41–50 of 149 posts
Doing pushups should be balanced with pullups.
Or rows or any other kind of pulling. It's not unusual to prescribe a 2:1 work ratio of pulling to pushing. But push-pull imbalance tends to be more of a problem with weighted exercises like bench pressing than with plain old push-ups. There are lots of people who do push-ups without corresponding amounts of pull-ups with no ill effects.
"team building" is like an arranged marriage - either you have a team or you don't, trying to force it doesn't yield any results and usually it's just an euphemism for being forced to do stupid things, most often to get drunk with everyone or "you are not being a team player". I would feel rather silly doing push-ups at work, especially at the command of my "team leader". Maybe people with more submissive personaliti…
Similarly, team-building exercises can be stunningly effective. The military takes a couple months to make you willing to sacrifice your life for a group of what were recently strangers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, this approach seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Push-ups are, at-best, a difficult exercise to get right (see http://thetoptwoinches.wordpress.com/2007/12/04/100/ ). Do them in bad form and you can injure yourself. Is the team leader going to be both an expert at management AND an expert at physical education? Does the company want the lawsuits if an employee is injured exercising at the direction of th…
Are you kidding or is it true? You can get a lawsuit for this? (I don't live in the US)
Doing pushups should be balanced with pullups.
Especially if you're sitting at a computer all day. Gotta strengthen that back to keep your shoulders from curling in too much. Then everything starts to go wrong =/
"team building" is like an arranged marriage - either you have a team or you don't, trying to force it doesn't yield any results and usually it's just an euphemism for being forced to do stupid things, most often to get drunk with everyone or "you are not being a team player". I would feel rather silly doing push-ups at work, especially at the command of my "team leader". Maybe people with more submissive personaliti…
Arranged marriages are remarkably successful. People are really good at falling in love given the right context clues. Similarly, team-building exercises can be stunningly effective. The military takes a couple months to make you willing to sacrifice your life for a group of what were recently strangers.
The military takes a couple months to make you
willing to sacrifice your life for a group of
what were recently strangers.
In case my management decides to do this kind of team-building exercise, I think I would be willing to give them benefit of doubt, but the very cheesiness of it all will likely wear me out before I give up and call it bullshit. Conflict with the management will then be almost inevitable. The opposite of team building! Maybe it is just me; I see comments that sound positive.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I found that statement funny, since the first tech company I worked for was MSFT. Out in that area (the pacific northwest), physical activity is a huge deal -- hiking, skiing, and snowboarding especially. On every team I was on, the vast majority of the people were in stunningly good shape. Even the 35+, multiple-kids crowd. I still remember one time that I almost killed an interview candidate by mistake. Ran d…
Taking the stairs is such an easy way to burn a few calories. It surprises me how few people do it in my office. Although, as shown by your story, some people just aren't able to!
"team building" is like an arranged marriage - either you have a team or you don't, trying to force it doesn't yield any results and usually it's just an euphemism for being forced to do stupid things, most often to get drunk with everyone or "you are not being a team player". I would feel rather silly doing push-ups at work, especially at the command of my "team leader". Maybe people with more submissive personaliti…
There are a lot of things managers and coworkers can do that either strengthen or weaken team spirit. In my experience one of the most positive is eating meals together. One of the most negative is playing favorites or improperly assigning credit for accomplishments.
Doing pushups should be balanced with pullups.
Especially if you're sitting at a computer all day. Gotta strengthen that back to keep your shoulders from curling in too much. Then everything starts to go wrong =/
The other thing I would add is core work, and not just strengthening, but also correcting posture (pelvic tilt).
All of the above just scratches the surface on how to correct the bad things that happen to your posture when sitting at a desk for hours each day.
Everyone in the comments seems to be poo-pooing either the pushups themselves or the team building abilities as noted by the author. I'm not here to defend the team building side (nyeh, it's alright for team building) but pushups are a great exercise to do. By themselves? No, of course not, but they're good by themselves anyway (full body weight exercise.) However, in the middle of a long day at your desk, it doesn't…
"BTW, a lot of these people are pretty committed athletes. If you're not, and you're looking for something that's easy and obvious, try doing some pushups throughout the day. When I'm feeling antsy, sometimes I get up, do 20 pushups, and then go back to what I'm doing. Start small: two pushups count if you're not used to them.
I like to run, and if you're starting out, it's relatively easy to buy a pair of running shoes (try going to a running shop with a pair of shoes you already own; the staff should be able to look at your wear pattern and adjust the shoe they recommend accordingly) or a pair of Vibram Five-Fingers. Start easily: go out running for five minutes. Or ten minutes. Build up little by little.
Otherwise, I think the meta-advice of this article is that we make time for things that're important to us, which most of us probably already know, or know on some level."