101–110 of 149 posts
I'm horrified. This has very high potential to be harmful. The defacto nerd position is seated and hunched. Developing the pectorals will only exacerbate this. If you want to engage in group exercise, find a routine which is more balanced, or at least balanced against what you do the rest of the day. Just do some calisthenics and stretch out those tight chests.
You're kidding, right?
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If you don't run much I highly suggest spending two months running _before_ running in Vibram Five-Fingers. And when you do get them, run on grass or dirt. They're the only shoes I wear running and I can do a fast paced 45 minute trail run in them and feel amazing, but even 15-20 minutes on concrete can cause pain.
I'm going to agree here. It's a good idea to go to a running shoe store and run on a treadmill with a variety of shoes. I only discovered this after injuring myself with shoes that weren't supportive enough (a neutral cushioning shoe). Now I have to stop running for two months and go to physical therapy twice a week. If I had gotten the right shoes in the first place, I could be running now. Don't get "barefoot" shoe…
VFFs are awesome, but take your time, get used to them and stretch a lot. They're worth it.
"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…
Team building just makes me shudder. A bad experience with a job I had in Korea made me almost swear off drinking entirely because I came to associate it with hwaeshik where I'd drink with obnoxious seniors while having to ward off their passive-aggressive male dominance bullshit. It was partly my own fault for setting expectations the wrong way. My friend who hired me and was the team's other foreigner just refused…
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That's not what "hostile work environment" means. Mandatory pushups are one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard of, but I assume you are not going to be fired if you don't do them. When everyone starts doing pushups, go out for a quick run, or something.
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…
http://www.eeo.wv.gov/Pages/FAQ.aspx
In most states fat people are not a protected class. So mocking the weaklings and chubbies who can't do pushups is probably still legal.
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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.
I'm not sure by what is your criteria for arranged marriages being successful. Is it because there are less divorces? The reason for that is probably because divorces are extremely taboo or illegal in the places that have have arranged marriages. As for the sacrificing in the military. Some of that has to do with the kind of people that want to join the military (a very small portion of the US population). Also from…
Improperly defining that can be dangerous. It can create too much adversity in the workplace where teams spend more energy thinking how to beat the other team vs how to improve the product (sometimes the two goals are not equivalent).
I guess it is a bit safer to identify the competitors as "them" but in a niche market people always jump ship and all the negative attitudes and comments end up finally being exposed.
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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.
I'm not sure by what is your criteria for arranged marriages being successful. Is it because there are less divorces? The reason for that is probably because divorces are extremely taboo or illegal in the places that have have arranged marriages. As for the sacrificing in the military. Some of that has to do with the kind of people that want to join the military (a very small portion of the US population). Also from…
Out of curiosity, were they in the front lines? There's plenty of jobs in the armed forces I could see that camaraderie never forming, particularly more bureaucratic sections.
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…
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…
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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!
Some people have knee problems. Although sometimes those knee problems are alleviated by regular stair use...
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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…
Push-ups are, at-best, a difficult exercise to get right This is surprisingly true. On Monday, I tested my one-rep max on shoulder presses, which involved a couple of balls-out failures with a weight I couldn't lift. Two days later, I feel fine. The last time I tried to find out how many pushups I could do in a row, I hurt my shoulder and didn't feel right again for two weeks. I'm pretty sure on any given day I could…
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Right, and these are all meaningfully related to work, directly or indirectly. Doing pushups is artificial and feels cheesy at best.
Have you done pushups at work before? I ask because I would assume that it's the only way you would know such a thing.