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The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

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Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#161

Post by porknubbins »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #141
KVFinn wrote: post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

I worry that listening to audiobooks and podcasts negate the creativity boost that a walk provides. You're no longer walking and thinking but walking and consuming passive entertainment. The mind is not free to wander.

I have found that just by failing to clear my mind before exercise I can end up mentally crunching some problem (if the parts are sufficiently well specified that I can imagine them), which negates a lot of the mental benefit of exercise.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#162

Post by bjarneh »

bbig wrote: post #151
bjarneh wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 20 km per day (~12.5 mi) That is some serious distance. I remember thinking I would be able to do at least 25-35 km per day, a few years ago when I walked parts of the camino de Santiago in Spain. Blisters and destroyed feet in just a few days, not ever reaching 30 km per day I think.. How long did it take you to get used to this kind of distance daily?

I had a good baseline fitness from other activities, so was able to pretty much launch into 20 km daily. Blisters happened at the beginning. Investing in Darn Tough socks helps.

> Investing in Darn Tough socks helps.

Thanks for the advice. In the army we got the opposite advice, they said we must never use woolen socks when we did the 30 km march, always use cotton they said...

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#163

Post by robbiep »

kashyapc wrote: post #108
robbiep wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus. I thought breaking 3 was crushing it for amateurs. Congrats. What sort of training do you do to progress? I’m relatively fit (swim/ride/squash) but haven’t run much for a long time. Now doing 1-2 10ks a week but no idea how to move further

Firstly, sorry for the bad thinko at a crucial occurrence in my first comment; I was talking about half marathons all along. I'm still a novice runner; only one year in. :-). For both the half marathons, I implemented the below bog-standard rough plan (no fancy high-interval training or anything like that—it helps, though!): - "Rest" on Mondays - walk 6K or bike 10K - 7K run on Tuesdays - "Rest" on Wednesdays - 10K b…

Thanks so much for your plan! Much appreciated! I'll give it a bit of a whirl!

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#164

Post by kashyapc »

robbiep wrote: post #163
kashyapc wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firstly, sorry for the bad thinko at a crucial occurrence in my first comment; I was talking about half marathons all along. I'm still a novice runner; only one year in. :-). For both the half marathons, I implemented the below bog-standard rough plan (no fancy high-interval training or anything like that—it helps, though!): - "Rest" on Mondays - walk 6K or bike 10K - 7K run on Tuesdays - "Rest" on Wednesdays - 10K b…

Thanks so much for your plan! Much appreciated! I'll give it a bit of a whirl!

Glad to be useful. If you're putting in 1-2 10Ks/week, you can absolutely train for a half marathon—assuming no existing serious injuries. Also try coming up with your own bespoke plan (including experimenting with diet - keep an informal log) that's based on your unique needs and situation; it can be empowering.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#165

Post by garfieldnate »

KVFinn wrote: post #58

I listen to audiobooks while walking and it makes it easier to focus and overall more enjoyable. I also discovered that human memory is weird as heck. When I walk my mind is somehow mapping my physical location in the world to the content, down to the sentence. If I rewind an audio book I can fairly often remember where exactly I heard a particular sentence. The precise street corner or park trail I was on, to like a…

I remember words I've learned in a similar way, with many of them bringing back the social situation, location, weather, emotions, etc. at the time when I learned them. I would love a VR product for language learning.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#166

Post by otikik »

bmitc wrote: post #37

I have personally never enjoyed walking as a time to think or mentally relax. If anything, it stresses me out as my mind wonders around, obsesses, etc. I find that doing more strenuous activities or activities that require more attention, such as various yard and gardening work, do more to clear my mind. It’s the same thing with lifting weights or running. They are so monotonous and boring that I would much rather do…

Maybe you are a social sports person. Football, tennis, etc.

One non-social sport that I found I enjoyed was putting some globes on and punching a punching bag. I have not taken classes and probably I am doing everything wrong, but it releases a lot of adrenaline.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#168

Post by otikik »

signaru wrote: post #14

This could be part of why work from home doesn't work for me. I missed having spacious work areas, given my crammed apartment unit. I can simulate the walking for travel to work but that comes in bursts at set times, unlike just walking within a building anytime I feel like it.

My humble suggestion: dress up for walking every time you have to leave your apartment for anything. What made it work for me was taking out the trash. Once the trash is out, and I am out on the street with the right clothes and the right shoes for walking (or even running!) then it is much easier to do it.

It's not always about force of will, it can be about small changes in your environment.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#169

Post by otikik »

uwagar wrote: post #111
emptyfile wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walking shouldn't hurt your back and its very worrying that it does, you should look into some resistance exercise.

i've started doing some yoga recently and in just a week i'm feeling a new flexibility in my back muscles. so i started yoga cos another friend of mine recommended it after i 'seized up' my back suddenly..it happened like innocuously me trying to pickup something from the floor..i can feel a pull and im like oh shit this is gonna get worse and i cant move properly for a week kind of thing. and it does. i blame it on…

I would go to a doctor just in case.

A friend of mine spent most of a year having intermittent back pain and it turns out that his problem was that he had developed fructose intolerance. His pain was not coming from his internal back as he thought, but from his inflamed intestines, which happened very frequently since fructose is present in a lot of foods.

Re: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking (2014) [pdf]

#170

Post by [deleted] »

kashyapc wrote: post #107
sedeki wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inspiring! I am on a similar journey as well. I haven't heard the term "zone 2" cardio -- can you expand on that?

Read up on heart-rate zones; this is a decent post[1]. Basically, you should be able to comfortably hold a conversation throughout the run. I learnt that many serious athletes train a lot for it. Improving zone-2 fitness apparently contributes in a non-trivial way to zone 3-5 fitness! But don't get too hung up on these stats (I didn't bother at all for the first 5 months of running), but follow that golden rule of "l…

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