Exercise: yet another reason to do it
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"Why exercise makes you less anxious" http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/phys-ed-why-exercise-makes-you-less-anxious/[^] In one of the comments: "...I often tell my patients that the point of exercise is to build and condition the brain." I'm coming to see exercise as absolutely critical in my life: I've been exercising hard core for months now and felt absolutely wonderful, best I've felt in decades, then fall came, I went back to work (I take summers off) and in the last couple of weeks I've foolishly let my exercise start to fall behind in an attempt to meet a deadline with work and as a result I've started feeling more and more stressed, my diet is getting worse, my resolution to sleep at least 9 hours a night is falling by the wayside etc. I've *felt* like I'm getting more work done and needing to throw those healthy "time wasting" things away to get more work done by being more obsessive about work, spending more hours at it etc. Typical "death march" mentality. However, I just took a big objective look at the quantity and quality of the work I'm actually getting done, I went over my checkins, the number of cases I was resolving etc and I was *way* more efficient a few weeks ago when I was sticking to my healthy lifestyle. I was more clear headed, faster at finding solutions and able to juggle much more complex programming scenarios in my mind. Work felt much more interesting and most importantly of all I was enjoying it much more, it was fun. I think the "death march" style of coding is an easy one for a developer to slip into, particularly in a small shop where they have more responsibilities and work on their own more and are often under more personal pressure to get things done. The intensity of it seems to delude one into thinking they're getting more done. But it's clearly not the way to go for more than a day or two when necessary, at least not for me. It seems for me that exercise is a kind of cornerstone of a good quality life. Once it's in place everything else starts to fall into place above it, I sleep better then my diet gets better then my work gets better. It's amazing how quickly you decline when you stop. I'm going to open up a big can of whup ass on myself right now and get back on track and stay there. Anyone
I am a student studying Physics and Computer Science and I have found that exercising really helps me focus when I need to. It definitely makes me feel better every day to the point that I hate skipping even one session. I did P90X over the summer to take myself to the next level and am currently doing CrossFit (like the author). If you are into insane workouts that only take half an hour, CrossFit is the way to go! -Nathan
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Roger Wright wrote:
How do you do it mentally, getting back into the routine?
Once I'm doing it and in the swing I feel more like doing it so it's only a problem on a particularly shitty day or if I haven't done it in a while and honestly what I do that works every time is switch off my brain and just do it. If I think about it I could make up a zillion excuses not to do it.
Roger Wright wrote:
so I have no idea what's safe for me to do anymore
Well there are two schools of thought on that, the gonzo school of thought is go for it and see what breaks :), the logical one is ask your doctor. Either way it's an excuse to hold you back that you don't need in your life. There's plenty of exercise that can be done for almost any medical condition short of complete paralysis.
Roger Wright wrote:
I go to sleep every night vowing to wake and do crunches and pushups like before, when the alarm goes off I crawl to the coffee pot
Ahhh..that's easy: don't crawl to the coffee pot, do your exercise instead. Don't think about it, just do it. But in your condition I'd maybe suggest you don't leap out of bed and start doing crunches, maybe pick something a little more light cardio and work your way up to it once you find out what you can get away with. For me when I first started all this a few years ago and was in horrible, horrible, shape I started with walking. Get up and go for a walk or a swim. You need basic cardio ability before you start into the tough stuff again. It's far too easy to go crazy when you have experience doing really serious workouts of one kind or another but you need to take it easy. Also that might be what's subconsciously holding you back, the thought of doing what you were last doing when you were in peak shape which is probably a lot more than you can handle right now. But most importantly of all do something that you find enjoyable and vary it up constantly, don't be a creature of habit else you'll just be doing "exercise" and not having fun and that's not long term viable. (Team sports are always a really good idea, I play ball hockey)
"Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you're about as likely to find someone else interested in it." -- Lore Sjöberg
That's probably the best approach. After all, getting up counts as the first crunch, and I get to lay down again right away. Then do it again... :-D I do walk a lot; when the boss wanted pictures of petroglyphs I spent two days climbing mountains in the desert with a water bottle and a camera. Didn't even get winded. I'm not in awful shape, still having no trouble lifting 80% of my former weight, but I just don't want to very often. And I hate this fat accumulating on me; I've never had any of that - 7% is about normal for me - and it's all on the belly. Yuck! X| Thanks for the guidance, and encouragement. I'll try again tomorrow morning, I swear!
