on public transit.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#197

Post by Hydraulix989 »

samsonradu wrote: post #192
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In my opinion weight lifting shouldn t be done until 18yo unless you re a professional athlete. Chances are you will get injured sooner or later since your body is not fully developped for it. Also gaining muscular mass at a young age can cause metabolism issues later (after 30), gaining weight easier and such. Studies show it might also stunt your growth in height. Practicing sports only till about 18 then slowly mo…

At the time, I was on that trajectory -- trying to get recruited for college-level track and field. All of the other state-caliber athletes (my competition) were intensely weight training.

What messed me up wasn't the fact that I was weight lifting (I still have remnants of my high school athletic physique now even as an engineer who sits and codes for 10+ hours a day), but rather, overtraining and incompetent coaching.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#198

Post by Hydraulix989 »

projektir wrote: post #180
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"[Upon ceasing to exercise,] I pretty quickly noticed a return of worse mood and energy levels. Maybe it's just true for most people, but not everyone?"

"Most people don't exercise in the first place, I don't know if we can say how much it helps most people vs us selecting for people it helps."

You don't see how my interpretation of this (your) argument was a reasonable one?

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#199

Post by kyloren »

Well I play football soccer as some call it. It's tougher than it seems when you play for more than 30 minutes and playing with friends makes it fun rather than working out alone. Now I'm totally addicted in playing and also it keeps me fit.

Re: Ask HN: What keeps you from exercising?

#200

Post by thenomad »

projektir wrote: post #181
forgetsusername wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

There's a big drawback to trying to create a big divide between those who do not exercise at all and those who devote their life to exercise. I've seen this a lot where a person who starts out doing some form of exercise immediately gets criticized for not doing more. That's not how it works. Working up a sweat playing a game is more than most people do and will already bring benefits. It's a whole lot better than no…

Well said.

On the "better things" point: I also weight-train, I've studied Muay Thai, boxing, and a number of other martial arts, and I was an athlete in high school.

Judged by those metrics, some Vive games are still pretty decent exercise. They're not "equivalent to heavy sparring" intense, but they're a solid cardio workout.

Vive room-scale exercise can be rather more intense than you might think - see https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4wtp3p/vr_fitness_50_... - or possibly I'm just bad at the games and substituting energy for technique :) .

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