Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 132 posts

Re: Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion

#71

Post by all2 »

User23 wrote: post #59
ck2 wrote: post #48

The keyword there is "aerobic". Weight lifting is not aerobic, it is anaerobic. If you run/cycle/etc beyond your lactate threshold heartrate, you've now switched from aerobic to anaerobic. Easy to google for more info if this seems interesting/important to you, just a "heads up" to the concept.

> Weight lifting is not aerobic, it is anaerobic. Heavy low repetition lifting is anaerobic, but around 15-20+ repetitions with lighter weights it becomes aerobic.

Super sets of 80+ reps is definitely cardio, especially on legs day.

Re: Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion

#72

Post by swah »

fjfaase wrote: post #33

If I understand the paper correctly, I have been doing the right thing with biking to the office every day :-). My bike ride takes about 24 minutes one way. I have always looked for jobs at a biking distance from my home.

And it really works better this way. If you just ride around the same block 10 times and then arrive at you job (at home, say) it doesn't feel as good.

Re: Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion

#73

Post by g19fanatic »

curiousllama wrote: post #12
eitland wrote: post #7

> While widespread strategies to recover from mental exhaustion (i.e., watching TV) are non-effective, I worked for a startup from 2015 to 2017. During that time I'd sometimes work 10-14 hours for 2-3 days in a row. When I was tired after lunch I'd just tell my colleagues I was tired and would take a gaming break and then go play 1 or 2 maps of CS:GO in casual mode before working 5-7 hours more after the brain fog ha…

If you ever want to do breakfast again, try dropping the carbs. Had a similar problem, and greek yogurt for breakfast solved it for me.

+1 for dropping the carbs to leave the fog behind.

I used to do a large, sometimes carb heavy breakfast (french toast was my goto... with syrup of course). Brain fog killed me. Switched to 2 strips of bacon and 3 eggs instead (bacon done in the microwave, so easy) and that fog has lifted!

Re: Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion

#74

Post by Lewton »

hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #32

Just browsed through the Abstract. Some unrelated thoughts: I think the issue that most people won't gather up the will to do aerobic exercise after they are mentally exhausted -- even that they know it works to some extent. Following this, I believe, without scientific proof, that genius (or others who can contribute significantly more than other people) have their mind wired completely different from other people.…

Anecdotally, 90% of the "machines" I've met, also had a history of exercising significantly more than the average joe

Re: Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion

#75

Post by aspaviento »

wincy wrote: post #58
sputknick wrote: post #2

Personal Anecdote: when I was in an office (before current WFH) and I was mentally exhausted I would go down to the gym, slam slam balls into the floor for 2 minutes without stopping, maybe take a 30 second cold shower, then return to work. Super refreshing and I was gone from my desk a grand total of like 8 minutes.

I used to go outside of my office and sprint as fast as I could for as long as I could, then cool down with a walk around the block. Then I switched jobs and everyone could see me if I did this so I got embarrassed and stopped. I feel like it really helped, maybe I need to get back into the habit, especially since I’m working from home.

Going from a long period of time sitting to immediately perform an explosive exercise is a recipe for getting injured. Muscles and joints will suffer from it on the long term.

Re: Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion

#77

Post by udbhavs »

Grambo wrote: post #50
justsocrateasin wrote: post #44

Entirely anecdotal, but a lot of professional endurance sports athletes / ultra distance athletes are also high performing PhD candidates/professors/academics. It's kind of weird - if you watch the documentary about the Barkley Marathons, the winners are usually some kind of math/engineering PhD candidate. Another anecdote - As a kid I was "hyperactive" and struggled a lot in school until my freshman year. Coincident…

Reminds me of the fact that Alan Turing was a world class distance runner. He would sometimes run commute 40 miles for meetings.

John Carmack is also heavily into Judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Re: Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion

#78

Post by babyshake »

Grambo wrote: post #50
justsocrateasin wrote: post #44

Entirely anecdotal, but a lot of professional endurance sports athletes / ultra distance athletes are also high performing PhD candidates/professors/academics. It's kind of weird - if you watch the documentary about the Barkley Marathons, the winners are usually some kind of math/engineering PhD candidate. Another anecdote - As a kid I was "hyperactive" and struggled a lot in school until my freshman year. Coincident…

Reminds me of the fact that Alan Turing was a world class distance runner. He would sometimes run commute 40 miles for meetings.

That's about 1.5 marathons each way for a meeting?

Re: Acute aerobic exercise to recover from mental exhaustion

#79

Post by hasbot »

zeku wrote: post #57

Just want to add to this thread: Walking. Just take a walk no need for something special! If we are talking a workout routine then that's different, but if it's just a mental reset after a challenging couple hours of work then go on a 15 min walk!

Absolutely. Walking is the cheapest, easiest effective exercise there is. Unfortunately so much of the US is not conducive to safe walking. For example, neighborhoods without sidewalks.
Post reply on HN