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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I am also a big advocate of exercise. I find that after about 30 minutes on my bike, my mind starts drifting into problem solving mode and I actually get a lot of "work" done in the next 30 minutes. As for getting into a routine, carve out part of the day for it. Set an hour a day aside and either go to the gym or walk, or whatever. I found the best thing is to pick physical activities you enjoy and then find a support system to keep you going. I like to use the hot tub, but my rule is no hot tube unless I ride my bike or otherwise exercise. In the winter when it is all to easy to sit around, I play racketball twice a week with a group of other people. The games are scheduled so there is no easy way out.
Having a routine certainly helps. I used to sometimes hate feeling I had to go to karate class because I just wasn't in the mood for the warmup routine, but since I was paying for it, I forced myself. Besides, I had students who wanted me there to help teach them. My main physical activity now is yardwork, and in this climate that's only practical a few months a year. In summer you can't touch a tool without getting burnt, or stay outside in daylight more than an hour without risking sunstroke; in winter the wind never stops and the chill is unbelievable. It was warmer shovelling snow in Crestline than working in the yard on a sunny winter day here. Now a hot tub would definitely do the trick. That's the best reason for travelling I can find, and I try to select hotels that have exercise rooms and hot tubs. Maybe I should save for a hot tub, then use your method to motivate me. Thanks for the idea! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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That's probably the best approach. After all, getting up counts as the first crunch, and I get to lay down again right away. Then do it again... :-D I do walk a lot; when the boss wanted pictures of petroglyphs I spent two days climbing mountains in the desert with a water bottle and a camera. Didn't even get winded. I'm not in awful shape, still having no trouble lifting 80% of my former weight, but I just don't want to very often. And I hate this fat accumulating on me; I've never had any of that - 7% is about normal for me - and it's all on the belly. Yuck! X| Thanks for the guidance, and encouragement. I'll try again tomorrow morning, I swear!
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Sounds like you're ready to go then. Getting your wind back is the easiest thing to do after a long period of not exercising, strength is always the hard one. I really like doing the bodyweight exercises myself, I have some sort of weird aversion to barbells, plus they are super expensive and I refuse to go to a "gym". :) I do have and regularly use Russian Kettlebells though, they're a lot of fun. Getting rid of fat though is another thing entirely. In my personal experience no amount of exercise will do that. You have to work your ass off to burn the same amount of calories that you get from just eating a few mouthfuls too much of the wrong stuff. Having muscle mass helps passively burn off calories but again not really enough to matter compared to changes in diet. I highly recommend the zone method of eating for a while just to get a gauge of what you should be eating so that it becomes automatic, it's scientific, tasty, logical and extremely healthy. It's worked wonders for me to lose fat and I'm never hungry. More info here: http://journal.crossfit.com/2004/05/zone-meal-plans-crossfit-journ.tpl[^] (and all over the internet)
"Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you're about as likely to find someone else interested in it." -- Lore Sjöberg
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I am a student studying Physics and Computer Science and I have found that exercising really helps me focus when I need to. It definitely makes me feel better every day to the point that I hate skipping even one session. I did P90X over the summer to take myself to the next level and am currently doing CrossFit (like the author). If you are into insane workouts that only take half an hour, CrossFit is the way to go! -Nathan
Member 4410773 wrote:
oing CrossFit (like the author).
