A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression • Hacker News Board

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#311

Post by 93po » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 1:20 AM UTC

eastof wrote: post #86

coldtea wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a hugely echo bubbly view of the popularity of rock climbing and the HN demographic

Indoor climbers are all software engineers in some cities. In Seattle and San Francisco in particular, nearly everyone I meet there is also a software engineer. The gyms are so expensive that they are the only ones who can afford it with FAANG subsidies. Outdoor though you're right, totally different demographic and very few of them are software engineers.

I heard a lady in my indoor gym loudly complaining about an outdoor spot being full of tech bros. Seattle area.

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#312

Post by barbs » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 1:57 AM UTC

satokema wrote: post #199

I walk to the store when it's reasonable. I wasn't top tier at it, but the most exercise I could tolerate was playing DDR, because there was a game to it that isn't just physical activity. These kinds of articles are always annoying because it invites a certain kind of person who will gush unendingly about how great exerting yourself is. For me, exerting myself sucks, it is only something I want to do when it's attac…

Doing exercise for exercise's sake is difficult for me too. I'm lucky that my work is a half hour bike ride, and this is faster than catching public transport (though not quite as fast as driving). That's enough to motivate me to ride to and from work most days. Plus for me it's the most enjoyable mode of transport - the speed combined with the immediacy of your surroundings, being able to hear and smell everything. And it's mostly free (barring initial purchase and maintenance costs, which are minimal).

It gets my heartrate up, though I don't ride every day, so I'm not sure if I'm reaching the threshold for the recommended amount of exercise. But it's better than nothing.

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#313

Post by chaostheory » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 4:04 AM UTC

cpursley wrote: post #233

chaostheory wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do, but jogging the same streets and trails gets boring. It’s doesn’t have the variety and novelty that VR AR offers. It’s hard to understand this if you haven’t used it beyond 5 minutes. In the Bay Area, we’re blessed with multiple nature preserves that are beautiful and stunning, but it takes me 20-40 minutes one way just to drive to one so those hikes tend to be limited to weekends. With AR VR, I can instantly j…

A gym with a trainer or joining an indoor sports group is going to be way more satisfying than VR. And healthier socially and physically.

How can you be so sure? You haven’t used current gen VR enough to even make that strong of an assertion, right?

Yes, I do enjoy the alternatives you’ve listed, but they are expensive in terms of time and coordination. I just don’t always have that time during the weekdays and even on some weekends, and neither do my friends and family.

There’s also the pollution aspect since not everyone has good public transit or lives close enough to a gym or court to bike

Also we might have the privilege of being able to afford a personal trainer, but what about other people?

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#314

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 8:49 AM UTC

ChatGTP wrote: post #303

antonvs wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not enforcing or policing anything, or worried about anything, how did you get that from my comment? Please read it again. > "It’s also ok to debate the point sure, just be respectful?" Could you please explain where, in my previous comment, I wasn't being respectful? I was simply observing that the way people often talk about these ideas, including in this thread, resembles spirituality and religion. Which is tr…

> every argument I've read so far triggered my "religious/spiritual mumbo jumbo" detector quite hard. Agreed. Sounds like a number of people have found a spiritual way to look at this, which seems a bit like a kind of quasi-religion, similar to the mystical aspects of Zen or yoga. You wrote that? What I don’t think is healthy to new ideas is bashing anything seemed spiritual with rationality and science. They can coe…

I don't think ideas need to be bashed just because they seem spiritual, or are presented in such terms. The idea may be good, and my disliking a particular flavor of explanation could be like me disliking a particular physics textbook - the information is good, just the style doesn't resonate.

But it's a different case where you have a whole thread of comments that reject out of hand the obvious framework of thinking that yields good results and good predictions, to replace it with a more fuzzy framework of thinking that goes against observable evidence, and recounting stories of "getting it" after meditation or doing yoga for 5 years or such. It's one thing to enjoy and recommend different kinds of experiences of self, and we know the mind is quite malleable in that regard. But the brain/body split isn't just an experience, it's an actual model that's useful in dealing with objective reality. If someone is trying to replace that with some embodied wholesome "me is my body" or "me is universe" view, then that is pushing spiritual mumbo jumbo into scientific and pragmatic areas of life, where it doesn't belong.

And if someone bashes people for having that more mechanistic/objective model inform their perception of self, then... well... when did it become bad to look at the world with clear eyes instead of having your head in the clouds? Or is it the dreaded, bad, no-good "Western philosophy" again?

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#315

Post by Shocka1 » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 7:00 PM UTC

satokema wrote: post #199

I walk to the store when it's reasonable. I wasn't top tier at it, but the most exercise I could tolerate was playing DDR, because there was a game to it that isn't just physical activity. These kinds of articles are always annoying because it invites a certain kind of person who will gush unendingly about how great exerting yourself is. For me, exerting myself sucks, it is only something I want to do when it's attac…

Not sure if you are open to it, but try mountain biking at some point. Go rent a MTB somewhere with some good trails and see where it takes you. I used to be able to get myself in the gym, but now I can't stand it because it's boring to me.

I purchased both a Hybrid and MTB bike one year and haven't turned back. I use a lot of Strava - compete against myself, friends and strangers. My thirst for competition is filled, plus I'm in extremely great cardio shape.

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#316

Post by tomcam » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 3:59 AM UTC

bratbag wrote: post #186

tomcam wrote: post #152

Exercise just makes me feel worse. Junk food makes me feel integrated, whole, and calm. My body fucking hates me.

The trinity is exercise, nutrition and sleep. If your sleep or nutrition is trash, exercise will help you identify that.

I haven’t been able to get more than four hours of sleep a night for 50 years and it’s fucking agonizing. Whatever you think I haven’t tried, I’ve probably tried it, unfortunately. Sleep schedules, meditation, melatonin, light cardio, heavy cardio, lifting weights, reduce screen time, mask, manual labor, every sleep drug on the market, etc. About once every two or three years I get 6-7 hours and I feel like a god.

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#317

Post by Noumenon72 » Mon, Jul 03, 2023, 5:15 AM UTC

tikk wrote: post #240

Noumenon72 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My brain is still "me" more than the meat sack I use to to ice skate, lift weights, and ski. I just think of my body more like a mech I can learn to pilot via telepathic control interface that gains sensitivity over time. I'll never be one of those athletes who lets go of conscious control and runs off muscle memory, but I've really enjoyed learning enough about my body that I can use it the way it was designed. It f…

> I'll never be one of those athletes who lets go of conscious control and runs off muscle memory. Oh but you absolutely must try it! I assume being in the zone mentally is a familiar thing to you, so you really ought to try the physical equivalent!

I have been trying this with ice skating because you mentioned it, letting my legs go loose instead of lining up every push, and it's actually kind of fluid and fun.