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Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

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Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#61

Post by cyberferret »

sdrothrock wrote: post #41
cyberferret wrote: post #29

I find that routine is important to getting regular exercise and movement. I am one of those programmers who likes getting into a 'flow' state and working for large blocks of time, so my strategy is to try and get a 1 hr walk in the morning when I wake up. Much as people like to check their Inbox first thing to get it out of the way before starting productive work, I find that getting my walk in the morning before I…

> I took up Kendo about 18 months ago, and the regularly scheduled classes and training sessions are good for forcing me off the computer and go work up a sweat. I especially love the little 30 second meditation we do at the start and end of each class. Mokuso was integral to teaching me to relax and focus; I try to continue meditating even though I haven't done kendo for years, but some days I just want to be sittin…

Absolutely. I look forward to Mokuso during training. It is really a great, relaxing transition between 'everyday' and 'dojo' state of mind.

I particularly enjoy the ceremony surrounding Kendo. That, coupled with the discipline really helps me to focus and push myself both physically and mentally. It makes a great counterpoint to the purely intellectual activity of programming, which I find helps balance me.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#62

Post by manmal »

cyberferret wrote: post #29

I find that routine is important to getting regular exercise and movement. I am one of those programmers who likes getting into a 'flow' state and working for large blocks of time, so my strategy is to try and get a 1 hr walk in the morning when I wake up. Much as people like to check their Inbox first thing to get it out of the way before starting productive work, I find that getting my walk in the morning before I…

The problem is that being sedentary for hours is not alleviated by working out in the morning or evening. You have to break the flow every hour, or more often, and move.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#64

Post by ruleordie »

> Anyways, it’s not that complex to tackle this. A few changes in your habits should do the trick.

This is complete garbage. The fact is, there is nothing you do to do 100% reverse the effects of sitting all day. You can maybe improve things by 20% or something like that. Progressive people keep hoping that you can use some kind of technology to change things but you can't. Standing desks don't do anything, standing up every hour doesn't do anything. There is nothing you can do. We are designed a certain way and if we don't live that way our health suffers greatly. The only solution is to go back to living that way no matter how hard you try to believe anything else.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#65

Post by rubber_duck »

DigitalSea wrote: post #50

In our office we started a lunchtime walk. We eat our lunch and whoever wants to participate, we head out for a 30 minute walk. It might not be enough, but it's better than the nothing before.

Walking is not time efficient, you're better off doing 10 mins of HIIT than an hour of walking.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#66

Post by yaseer »

ruleordie wrote: post #64

> Anyways, it’s not that complex to tackle this. A few changes in your habits should do the trick. This is complete garbage. The fact is, there is nothing you do to do 100% reverse the effects of sitting all day. You can maybe improve things by 20% or something like that. Progressive people keep hoping that you can use some kind of technology to change things but you can't. Standing desks don't do anything, standing…

> The only solution is to go back to living that way no matter how hard you try to believe anything else.

Nobody can confidently assert this now; you are stating your belief, not a fact.

We would need to do longitudinal studies on all the alternatives (standing desks, periodic walking) to be able to build up a picture. To my knowledge, that has not yet been done. It may take decades to build up a picture.

Until then, people can choose options based on existing theories. In time, those theories will either be validated or refuted, but they have not yet been.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#67

Post by centimeter »

Retr0spectrum wrote: post #47
snarfy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have about 5 seconds before your brain shuts up those ideas like "I'll definitely exercise more...". It's an awesome idea, life changing even. 5 seconds later your rational self catches up with the idea and starts to counter with 'but I don't have enough time', 'it's too hard', 'maybe tomorrow', etc. The next time you get the idea to exercise more you need to stop what you are doing right then and there and do so…

Is it really the "rational self"? Personally, I think it's just my lazy instincts kicking in.

During a psychedelic mushroom trip, for the first few hours my rational mind is heavily dampened. I’m not fully aware or conscious in the normal way, and I mostly just remember are intense sensory and emotional impressions. After around 4 or 5 hours, my rational mind comes back with a vengeance and more biological drives are dampened. Pain (temporarily) ceases to be a motivator, as do other low-level emotional sensations like embarrassment, hunger, and whatever weird energy conservation instinct it is that makes many people prefer not to exercise.

At this time, when my mind is clearest (there are several other metaphors I could use here, but let’s go with that), I feel like I could totally exercise as hard as I should for as long as I should without getting caught by that nasty energy-saving mechanism we call laziness.

As a comparison, many people are willing to grind for hours on an MMO character, but aren’t willing to go to the gym for half an hour a day. Without the normal din of brain activity, it’s easy to apply the video game mentality to your meatspace person.

The thing that did finally get me habitually exercising (while sober, of course) was an in-work gym, since sometimes repeatedly lifting heavy things is preferable to another minute dealing with most software products.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#68

Post by aswanson »

shadowmint wrote: post #53

> When you need to ask a colleague something, walk up to his/her desk instead of dropping a message 'Did you get that email I sent you?' Ahhhhhh~ No. Please don't. There's plenty of good advice on this article, but be careful that the things that you do for yourself don't negatively impact other people ; that's not be healthy, its being thoughtless and selfish.

It never ceases to amaze me how much others think they entitled to your time while working. They'll start conversations when all nonverbal signals show you are trying to get something done. Im at the point where I am going to be forced to be outright rude, which is not easy for me, just to be able to work undisturbed.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#69

Post by aswanson »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #21
alansammarone wrote: post #5

Every time I read an article like this, I get a bad feeling and I say to myself "I'll definitely exercise more - I don't wanna be all buggy when I get older due to my lifestyle - I'll do this NOW!". Then a couple of hours later, I'm back coding happily seated. I'm sure this is the case for many of us. I wish our brains could keep this bad, guilty-like feeling that makes us take action around for longer.

There is a Tony Robbins video somewhere where he says "in life, you get your standards". I.e. not what you want or desire but what you make an absolute standard. I found it can take time and few mental visits to a problem before this happens. Most of us have standards around hygiene, dental care, personal appearance etc that are almost immutable. If you have a standard that you want to remain fit and that becomes dee…

I never thought I'd find anything useful Tony Robbins ever said, but that sounds true.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#70

Post by centimeter »

gaius wrote: post #39
snarfy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have about 5 seconds before your brain shuts up those ideas like "I'll definitely exercise more...". It's an awesome idea, life changing even. 5 seconds later your rational self catches up with the idea and starts to counter with 'but I don't have enough time', 'it's too hard', 'maybe tomorrow', etc. The next time you get the idea to exercise more you need to stop what you are doing right then and there and do so…

you need to stop what you are doing right then and there and do something about it If you're at home, there's no reason not to just do 10 pressups right there and then (and as you get better, 20, 30 and so on). Or dips with your chair if you can't do pressups yet.

I agree, although I’ve found that there are diminishing returns around 25-30 push-ups. At some point you need to use weights or machines that allow you to exceed what you can get from body weight.
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