I sub with Russian kettlebells for the weight stuff because I just can't afford a decent set of olympic weights and I workout at home but I'm pretty strict about adhering to the methodology of it. There are actually a fair number of Crossfitters here who come out of the woodwork now and then when exercise comes up. :) Funny, now that you mention it the Crossfit workouts *did* seem insane when I first saw them, now anything less seems pointless. :)
"Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you're about as likely to find someone else interested in it." -- Lore Sjöberg
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"Why exercise makes you less anxious" http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/phys-ed-why-exercise-makes-you-less-anxious/[^] In one of the comments: "...I often tell my patients that the point of exercise is to build and condition the brain." I'm coming to see exercise as absolutely critical in my life: I've been exercising hard core for months now and felt absolutely wonderful, best I've felt in decades, then fall came, I went back to work (I take summers off) and in the last couple of weeks I've foolishly let my exercise start to fall behind in an attempt to meet a deadline with work and as a result I've started feeling more and more stressed, my diet is getting worse, my resolution to sleep at least 9 hours a night is falling by the wayside etc. I've *felt* like I'm getting more work done and needing to throw those healthy "time wasting" things away to get more work done by being more obsessive about work, spending more hours at it etc. Typical "death march" mentality. However, I just took a big objective look at the quantity and quality of the work I'm actually getting done, I went over my checkins, the number of cases I was resolving etc and I was *way* more efficient a few weeks ago when I was sticking to my healthy lifestyle. I was more clear headed, faster at finding solutions and able to juggle much more complex programming scenarios in my mind. Work felt much more interesting and most importantly of all I was enjoying it much more, it was fun. I think the "death march" style of coding is an easy one for a developer to slip into, particularly in a small shop where they have more responsibilities and work on their own more and are often under more personal pressure to get things done. The intensity of it seems to delude one into thinking they're getting more done. But it's clearly not the way to go for more than a day or two when necessary, at least not for me. It seems for me that exercise is a kind of cornerstone of a good quality life. Once it's in place everything else starts to fall into place above it, I sleep better then my diet gets better then my work gets better. It's amazing how quickly you decline when you stop. I'm going to open up a big can of whup ass on myself right now and get back on track and stay there. Anyone
Do you do your cross fit workouts at home or do you have a cross fit facility near you? I've been going to my local Golds for about 18 months and I'm tired of it. I plateaued real bad, started working later, my wife injured her knee and stopped going which made me lose interest, and I actually haven't gone to the gym in 2 months. I've put back on all of the fat I had lost (fat, not weight, as I have put on some muscle). Cross fit looks really good, but I'm gonna have to build some equipment in my garage (parallelettes, chin-up bar, gymnastic rings, plyometric boxes).
Don't blame me. I voted for Chuck Norris.
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Member 4410773 wrote:
oing CrossFit (like the author).
I sub with Russian kettlebells for the weight stuff because I just can't afford a decent set of olympic weights and I workout at home but I'm pretty strict about adhering to the methodology of it. There are actually a fair number of Crossfitters here who come out of the woodwork now and then when exercise comes up. :) Funny, now that you mention it the Crossfit workouts *did* seem insane when I first saw them, now anything less seems pointless. :)
"Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you're about as likely to find someone else interested in it." -- Lore Sjöberg
Luckily I have access to a gym at school, so that makes doing the routines more convenient. But I'm gonna get some rings soon and hopefully a kettlebell. And you are right about how anything less seems pointless. I see people doing curl after curl and think "why in the world would I want to do 25 curls when I could be doing 25 L-pullups???" (which I actually CAN do).
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Do you do your cross fit workouts at home or do you have a cross fit facility near you? I've been going to my local Golds for about 18 months and I'm tired of it. I plateaued real bad, started working later, my wife injured her knee and stopped going which made me lose interest, and I actually haven't gone to the gym in 2 months. I've put back on all of the fat I had lost (fat, not weight, as I have put on some muscle). Cross fit looks really good, but I'm gonna have to build some equipment in my garage (parallelettes, chin-up bar, gymnastic rings, plyometric boxes).
Don't blame me. I voted for Chuck Norris.
I do it at home, the only thing I'm missing is a rowing machine and olympic weights but I have kettlebells instead and nearly everything else is easily substituted with stuff in and around the house or home made. Playing a team sport is a great way to stay motivated. I play ball hockey and it's very physical with a lot of intense running back and forth and pushing and shoving not to mention balance, speed and accuracy, it pretty much hits all the Crossfit definitions of fitness so I really see the benefits in a fun way every week. There is one Crossfit gym in town (we live in the country near a small town) but their membership fees are too much for me and I get by with what I've got here anyway. All you really need is a playground nearby with monkey bars and rocks to jump on, from what I hear kids aren't using them much anymore anyway. As long as you mix it up and go as intensely as required there are all manner of substitutions for the workout of the day to the point that you really don't need much equipment at all. Their message boards are full of funky home made alternates to equipment.
"Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you're about as likely to find someone else interested in it." -- Lore Sjöberg
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Luckily I have access to a gym at school, so that makes doing the routines more convenient. But I'm gonna get some rings soon and hopefully a kettlebell. And you are right about how anything less seems pointless. I see people doing curl after curl and think "why in the world would I want to do 25 curls when I could be doing 25 L-pullups???" (which I actually CAN do).
Member 4410773 wrote:
Luckily I have access to a gym at school, so that makes doing the routines more convenient
I bet they frown heavily on dropping weights on the floor. :)
Member 4410773 wrote:
I see people doing curl after curl
Yeah that body building stuff cracks me up, I don't understand the point of "glamor" muscles that you can't actually do any real world stuff with but to each their own I guess.
