Ask HN: How much do you exercise a day/week?

i dribble a soccer ball in the backyard every time i go out for a smoke, plus the occasional skateboard (yeah, i picked up skating when i was 27!)

with exercise i've found benefit as a function of time to be crazy non-linear. there's a much bigger difference between 0 minutes and 20 minutes spent exercising than between 20 and 40 or 40 and 60. so when i'm busy, i do what i can, keep it short, but never cut it out. i try to do something every other day at least. it clears my head and resets my stress.

i like to run. simple. no gym membership. no complicated/expensive gear -- only necessary investment is a pair of running shoes (runs around $90). best of all, you can exhaust yourself quickly: if you don't have much time to spare, just run faster* for less time.

* i wouldn't recommend taking this to an extreme. i knew a guy in college who'd max out the treadmill for a few minutes, sweat like crazy and call it a day. odds are that's terrible for you. (he also had an anger management problem...related?)

I walk from the sofa to the microwave and back to retrieve my hotpocket. Some days I go out to the mailbox to collect the pile of mail that has built up from the days I didn't quite make it out (but the sun hurts my eyes and burns my pasty skin so I quickly retreat indoors to bask in the glow of my monitor).

On those days that I manage to taste the fresh air I occasionally get the feeling, way in the back of my head, that I should get out and do something. Someday.

I do about 40 minutes of biking a day (commute to train station) and try to get to the gym twice a week for about 30 to 45 minutes. Since biking is enough cardiovascular exercise for anybody I mostly do weights at the gym, and typically (when I have an extra 15 minutes free) some yoga for stretching.

I recommend the chalice lift for a good all-purpose hacker exercise. Go over to that big set o' one-hand weights the folks are always using for bicep curls. Find the largest one you can comfortably lift with both hands. Hold it with both hands supporting the top, braced against your chest. Pick a point on the wall at forehead level -- your eyes never move from that point for the duration of the exercise. (This is a hack to avoid back damage.) From a standing position, pretend you are sitting down on a bench directly behind you. Then, from the sitting position, stand to return to your original position. You can actually use a bench the first few times to get a hang out of it. Sitting to standing is one rep. Do five sets of five reps or 3 sets of 10 reps. I like to vary the weight I use -- first work with one I know I can do easily, then with one I know is a stretch, then back to easy.

Works your legs, torso, and a bit of your upper body like you would not believe, scales trivially until you reach the limits of your upper body strength (but even for out of shape hackers you can get a lot of benefit at the final point for your arms -- I'm at about 30 lbs right now, which is really not that much, and it feels like a real workout and has been empirically effective since a few months ago 15 lbs was similarly tiring), requires minimal time, equipment, and skill. Biggest downside: you'll look like an absolute doofus doing it.

Bonus points: keep a journal. Things that get measured get improved, etc.

Daily.

I commute on a bike (5 miles each way). I also run 5k's when they come around, Lift weights twice per week, and go on long (50+ mile) bike rides when I can.