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Why We Do Pushups

markpeterdavis.com

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Re: Why We Do Pushups

#121

Post by joelrunyon »

georgieporgie wrote: post #114
joelrunyon wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're kidding, right?

Absolutely not. I cannot express to you how much pain can come from this. I'm talking about career-ruining, debilitating problems. You're not in the Army. You aren't going to balance out your strength training with a long day of running, climbing, etc. You're going to get your chest good and pumped, then plop right back down and hunch.

1. 10 pushups a day will not debilitate anyone. 2. You don't have to hunch. You can practice good posture at your desk. 3. If you're really worried about this, take 5 minutes to stretch out your pectoral muscles before/after doing this.

I would love to see some medical studies of people who've been seriously debilitated by doing pushups throughout the day. There's a difference between being in pain (sore) and being hurt. If you're doing enough pushups at the office to get hurt, you might be taking the team-building exercise a little too seriously.

Re: Why We Do Pushups

#122

Post by joelrunyon »

cema wrote: post #110
joelrunyon wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, individually, to fight against sleepiness. Not to participate in team building!

I think it would be weird if we had "mandatory pushup time" but if me and 2 other co-workers decide to have a pushup contest during work, I think it'd be fun, not cheesy.

Re: Why We Do Pushups

#123

Post by joelrunyon »

DanielStarling wrote: post #42

Note: if you do this long enough you'll end up with a shoulder slump worse than the classic one desk jockeys have. Try to balance it out with back excercise.

Your shoulders slump because you don't end up stretching the muscles. You simply build them up and make them tighter, which results in the slump. You need to stretch your pectorals, not do back exercises, to balance it out (although back exercises wouldn't hurt)!

Re: Why We Do Pushups

#124

Post by psykotic »

joelrunyon wrote: post #120
psykotic wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought my anecdote suggested quite clearly why I consider it stupid. Reading over it again I still think it does, but I'll spell it out for you: These kinds of team-building rituals make certain people very uncomfortable and anxious. This is no doubt lost on a lot of the empathy-challenged type-A personalities that tend to infect middle management. When it comes to push-ups I wouldn't personally have a problem per…

I think it completely depends on the situation. In my opinion, the OP didn't come across as "empathy-challenged type-A personality" and his company seems small enough that everyone involved seems okay doing them. While it might not be great for everyone (maybe especially in corporate environments), it didn't come across mean-spirited or ill-willed at all in this case. Edit: That said, I'm sorry you had a bad experien…

> That said, I'm sorry you had a bad experience with what seems like a terrible job.

The job itself wasn't that bad. Korea has some cultural quirks from a Western point of view. The drinking and prostitution culture around the workplace are chief among them. But most of the blame falls on me for not setting the right expectations from the beginning since I was the guest in a foreign country. Lessons learned and all that. But if something analogous were to happen to me in a Western workplace, I wouldn't let culture shock take the blame.

Re: Why We Do Pushups

#125

Post by georgieporgie »

joelrunyon wrote: post #121
georgieporgie wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely not. I cannot express to you how much pain can come from this. I'm talking about career-ruining, debilitating problems. You're not in the Army. You aren't going to balance out your strength training with a long day of running, climbing, etc. You're going to get your chest good and pumped, then plop right back down and hunch.

1. 10 pushups a day will not debilitate anyone. 2. You don't have to hunch. You can practice good posture at your desk. 3. If you're really worried about this, take 5 minutes to stretch out your pectoral muscles before/after doing this. I would love to see some medical studies of people who've been seriously debilitated by doing pushups throughout the day. There's a difference between being in pain (sore) and being h…

You are utterly wrong about this.

If you were so inclined, you could find all the information you desire about injuries caused by unbalanced musculature. But you seem like the invincible type who's going to ignore caution, so good luck to you.

Re: Why We Do Pushups

#126

Post by Hominem »

I worked at a place with team building yoga. Interupted my work every time the yoga instructor dropped in to make us do downward dog. I tried telling them I was busy a few times but a whole office harassing you to do yoga was worse than missing deadlines. I had to bring it up with a director, then I got blamed for getting the yoga woman fired. So much for team building.

Re: Why We Do Pushups

#127

Post by buff-a »

From http://www.livestrong.com/article/167826-how-to-do-a-wrist-p...

Only perform this exercise if you are at an advanced fitness level.

The hand position required for wrist push-ups places increased stress on the wrists, increasing risk of injury

Yoga or tai chi might achieve the same goals with less injury. Programmers risking wrist injury seems unusually ill thought out.

Huh, oh look: he isnt a programmer. Now it all makes sense.

"I am currently the CEO & Co-Founder of Kohort.

"Prior, I was a VC at DFJ Gotham Ventures, where I invested in information companies. "

Fancy that.

Re: Why We Do Pushups

#128

Post by joelrunyon »

georgieporgie wrote: post #125
joelrunyon wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. 10 pushups a day will not debilitate anyone. 2. You don't have to hunch. You can practice good posture at your desk. 3. If you're really worried about this, take 5 minutes to stretch out your pectoral muscles before/after doing this. I would love to see some medical studies of people who've been seriously debilitated by doing pushups throughout the day. There's a difference between being in pain (sore) and being h…

You are utterly wrong about this. If you were so inclined, you could find all the information you desire about injuries caused by unbalanced musculature. But you seem like the invincible type who's going to ignore caution, so good luck to you.

Wrong about what? You don't HAVE to hunch, you can stretch, and I said I would like to see studies of people hurt from ten pushups a day. If you have them, please share. If not, I'll keep listening to my body, doing pushups, and properly stretching safely. Have a good day!

Re: Why We Do Pushups

#129

Post by brianobush »

brosephius wrote: post #11

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…

that was my first reaction too. I run two miles per day and mountain bike on the weekends. That is when my mind clears up and allows ideas to take (new) form. One way to allow employees to get fit is offering discounts to gym and group after-work sports.

Re: Why We Do Pushups

#130

Post by dredmorbius »

joelrunyon wrote: post #88
georgieporgie wrote: post #66

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?

Not at all.

Look up kyphosis and upper cross syndrome.

Any time you're doing strength training, you want to balance your movements. If you're doing push (presses, push-ups), do pulls (rows, pull-ups, inverted pull-ups). Work your legs and your upper body. Do bilateral and unilateral movements (single arm or leg). Do strength and cardio. Mind your exercise and your diet. Oh: and rest and recovery are also key.

For many people in tech, sitting at desks, hunched in front of a screen, you're chronically tight on the anterior (front) of your body, and loose on the posterior (backside). If you look up exercise/fitness literature, you'll find a lot of reference to "posterior chain activation" or related terms, and exercises like deadlifts, power cleans, pull-ups, rows variations, kettlebell swings, etc. All work part or all of your backside, and can really help balance our your body (it's done amazing things for me, reducing back pain and other issues).

I don't know that doing 10 push-ups every day or two is going to cripple anyone, but if that's the only resistance work that's being done, it's certainly not going to help. Which is where a not of strength-training / fitness newbies get things horribly, horribly wrong: they come up with some half-assed, imbalanced, inappropriate training program / routine without understanding what they're doing or why.

Fitness activities, like technical problems, should be goal oriented. Identify your objectives, determine your resources, construct a program, execute on it, assess, modify, and iterate. It's really not all that difficult, but it does require a modicum of thought.

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