Ask HN: Stay fit as a time-poor remote worker
So, three years into remote work triggered by the pandemic. I've easily adjusted to the new normal & found a way to be as productive as I was in an office environment. I visit my colleagues IRL once every few months. But the one thing I cannot reconcile is keeping fit. I end up being sat or stood in a fairly static fashion for 6-8 hours per day on video calls. Pre-remote I was averaging around 9k steps per day, since remote that's dropped to < 4k. Going out for walks in the dark & rain at the end of the work day is not particularly fun. It's beginning to affect my health. Is anybody else having this? I've been contemplating a walking desk - any other suggestions? Space is limited.
66 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 145 ms ] threadYou should train hard at least for 1 hour, at least 3x/week. Find a sport that you like and that trains the whole body (swimming, kickboxing, weight lifting etc). I've done all 3 in different periods and currently do weight-lifting (might resume kickoxing too).
Walking and counting steps is not training, is kinda like crawling or barely surviving. You should talk about walking & steps only when you're 80 or something.
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.
You have to make time for it.
You’d make time to get a cancer treated - make time to exercise to preserve your health while you can, or there’s no point in those other commitments.
I assumed that would be pretty standard for remote people managing at fortune 100s who would otherwise be meeting at each other’s desks or cafe in between scheduled meetings
Put this in your calendar and schedule everything else around it. It feels good to give your body the priority it deserves, and the endorphins give you a lift for the rest of your day.
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 from work to go walking; and trying to get a worthwhile walk in before work is too time-consuming and potentially sleep-depriving.
Therefore I have decided to go to our local gym, less than ten minutes' walk from where I live and work, 2-3 times a week, and to commit to hiring a trainer, because I will either achieve nothing alone or else I will injure myself.
It creeps up on you, the extent to which this isolated working life can run your body and mind down into the ground, until, as in my case, it even threatens the things you hold dearest.
After going full remote I had to force myself to replace that hour, it is psychologically a lot harder especially when the walk has no purpose. That said, you are a remote worker, so you ought to have at least 1 hour of (formerly commute) time to spend. For me, I go to the gym. It's easier to motivate myself to work out when I'm going to a specific place for it. I usually do it around lunch to break up the work day, 3x/week.
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 before work is too time-consuming and potentially sleep-depriving.
Ten minutes of a high intensity interval teaching training routine is no fun but it can be done every morning.
I am a person that runs cold, terribly affected by heat; I don't think I could make much headway doing this. I get heatstroke very easily.
There is a park, but it's not so near, and walking in the dark just has zero appeal.
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.
You claim elsewhere that you only have 50 free minutes a day. That seems like the root of your problem. You need more than that. Were you alive in the 90s? Remember Bill Clinton going for very public runs every morning through DC? There is no good reason you should be more busy than the president. Health and fitness is either an important priority for you or it isn't. There are no hacks that allow you to do it without dedicating any time to it. You're going to get old and your body will degrade. That either matters to you or it doesn't, but if you find it doesn't now but does in 20 years and you did nothing to slow the process down, it's not going to get any easier.
Sign up for one of the training apps (e.g. Apple Fitness+, Freelytics or similar) that offers shorter training sessions (10-20mins) that you can do with a simple floor mat.
Do it during lunch break before you have food.
Get it all set up so there's no effort to starting and try to make it part of your daily routine.
Some of us are time poor, or to flip it round, very busy. Our 24 hours can be hectic, filled with parenting and work. 10-20 minutes a day at home is easier to fit into a busy schedule than an hour to go to the gym.
Is an hour at the gym better? Yes, but 10-20 minutes a day consistent will outweigh sporadic visits to the gym.
I also have intermittent stretching / mobility peppered in during the day (thanks to my Apple Watch's "stand" thing) I end up practicing things like head stands, hand stands, etc. whenever it's "time to stand".
After 5pm I go lift or do whatever classes (from yoga to boxing) are available for 30m to 1-2 hours, depending on energy levels.
I've only started doing this since February since lockdowns were over, and it sounds like I'm a gym rat, but I'm more fit now than I've ever been before. If it comes down to "finish/push an update" or "go to the gym" I'll just pick the latter, then clean up the feature later that evening. Definitely not prioritizing whatever-feature for my gym time.
Source: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-prod...
(I also made a kind of top desk on my bike for other tasks that involve typing and moving the mouse, but it wasn't comfortable at all and I quickly gave up.)
* my coworkers actually don't mind seeing me on my gym bike and they enjoy it, but I heard stories about people being offended by "lack of respect" so I'd advise to be prodent
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.
Do sports; there's bound to be something around that vibes with you. Team sports might be a good motivator, or things like boxing / martial arts. If you prefer to be by yourself, walking/running/cycling are options if you can get over it being boring (get good rain gear and put on a podcast or audiobook if it's too boring for you). It'll be good for your mental health as well to do an activity outside of work entirely.
How much time did your commute use to take? Take that time to spend on yourself. And what else do you do in your spare time? See if you can combine that with exercise. I mean if you spend an hour watching netflix or whatever, you could get a static bike and put a tablet on there. Just make sure to get a sweat on, it should be an active activity that gets your heart rate way up.
The beauty with crossfit is, that it offers a nice balance between strength training and HIIT. Also, if you're of weak mental resolve like me then Crossfit is doubly great because something about doing the same workout with a group of people is extremely motivating and makes it much easier to really push yourself.
If you have a crossfit gym within a 15 minute drive of your home then I would definitely seriously consider this!
Otoh, I feel like beating my body too much (I'm almost 40). If it had a "group classes format" and was near to my place, I would like to try a regular gym, or calisthenics, or yoga. I did try swimming, because I used to love that - but found it super boring. I also tried BJJ but didn't really enjoy the class format.
If I lived next to the ocean, I'd probably try to pickup surfing as a nice trade-off between exercising and relaxing.
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.
Good luck.
.. 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.
The great thing about a good superset trainer is they will figure out each day's exercises based on your previous workouts and take into account which muscles are being used that day so you can do the whole workout without significant resting. I'm up to 45 minute workouts now and have done up to 32 sets in one workout. The other thing I like about this format is that because there is no significant resting, it also gets your heart/breathing rate up. Pushing or pulling a 300lb sled has a high cardio component when combined with 3-4 other exercises, especially after 4-5 rounds!
By making it an appointment with a trainer, you're less likely to skip, especially if you have to pay anyway (which I'd recommend). Whenever I've tried to do stuff on my own, it either peters out quickly or I end up getting hurt. This is the first time working out has worked for me.