I go on walks for 1:1s and 1-directional meetings. I average 9.5k steps per day.
I acknowledge some people would prefer the cameras stay on and exceptions can be made, but my health is more important than 99% of my meetings.
Ask HN: Stay fit as a time-poor remote worker
41–50 of 67 posts
Re: Ask HN: Stay fit as a time-poor remote worker
#42I managed with “cardio workouts” from some youtube channel Indo not recall, but there are hundreds nowadays, for free or paid. The important thing is to keep to a schedule (not necessarily the same “time” but the same “moment” -after a meeting, after two hours’ work…).
Good luck.
Re: Ask HN: Stay fit as a time-poor remote worker
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Come on man, you can't have such a busy life. You have to cut somewhere for your own sanity. What about weekend? Use Saturday & Sunday and Wednesday? > I have approx 50 mins per day available. Build a minimal home gym and train hard? It's important to train hard for 1 hour or more, not just do 10K steps.
kids, literally make your life that busy. Home gym would be ideal - unfortunately space is the issue there, I have about 1.5m2 available.
I have kids. I don’t eat lunch and use the lunch hour for exercise during the week. Even 20 minutes a day pays dividends if you run or lift weights.
Re: Ask HN: Stay fit as a time-poor remote worker
#44I am in the same situation. It has caused me such deterioration in mind and body that my relationship has been affected, and we are in counseling now. As a remote worker, I have decided to give up on walking - it takes up so much time that I conclude that is suitable exercise for rich people only. Furthermore, three months of the year here it is too hot to walk; six months, it is dark by the time I am freed enough fr…
> Furthermore, three months of the year here it is too hot to walk; Have you tried pushing through and getting used to it? I run for half an hour in Shanghai summer weather. Over 35 degrees and humid. > six months, it is dark by the time I am freed enough from work to go walking That sucks. Are there parks nearby or could you use a headlamp and wear high visibility clothing? > and trying to get a worthwhile walk in b…
> Have you tried pushing through and getting used to it? I run for half an hour in Shanghai summer weather. Over 35 degrees and humid.
It's hard but it works. Been working from home for 20 years and I do go for walks almost no matter the weather. If it snows I just put on my mountain hiking gear. I skip heavy rains though :)
But you're in Shanghai which is mostly a huge city as far as I know, and I live in an European city. I definitely don't walk in the dark, I walk 2.5 km to a park and stop at a coffee kiosk there, then walk back.
The experience in the suburbs may vary.
The worst thing with stuff like this is when you think of exercise as lost time though. Netflix is lost time. Exercise isn't.
Re: Ask HN: Stay fit as a time-poor remote worker
#45This may not be a popular opinion but...
.. going to the office everyday had some really tangible benefits a) we had a natural physical activity related to daily commute and more occasions to stay in town, do stuff there, meet people, enjoy city live, b) we had a clear time boundaries between work stuff and other stuff with the return commute working great to unroll any work-related thoughts and get back to home with any tensions left behind.
Re: Ask HN: Stay fit as a time-poor remote worker
#46Few sets of heavy compound lifts would really help, doesn't have to take more than 30 minutes. Especially if you superset (multiple exercises simultaneously). E.g. squats and curls in between, bench and pistol squats...
Re: Ask HN: Stay fit as a time-poor remote worker
#47You can do the soleus pushup all day while sitting. Supposedly, it can fix your metabolism. Also, Supernatural or boxing like in Thrill of the Fight on a cheaper standalone VR headset may work for you. It's a surprisingly intense workout.
Re: Ask HN: Stay fit as a time-poor remote worker
#48I have found creating a fake commute is the only way to make it work. Basically I have a walk that I do that gets me 'to' and 'from' the office (a shed in the garden) - which adds up to just under 10k steps a day. I've actually got my colleagues on board and I regularly call into standup whilst on my 'commute'. I found early on that I wasn't very motivated to get out of bed 25 mins early so I have also started making…
I did something similar for walks and replaced the evening commute back with cycling on Zwift. I finish work then jump on the bike in my office, and it allows me to break up the work day and the start of my evening. It's been very effective for my health over the past two years.
Re: Ask HN: Stay fit as a time-poor remote worker
#49Get a dog.
Re: Ask HN: Stay fit as a time-poor remote worker
#50Join a gym. Free weights are cheap. Do some curls while you're on a call. Balance ball instead of a chair. Jumping jacks don't require equipment.
That’s not the type of movement that will keep you healthy though. Proper biomechanics requires that you move, a lot. Lifting weights while not actually moving around enough actually puts you at risk for injury and imbalances because your body isn’t progressing through proper range of motion enough.
Starting Strength uses compound lifts that go through the full range of motion for that reason. It takes ~3 hours a week. I’m sure doing cardio a lot would be better again but you can get a big improvement going from sedentary to three hours of vigorous exercise a week.