Just a small tip: don't stretch before strength training. You want the blood to remain in your muscles for the duration of your workout. Warm up by doing some cardio instead.
whoa this seems a bit dangerous and flies in the face of what we get drilled into us since children about weightlifting. Do you have any authoritative source for this?
Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
51–60 of 124 posts
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#52No mention of getting an adequate amount of sleep? Exercise makes me feel even worse if I'm not getting enough sleep.
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#53Why is HN so obsessed with exercise?
I'm quite happy as a lazy slob. I ran track and x country in high school, but I didn't like exercise then and I still don't.
I'm sure it would probably make me healthier, but it just isn't worth the discomfort to me. Stop making me look bad, guys.
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#54Just a small tip: don't stretch before strength training. You want the blood to remain in your muscles for the duration of your workout. Warm up by doing some cardio instead.
whoa this seems a bit dangerous and flies in the face of what we get drilled into us since children about weightlifting. Do you have any authoritative source for this?
Well, this is a bit of a fools' errand. I went ahead and searched google and found support for any conceivable position on the whole stretching situation. Anyways, this is what I was taught:
http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/articles-submit/tanja-gard...
For strength training, there’s evidence that stretching before a workout is counter-productive. Strength training requires muscles to contract tightly against a heavy weight, and loosening the muscle fibres by stretching them first reduces their ability to do this. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t warm your muscles up before strength training – just avoid stretching them first. If you want to include stretching in the same workout as strength training, it’s better to wait until after you’ve finished your weights work.
I typically warm up on the elliptical machine for 5 minutes and then for each muscle group I'm doing that day I start with a set of low weight/high reps to warm it up. After the workout I do stretch my hamstrings because I sit on my ass all day.
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
A thousand times yes. Having water at hand and always sipping is a really great way to tame hunger and oral fixations, and is great for your body to be flushing itself out. I find that tea doesn't give me as much of a high as coffee, but it lasts longer without any come-down. Awesome.
Tea puts me to sleep. I can drink the most caffeinated tea on the market, and I'll be nodding off in an hour. It's a real pain because I have difficulty digesting coffee, and I'm looking for alternatives. Appreciate any suggestions.
Try a true english tea like PG Tips - there's just no way you'll fall asleep after drinking a cup of that; the teabag is about 60% bigger than the average american teabag (one of those strange things is that teabags in america are smaller than the english version (same brand)).
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Without sufficient hydration, metabolic wastes stay around longer than they should. Most toxin removal is performed by the kidneys. Keeping your body hydrated assists the kidneys in their normal functioning and ensures that toxins acquired through food consumption are rapidly eliminated. At an optimal level of hydration, this occurs naturally; however, most people are at least somewhat dehydrated a large majority of…
What toxins? By the way, I mentioned specifically too much water. You only need to drink when you're thirsty. I'm asking what benefit you get from drinking water when you're not thirsty. By the way, "people are dehydrated a large majority of the time" -- citation needed.
Pesticides, steroids, residual contaminants from environmental deposition, and many other sources. Drinking water when you're not thirsty is controversial and may actually overwork your kidneys if done too often; however, with the large amount of caffeine, soda, and alcohol (all diuretics) consumed by the general population, that's rarely an issue.
Obviously, I can't speak for any large body of humans without some kind of rigorous scientific evidence, but passive observation of coworkers, friends, and family leads me to believe that most people don't drink nearly enough water. It could be different where you live though.
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#57Exercise is basic necessary maintenance required by the human body. You either do it and have a happy/healthy body, or you don't. Eating healthy is just as important, separated into two categories: overall caloric intake, and nutritional content. Car analogies are a dime a dozen in computing, but they apply here as well. Not exercising is like changing the oil in your car every 10,000-15,000 miles, instead of every 3…
You may be doing it worse by just avoiding fat. You should worry more about sugar, to begin with.
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#58I ride my bicycle just about everywhere: to the office, grocery store, restaurants, everywhere. It's a great way to get exercise and doesn't cut into your schedule all that much, because due to traffic lights you can often get to where you are going on a bike only slightly slower than in a car. Also starting the day after my 7 mile commute is fantastic, my brain is rocking and ready.
Does your city have a bicycle trail, has only light traffic, or are you hyperventilating on car exhaust fumes?
I never really got why would people cycle/jog on busy roads.
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#59Just a small tip: don't stretch before strength training. You want the blood to remain in your muscles for the duration of your workout. Warm up by doing some cardio instead.
whoa this seems a bit dangerous and flies in the face of what we get drilled into us since children about weightlifting. Do you have any authoritative source for this?
I have heard the same thing from other fitness nuts. I'm pretty into health and fitness myself. I'll try to find a reference. Cardio before and after to warm up and cool down your heart. No stretching before. Deep stretching after.
Look at results from this search: http://www.google.com/search?q=dont+stretch+before+weightlif...
Here's an example from : http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/articles-submit/tanja-gard...
"For strength training, there’s evidence that stretching before a workout is counter-productive. Strength training requires muscles to contract tightly against a heavy weight, and loosening the muscle fibres by stretching them first reduces their ability to do this. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t warm your muscles up before strength training – just avoid stretching them first. If you want to include stretching in the same workout as strength training, it’s better to wait until after you’ve finished your weights work."
[Note: I did not refresh the page and see that user naner replied similarly. May I say: great minds think alike! Haha.]
Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup
#60I'm having trouble putting this all together. Let's figure 9 hours at work, 1 hour of commute, 1.5 hours eating, 1.5 hours exercising, .75 hours meditating, and 7.5 hours sleeping. That leaves less than three hours for showering, changing clothes, and a little downtime. When do you do chores around the house, run errands, visit family, and hang out with friends?
Crossfit never takes longer than 30 minutes. Some workouts can be as short as 3 minutes.
^^ this. if you're pressed for time, crossfit is amazing (well it's amazing anyway).
my cf gym is full of professional people-- doctors, lawyers, and engineers and by looking at them you'd think they were gym rats.