
The exercise habit - joelg87
http://joel.is/post/24064139389/the-exercise-habit
======
heyitsnick
Perhaps the only thing I really gleaned from this article is how brands
apparently play such a key role in this man's habits.

 _Macbook air_ , _textmate_ , _Octopus card_ , _Fitness First_ , _Red Bull_ ,
_Volvic_ , _iPhone_ , _Gmail_ , _Caffe Habitu_. All of these were jarring to
me as a reader, as the article would read more naturally with generics--
laptop, text editor, charge card, gym, energy drink, water, phone, email,
coffee shop--with no loss of meaning. Many of these brands are mentioned 4
times or more during half a dozen paragraphs.

Whether intentional, it demonstrated the power of good branding; get inside
someone's head, make them associate good habits with your brand, and you will
become part of their daily ritual. They no longer 'go to coffee shop', they go
to Caffe Habitu. It's not buying a bottle of water and hitting the gym, its
"purchasing a Volvic in the 7/11 then doing the 3 minute walk to Fitness
First". They don't check email, they check _gmail_.

A related takeaway from this blog post is the inherent "bragging rights"
people feel when they stick to a habit. This guy doesn't just get up in the
morning, it gets up at _5.50am people_. Now that's early! Now it's time for
_12 reps at 30kg_ at Fitness First as I knock down my redbull after crushing
some sick bugs on my macbook air at the crack of dawn working in the cloud at
my webapp startup.

Premium brands do the same, and it's part of the reason for the consistent
brand-dropping here. People don't have phones they have iPhones, not because
they are ubiquitous (like hoover became the vacuum) but because people must
differentiate normal phones from their phones, due to the premium pricing they
paid. And by using the new product as part of a habit (like your iphone is an
integral part of a morning workout), it becomes more justification for the
purchase.

~~~
wlesieutre
The Red Bull and Volvic seemed particularly out of place to me, especially in
that he made buying them one at a time a part of his daily ritual. Maybe he
wakes up in the morning with a compulsion to throw his money away at a 7/11
instead of getting a 12-pack from the grocery store? Instead of filling his
own bottle from the tap and drinking coffee for his caffeine like normal
people who don't attach brands to all of their routines?

I don't know the exact price of Red Bull or Volvic, but at $5 a day and 260
weekdays in a year he'd be spending $1,300/year.

~~~
gonzo
Red Bull is $40 for 24 cans on Amazon, probably twice that at 7-11. Call it
$3.20/can.

Volvic is $28.81/12 on Amazon. At the same 100% mark-up, it's $4.80/bottle at
7-11.

That's $8/day, plus local sales taxes, or nearly $2100/year.

Getting a good water bottle and filling it at home is likely too cheap to
meter. Making good coffee at home and using that for the caffeine boost is a
lot less than $3.20/serving, and then there is this:

[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1443950608...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1443950608002436)

The results of a study showed that the ingestion of one, 250mL can of sugar-
free Red Bull, in a sample of 30 healthy young adults, had an immediate
detrimental effect on both endothelial function, and normal blood coagulation.
This temporarily raised the cardiovascular risk in these individuals to a
level comparable to that of an individual with established coronary artery
disease.

Finally, he jumps straight into 12 reps dumbbell press @ 30kg (66lb per hand).
Riiiight!

~~~
FelixP
>he jumps straight into 12 reps dumbbell press @ 30kg (66lb per hand)

That really isn't that much weight- imagine bench pressing 60 kilos.

30 kilo dumbbell presses shouldn't all that strenuous for someone who works
out regularly.

~~~
Evgeny
_That really isn't that much weight- imagine bench pressing 60 kilos._

A more general rule is Bench Press = 3 x 1 dumbbell weight. Pressing dumbbells
is harder because it involves more balancing, so it is harder to press 30kg
dumbbells than one 60 kg bar.

~~~
gonzo
my bench is currently around 5x6-8 @ 85kg (5 sets, 6-8 reps, 185lb) That's a
workout set

So, I could probably handle 65lb dumbbells @ 12 reps, but I wouldn't start
there for a warm-up.

Which was my point.

------
cruise02
> I live in the American Gardens Building on W. 81st Street on the 11th floor.
> My name is Patrick Bateman. I'm 27 years old. I believe in taking care of
> myself and a balanced diet and rigorous exercise routine. In the morning if
> my face is a little puffy I'll put on an ice pack while doing stomach
> crunches. I can do 1000 now. After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore
> cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a
> honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I
> apply an herb-mint facial mask which I leave on for 10 minutes while I
> prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with
> little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look
> older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final
> moisturizing protective lotion.

~~~
peterwwillis
Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?

------
FelixP
Great post on the benefits of habit-forming. I've certainly found something
similar in my own exercise experiences.

