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Ask HN: What do you do for physical exercise?

32 points by brandon272 ↗ HN
I'm a programmer becoming increasingly aware that my desk life is doing bad things to my body.

What kind of physical exercise do you engage in to counteract the effects of sitting at a desk for 7+ hours a day? Curious as to whether you engage in no activity, smaller activities throughout the day or a longer single daily exercise session.

51 comments

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petecooper
Stand up desk, walk for an hour before work, some yoga. Plenty of water and walking around the office.
Fricken
I do a variety of things but commuting on a bicycle is the fallback. It's not just for my body, it's time to think, I like the speed at which the world goes by on a bike, and it's a way to stay in touch with the changing seasons and the elements. Driving makes my stress levels go up, and cycling makes them go down.
goldenbeet
I opt for dedicated workout sessions. I got into bodybuilding style workouts a few months ago (while being ~50lbs over weight) and started eating sensibly and it's done wonders for me. I currently workout 6 days a week: 2 days purely weights, 3 days are weights+cardio after, and 1 day of pure cardio.
agitator
I noticed the same thing. Without physical exercise, my posture gets worse, I have random back pain, and realized I am more prone to injury when I do go and do something active.

Currently I exercise every morning for about an hour. 45 min of lifting weights, followed by running 1 mile, and stretching. I have more energy at work, I'm in a better mood, and It motivates me to be conscious of what I eat throughout the day if I start the day off right.

The biggest impact on my posture and back pain has been doing the yoga-like stretches every morning. I highly recommend it.

Also most office chairs will really mess you up. I've resorted to sitting on a yoga ball or standing. For me, the yoga ball is actually the most comfortable desk chair I have used.

neilsimp1
I love CrossFit. I go usually twice a week. What I like about it is 1) it's a different workout every day, and 2) if left to my own devices, I just don't exercise. Having the obligation to go to class makes the difference.
deadmetheny
I have reservations with CrossFit - the exercises are done at such high weights, speeds, and reps that it's almost a certainty that you'll injure yourself if you stick with it long enough. The intensity and accountability are both good, but it's hell on your joints. I have trouble truly recommending it because of this.
TheAlchemist
Go for a run ! Or if you can, swim at lunch time.

Time is scarce, especially if you have kids, however there are a lot of options. I recently started to run from work to home and I just don't belive that I didn't have this idea before! I'm home in almost the same time that when I commute by metro (around 1h), but you disconnect immediately from work and you feel like you have a second day starting fresh once you are home ! (this of course depends where do you live, I assume most live in urban area where distance is not that long)

huac
What kind of bag/backpack do you use when running?
PoachedSausage
You want one of the small trail running packs. They are a snug fit to the upper body as you don't want something flapping around.

I mostly cycle to work and take the approach of leaving a change of clothes there so I have minimal stuff to carry. In that case you could maybe get away with a small waist-pouch-belt for Id cards/keys/phone etc.

TheAlchemist
Exactly - same here.

Most of the time, I just take the keys, phone and some cards, leaving the rest of the stuff at work. I'm running every 2 days, so on the days I'm not running I just bring everything home.

When I need to take something, I have a small trail running pack (5L).

tmaly
I walk too and from the train station that gives me about 30 min of walking a day during the week.

I would like a 20 minute home program that requires very little machines. I did get some books to that effect, but I need to go through them and put it together

BlackjackCF
I go to the gym to do weight training for 3x a week, and then on Sundays I do 500 kettle bell swings for cardio.

3x a week to the gym just means getting up a little earlier or going after work. It's very doable.

Waking up on Sunday for 500 kettle bells before my coffee is a good way to wake up.

bilalq
I love doing bouldering. It has the benefit of being both a physical and mental challenge. It's no coincidence that climbing routes are called "problems" and making it to the top is referred to as "solving the problem".

Look around and see if you can find a climbing gym near you. They often have a decked out set of free-weights and bars as well for any other workouts you may want, so you can get away without needing a regular gym membership too.

nilkn
I recommend this as well. The bouldering community is also great. It's really easy to make friends and people are incredibly helpful. It's really cool to see really experienced climbers go out of their way to give tips and help someone who's struggling with even the easiest problems. And if you're tired and want to take a break, you can watch other climbers approach problems and learn from them.

I will say that as someone with moderate to severe social anxiety it was tough for me to get into at first, since some bouldering gyms get pretty busy and crowds will actually form as folks wait for their turn to try a problem. But realizing how nice people are helped me break through that barrier and stop caring.

Vinnl
Same here, and the advantage is tha many of my friends do so too, so I get to see them regularly as well. And we can do that because bouldering is very tolerant to differing skill levels.

