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I'm a person who starts sweating easily, so there's a high chance I'd feel at least some discomfort after. On the other hand, if the exercise is mild enough not to make me sweat, it's probably next to useless for me.
I don't think you're supposed to get fit, the benefit is more that it stops you sitting in your chair for 8 hours straight.
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It always amuses me to see non-handicap people taking the elevator at the gym.
Unless you're strength training. In which case, you may not care to climb the stairs as they don't really further your goals.
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Programmers come to work in the morning?
Hypothetically, were programmers to show up at the same time in some sort of morning analogue, I could see group pushups having a net positive effect.
Absolutely agreed with everything here. Additionally, push-ups help keep you awake. Nodding off? Drop and do 5. Gets the heart pumping again.
I like doing a brief mid-afternoon nap. It'll keep me productive well into the evening. Unfortunately, this is incompatible with the American work style.
I brought a rocking chair for naps to work.
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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!
Anyone have some links to studies that show sitting in a chair at your desk is bad for your health? Someone the other day said that he "heard" that sitting in a chair all day long for years is just as bad for your health as smoking. Not sure I get the correlation, but surely we have enough data points to have several credible studies.
Hacker News these days has all the links you need, and more:
Sitting for hours can shave years off life (cnn.com) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2702384
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Depending on the situation, you could have a hostile work environment[0]. Take a guy who is over weight and weak, make him feel uncomfortable about not being "good enough" to do the push ups, add "good natured" ribbing from co-workers that goes on day after day and subtle "anti-team" vibe because the rest of the team is pushing up together. Likely? No. Possible? Yes. Something to watch for but not something to stress…
Intent is the key. Making you do pushups isn't intended to make you quit, it's intended to be fun. It's a dumb idea, but it's not hostile.
we’re a tech co - meatheads are nowhere to be found so programmers can't be athletic? I'm sure that's not what he meant, but that's how it comes across. also, the idea of group pushups as a "team building" activity - seriously? that just sounds awkward and weird. not to mention that pushups are not remotely sufficient as exercise if that's all you're doing. you want to help your employees stay in shape? commit to mak…
"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.