Member 4410773 wrote:
I could be doing 25 L-pullups
Wow! That's damned good. Non kipping style pullups seem to be the bane of most people's existence judging from the posts on the crossfit message boards. I do dead hang pull ups because I have one of those doorway bars and I don't trust it to kip on and I'm lucky if I can do 5 in a row without a break. It seems to be the hardest thing for me for some reason, everything else is coming along in leaps and bounds but pullups are still brutal. Then I see those crazy youtube videos of the rock climbing guys practicing on a campus board with their fingertips and I realize it's just about time and effort. I got some rings and the best I can do with them is dips, the muscle up is still a ways away yet, but they're a lot of fun.
"Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you're about as likely to find someone else interested in it." -- Lore Sjöberg
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"Why exercise makes you less anxious" http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/phys-ed-why-exercise-makes-you-less-anxious/[^] In one of the comments: "...I often tell my patients that the point of exercise is to build and condition the brain." I'm coming to see exercise as absolutely critical in my life: I've been exercising hard core for months now and felt absolutely wonderful, best I've felt in decades, then fall came, I went back to work (I take summers off) and in the last couple of weeks I've foolishly let my exercise start to fall behind in an attempt to meet a deadline with work and as a result I've started feeling more and more stressed, my diet is getting worse, my resolution to sleep at least 9 hours a night is falling by the wayside etc. I've *felt* like I'm getting more work done and needing to throw those healthy "time wasting" things away to get more work done by being more obsessive about work, spending more hours at it etc. Typical "death march" mentality. However, I just took a big objective look at the quantity and quality of the work I'm actually getting done, I went over my checkins, the number of cases I was resolving etc and I was *way* more efficient a few weeks ago when I was sticking to my healthy lifestyle. I was more clear headed, faster at finding solutions and able to juggle much more complex programming scenarios in my mind. Work felt much more interesting and most importantly of all I was enjoying it much more, it was fun. I think the "death march" style of coding is an easy one for a developer to slip into, particularly in a small shop where they have more responsibilities and work on their own more and are often under more personal pressure to get things done. The intensity of it seems to delude one into thinking they're getting more done. But it's clearly not the way to go for more than a day or two when necessary, at least not for me. It seems for me that exercise is a kind of cornerstone of a good quality life. Once it's in place everything else starts to fall into place above it, I sleep better then my diet gets better then my work gets better. It's amazing how quickly you decline when you stop. I'm going to open up a big can of whup ass on myself right now and get back on track and stay there. Anyone
Being in my sixties and with crushed vertebrae in my back from an accident when I was 11 and bad knees and ankles from a skiing accident 35 years ago, you'd think that I would have trouble exercising. The best thing I ever did was to take up Scottish Country Dancing 13 years ago. I lost weight and gained friends. We live in the UK, but have done demonstrations all over Europe (this year we were in Finland) and have even demonstrated Scottish Dancing in Mongolia. See here. This reminds me that I need to update the web site to include the pictures from the Finnish trip, but I've been too busy dancing and having fun to get "a round tuit".
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I am also a big advocate of exercise. I find that after about 30 minutes on my bike, my mind starts drifting into problem solving mode and I actually get a lot of "work" done in the next 30 minutes. As for getting into a routine, carve out part of the day for it. Set an hour a day aside and either go to the gym or walk, or whatever. I found the best thing is to pick physical activities you enjoy and then find a support system to keep you going. I like to use the hot tub, but my rule is no hot tube unless I ride my bike or otherwise exercise. In the winter when it is all to easy to sit around, I play racketball twice a week with a group of other people. The games are scheduled so there is no easy way out.
" I find that after about 30 minutes on my bike, my mind starts drifting into problem solving mode and I actually get a lot of "work" done in the next 30 minutes." I'm with you on that one. I've been a bike commuter for years and aside from bringing me out of the stupor a day as my desk can induce, I've found that if I'm beating my head against a problem all day the solution will come to me on my ride home. "How do you do it mentally, getting back into the routine? I'm having a hell of a time with it." I read somewhere that it takes two weeks of repetition to generate a habit. I've found that it's a lot easier for me to focus on and remain disciplined at doing X for the next 2 weeks than to say starting now I'm going to do X forever. At least for me after two weeks it does feel like routine and doesn't take much discipline to keep it going. One thing for sure is the older you get the longer it takes to come back.