That said, it's a rather specific type of exercise, so I go running as well to keep it varied.

zelos
I'd second this, but I'd add:

1) Be careful. Don't overdo it, make sure to warm up properly and don't push too fast up the grades. I ended up having shoulder surgery and 8 months of physio. 2) I found to really get the most from bouldering you need to do some cardio exercise as well. Cycling is a pretty good low-impact option.

etrautmann
awesome idea but don't ramp too quickly! It's much faster to build muscle than tendons or ligaments, new climbers will often get injured a few months after going 0 to 60. Make sure to do a few pushups and extensor exercises to stay balanced, since climbing doesn't naturally do that.
Thomaschaaf
I use an app called Freeletics which provides you with a personal workout without requiring any machines. The app makes it hard but always manageable which is nice because I feel like the static programs don't motivate me.

I do it three times a week before work.

scarmig
Poledancing.

Try it, it's great! And it forces you to counteract a lot of the desk job muscle imbalances in a way that many other exercises let you skirt.

simonw
I started taking this stuff seriously back in November last year. The things that worked for me:

1. Got an Apple Watch. Set a daily target of 630 active calories. Aggressively pursue that target, and get on a "streak" of hitting it. The longer the streak, the more incentive there is to keep on hitting it. My personal rule is that I have to average 630/day over the course of a week, so I'm allowed to dial my daily target down to keep my streak going provided I hit that average by the end of the week.

2. Joined a gym, took some personal training sessions to learn how to use it and then started going 3-4 times a week (mainly to help me hit my calorie goal described above).

3. Signed up for a half marathon. Used a training plan from the internet to train for it. I ran a full marathon about 7 years ago but I hadn't run much since then.

BlackjackCF
I've been trying to decide if I want an Apple Watch or not. Really tired of carrying my phone to the gym with me (thinking about the LTE version). Are there good weightlifting apps?
williamstein
I skateboard the halfpipe pictured here: http://vertramp.org It's good intense exercise, but can be hard on the knees. The people are also cool!
blt
Commute on bike 5 miles each way. Try to go fast. Not every day but a lot of days. It is my only exercise though. I am lazy by nature, without biking I think I would be sedentary and deeply depressed.

I need to be doing more for core, range of motion, strength, explosive movements. Biking is good for cardio and legs but that's it.

jmcphers
I take a 3 tier approach:

1. Bike to work, every day. Where I live the traffic is so miserable that it's comparable to driving in terms of time. It's the single thing that makes the biggest difference in how I feel.

2. Every other day, do some basic body-weight strength exercises (pull-ups, push-ups, and the like). Bicycling is great for cardio and it works your legs a little, but that's it. It's good to keep all your major muscle groups engaged on a regular basis.

3. Use a standing desk, to encourage small movements throughout the day. Standing all day doesn't feel good and isn't good for you, either; I aim for about 50/50 standing and sitting.

repeek
CrossFit 3x a week, rucking 2-3x a week with 30-40lbs
reitanqild
Walk/bike to/from my commuter train.
periram
Run 6 miles 2 - 3 times per week. BEFORE eating dinner. If I am short by Sunday, I run both morning and night. (It started with 2 miles per day, but before I know, I was running 6, perhaps the body just keeps pushing itself)

Weights 2 times per week.

Bike to/from train station and to/from small distances.

deadmetheny
Weight training. Some friends come to the house 3 nights a week (one of which was a personal trainer in a former life) and we lift weights and walk down to the taqueria after we wrap up and get some good protein. Been doing it for a year now and I feel far more energetic than before, it's an excellent feeling.

Next big problem is to get rid of the gut. Weight training is great to get strong but not particularly great at helping one shed excess fat.

salehk
Weightlift daily but only work out one muscle group.

So Mondays - Chest, Tuesday - Back, Wednesday - Biceps etc.

Also running 1.5mi after the weightlifting. Full workout takes about 1hr 30min.

I've been following this routine for the past few months and its the best I've ever felt.

Running helps dramatically reduce my stress and anxiety levels about deadlines.

Highly recommend running daily if you work at a startup.

hartzell
I like scheduled classes, they help me keep a rhythm and I can hide in the crowd when I need to.

TRX (https://crufit.net/pages/trx and http://www.flying-studios.com/strength) -- Core conditioning, I like the structure and the ability to dial the difficulty up/down depending on what my body's up for.

Circuit training classes (https://crufit.net/pages/circuit-training) -- strength and cardio.

Yoga (http://www.flying-studios.com/yoga/) -- Flow and Happy Hour.

Indoor Cycling (https://crufit.net/pages/cycling) -- find a place with bikes that measure power output and heart rate so that you have an objective measure how hard you're working. Subjective measures are sneaky....

All of that supports telemark skiing, mtn biking, surfing (aka, falling, swearing).