On a more humorous note, the first portion of the piece reminded me of this
gem:

"I live in the American Gardens Building on W. 81st Street on the 11th floor.
My name is Patrick Bateman. I'm 27 years old. I believe in taking care of
myself and a balanced diet and rigorous exercise routine. In the morning if my
face is a little puffy I'll put on an ice pack while doing stomach crunches. I
can do 1000 now. After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser
lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey
almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an
herb-mint facial mask which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest
of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol,
because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then
moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing
protective lotion. "

~~~
rhizome
1000x better than the movie, which in itself is not terrible. One of the few
novels I've taken the time to read since leaving school.

------
trout
The one piece of advice I curated from the many articles I read and have put
into practice is: "Make it easy".

I moved all the things I need to exercise into one place, streamlined the
entire process, and reduced the mental inertia it takes to do things that are
good for me.

Part of it is simplifying the process, the other half is making it a habit.
I'm also a fan of picking some rationalizations. For stopping caffeine - every
time I drink Coke I'm just thirsty for water, and should just drink water. For
the gym - every time I've ever gone to the gym I feel good when I get home and
don't regret going. For food - I'll enjoy this for 5 seconds and won't even
remember it by tomorrow, but it's got the caloric value of 30 minutes of
exercise.

~~~
bialecki
The other way to look at it is "resign yourself to doing it." It's amazing how
easy thing become when you just decide they must happen. I made the decision
that I don't go to work until I've gone for a jog in the morning and it's
amazing how much easier/enjoyable it becomes.

The disclaimer is I work where I can be into the office a little later in case
I have a late night. But the main point is once you convince yourself you're
going no matter what, suddenly your lizard brain has a hard time saying no.

------
jorleif
While I recommend exercise, and know that the kind of routine described here
can be a very useful tool, doing this all the time seems absurd to me. Humans
have managed to remove almost all natural physical stressors from their lives,
but then we figure out we need "exercise", and set about to find a half hour
activity that optimally affects some fitness parameter. This local
optimization can easily become a stressing madness with constant driving here
and there to move your muscles in extremely boring ways.

I think, for cardiovascular workouts, it's a much better solution to try to
hack your commute into a run / bike ride, if that's possible. You get to use
that time twice, since it is both commute and exercise, and this kind of
multitasking actually works well. Sure, the workout may not be as "efficient"
(locally) as doing everything under perfectly controlled conditions, but this
is really not the main concern unless you are inte competing.

Walking desks are a similar kind of hack, even if I find them a somewhat
perverse use of electricity.

For muscular workouts I haven't yet found anything that would function as well
as the gym, but with less life-overhead.

~~~
nodata
> Walking desks are a similar kind of hack, even if I find them a somewhat
> perverse use of electricity.

You can get non-electric treadmills.

~~~
aw3c2
And I am fairly sure the daily Volvic has a bigger negative environmental
impact.

------
greggman
Are there any scientific studies to back the common meme of "Fitness is a
cornerstone of success"

Does Mark Zuckerberg work out? How about John Lasseter?

It honestly doesn't seem fitness has any relation what-so-ever to success but
I'd be happy to be proven wrong with actual data rather than anecdotes.

~~~
SatvikBeri
Zuckerberg did 5000 pushups throughout the course of a week[1], which proves
that he's at least moderately fit.

Richard Branson's main piece of productivity advice is "work out"[2].

A strong counterexample would be Warren Buffett, who was once the world's
richest man, never worked out, and ate terribly.

Ultimately though it's best to look at the studies other responders to your
post cited, which do show some correlation between exercise and mental
performance.

Edit: forgot my links

[1]: [http://venturebeat.com/2009/10/02/mark-zuckerberg-the-
evolut...](http://venturebeat.com/2009/10/02/mark-zuckerberg-the-evolution-of-
a-remarkable-ceo/)

[2]: <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222739>

~~~
rmATinnovafy
Buffett was into bodybuilding as a teenager/young adult.

~~~
SatvikBeri
Source? I didn't see anything like that in his authorized biography _The
Snowball_. And it specifically mentioned several times that Buffett always
hated manual labor, always ate badly etc.

~~~
rmATinnovafy
It is in his biography where it appears. Though it is not talked about a lot.

~~~
SatvikBeri
Oh wow, totally forgot about that. It's covered in a couple of pages in
section 11...good to know.

------
mhb
For anyone else who was wondering:

Octopus card: _The Octopus card is a rechargeable contactless stored value
smart card used to transfer electronic payments in online or offline systems
in Hong Kong._

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_card>

~~~
joelg87
Good idea. Linked it in the post. Thanks.

------
mbenjaminsmith
I've heard countless times that if you're going to start exercising and stay
with it you should compete -- for most people that means running and running
races on the weekends once in a while or even training for a marathon.

I've done this in the past and I always overtrain and race too early. I have a
bad race and stop training shortly after that.

I've found a much more effective way: Between my wife and I whoever is in the
gym less in any given week has to pay the other person on Friday -- around
$50. There is still competition (neither of us want to admit to losing) but
there is also a very tangible penalty.