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How do you do it mentally, getting back into the routine? I'm having a hell of a time with it. I spent eight long years earning two 2nd degree black belts, turning myself from a tired desk jockey back into a youth of 20 something. Then the school closed, and I had major abdominal surgery a year and a half ago. Before that I had a 28" waist - now it's 32" - and after losing 32 lbs while recovering, I've gained back only 20 lbs, all fat as far as I can tell. I HATE it! Worse, I developed a hernia from the surgery (a side effect I didn't know about) so I have no idea what's safe for me to do anymore. Yeah, I can still kick over my head and break boards all day long, but I'm flabby and feel rotten most of the time. I need to Move! But when I get home from work all I want to do is take a nap... How did you get your head back into the mode that lets you keep moving long enough to do something healthy for your body? Mine doesn't want to go there, and though I go to sleep every night vowing to wake and do crunches and pushups like before, when the alarm goes off I crawl to the coffee pot and slowly drag my sorry ass into the day. What made the committment click in your mind?
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Roger, I have a similar story... athletic as a kid up into my early 20's, then I got the desk job and things went badly. I always kept a bit of an interest in the active lifestyle but was doing it at 247 lbs and just getting by. This spring I ran a duathlon (5K run, 13 mile bike, 5K run) and was in such bad shape when I finished that I finished with cramps in both quads and had to pogo stick myself across the line. The next day I bought a pair of running shoes, a Garmin Forerunner 305 and started running each morning before work. Running was easy to get into because it's free (after the shoes, GPS watch and some running duds that is) and you just walk out the front door to get going. At first it was 2 miles a day, then 3 and on up. At some point the guys I cycle with stopped asking me to go running because I was developing a bit of an addiction. On Saturdays I would get up at 5:00, go running and then call one of them around 7 when they were getting up to see if they wanted to go. The mileage began to pile up and I decided that I needed a goal. So I found a local marathon and signed up to give myself a goal to train toward. 6 months and 60 lbs later I found myself lining up for the Philadelphia Marathon last weekend. I finished in 4 hours 5 minutes. Not setting any course records there but it was then end of my beginng a new heathly lifestyle. As of this morning I have all my events for the next season planned out and nothing to do but train and enjoy the benefits of being in great shape and knowing that I'll be able to keep up with the kids for years to come. An added benefit is that the wife and kids now want to start running with me which will only make it easier for me to train in the future. So, as a long winded answer to your question
Roger Wright wrote:
What made the committment click in your mind?
... embarrasment started me on the path but the change in lifestyle and the positive effects I saw along the way kept me there. I hope you can find your reason to get on the path. It's a great place to be.
Mike Devenney
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Roger, I have a similar story... athletic as a kid up into my early 20's, then I got the desk job and things went badly. I always kept a bit of an interest in the active lifestyle but was doing it at 247 lbs and just getting by. This spring I ran a duathlon (5K run, 13 mile bike, 5K run) and was in such bad shape when I finished that I finished with cramps in both quads and had to pogo stick myself across the line. The next day I bought a pair of running shoes, a Garmin Forerunner 305 and started running each morning before work. Running was easy to get into because it's free (after the shoes, GPS watch and some running duds that is) and you just walk out the front door to get going. At first it was 2 miles a day, then 3 and on up. At some point the guys I cycle with stopped asking me to go running because I was developing a bit of an addiction. On Saturdays I would get up at 5:00, go running and then call one of them around 7 when they were getting up to see if they wanted to go. The mileage began to pile up and I decided that I needed a goal. So I found a local marathon and signed up to give myself a goal to train toward. 6 months and 60 lbs later I found myself lining up for the Philadelphia Marathon last weekend. I finished in 4 hours 5 minutes. Not setting any course records there but it was then end of my beginng a new heathly lifestyle. As of this morning I have all my events for the next season planned out and nothing to do but train and enjoy the benefits of being in great shape and knowing that I'll be able to keep up with the kids for years to come. An added benefit is that the wife and kids now want to start running with me which will only make it easier for me to train in the future. So, as a long winded answer to your question
Roger Wright wrote:
What made the committment click in your mind?
... embarrasment started me on the path but the change in lifestyle and the positive effects I saw along the way kept me there. I hope you can find your reason to get on the path. It's a great place to be.
Mike Devenney
Mike Devenney wrote:
It's a great place to be
Having been there, and lost it, I know. On my way!
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"