The combination is an excellent motivator and neither of us have missed a
single day since we started it. It's similar to having a partner (a partner
got me through 3 years of weight training in college) except that you don't
have to work out at the same time, which is much better for busy people.

~~~
mahyarm
Why do people choose running over biking, with the damage that running can
cause?

~~~
beza1e1
I'd rather ask:

Why do people prefer to run for hours instead of a more intensive workout in a
minutes?

Looking at the typical runners [0], why would you desire a physique like that?

[0]
[http://diaryofakalechic.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/marathon...](http://diaryofakalechic.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/marathon2.jpg)

~~~
johnchristopher
Some people simply like running for the pleasure it gives them. I guess it's
the same with weight lifters. At some point the physique is a side-effect of
one's regulard and healthy practice.

Note that sprinters as well as endurance runners have to lift some weight at
one moment or another. When I run my first half-marathon I was surprised that
my arms were more sore than my legs.

------
ballstothewalls
two small things bug me about this. 1. Why is he buying a single can of red
bull and a single bottle of water from 7-11 every day? Why not buy in bulk and
keep at your house? 2. Is there really much advantages to drinking red bull
before a workout? I know there are advantages to caffeine, but I am not
convinced red bull is the healthiest way to deliver that caffeine.

~~~
marme
He is hong kong, unless he is paying a lots for a nice apartment he is
probably living in a tiny shoe box of an apartment, if he bought all those
bottles where would he keep them? the fridge would be tiny also. In hong kong
there is literally a 7-11 or circle k on every city block. If you are on a
major road you are no more than 100 meters away from the nearest 7-11

~~~
kiwidrew
In fact, the 7-11 and Circle K here are so cheap that often times even buying
in bulk, you can't beat their prices. And then there's the convenience factor:
literally 30 seconds to grab what you want from the fridge and pay for it with
the Octopus RFID tag.

------
baddox
As someone with perpetual difficulty maintaining a 24 hour-based sleep
schedule, when I see these "my routine" posts I'm always most curious about
their sleeping habits.

~~~
mahyarm
These people don't go out and enjoy nightlife, staying up until 3am since that
would put you off kilter for a few days in a row with this kind of schedule.

~~~
baddox
I rarely "enjoy nightlife." I just sit at home not tired for several hours,
then lay in bed not tired for a couple of hours. If I get "enough" sleep to
not be tired in the morning (7-8 hours), then I won't be tired the same time
that night. If I get "too little" sleep (<7 hours) I will be tired all day.

------
Cieplak
"All it takes is putting your running shoes on, and getting out the door." -my
cousin

~~~
cema
And then running. I guess the point is to make the first step. After that, you
just keep making the first step.

~~~
fferen
Until you run into the recursive base case, then you stop. ;)

------
rfugger
I agree that exercise is important, but this guy's life seems so planned out
in advance it's almost creepy.

~~~
Tsagadai
I was going to post something similar. I _cannot_ stand letting my life fall
into any sort of repetitive routine. I exercise, but I vary type, locations,
duration, time, and everything else.

When I find myself doing the exact same thing every day I think of it as
grinding towards the grave without ever doing anything original. Life is full
of new experiences, unless you are just placing one foot in front of another
for 2 hours a day on a treadmill while watching a screen.

It's a pretty dim view of a lifestyle others love but I don't care of it at
all. I guess I guess love chaos too much.

~~~
joelg87
I totally understand :-) I actually agree with you.

The cool part is, I can keep building on top of the repetitive routine, and
these additions are the variation for me. The hour of coding before the gym
(and getting up an hour earlier in order to do it) was a recent addition, and
took some time to achieve as a habitual thing. That's what keeps it
interesting and exciting. I don't succeed right away with these additions,
they take time. However, the power of habits is when they are actually
habitual (and are good habits) and you don't use energy and willpower to
accomplish them - that's what I tried to focus on here.

------
mrschwabe
In case you missed it, download the recent Mixergy interview with Charles
Duhigg on this topic:

[http://mixergy.com/cheat-sheet-how-to-use-the-power-of-
habit...](http://mixergy.com/cheat-sheet-how-to-use-the-power-of-habit/)

Its true, this habit stuff is powerful.

------
ari_
I love all of these posts that discuss exercising and coding at x time. Wake
up, code, exercise, rest of day. But I would LOVE to see a post where the
person involved has at least one child under the age of 5. It changes
everything. You can't just be out of the house at X time, ready to do your
exercise - because Junior has to be fed, changed and taken to school.

(Disclaimer: I have 2 kids, I manage to exercise each day, but it definitely
comes at the expense of other things).

~~~
jdbernard
I am in the same situation. Two kids, 3 and 1, one more on the way. I had to
start taking a long lunch to go to the gym. Thankfully I have the flexibility
to work a little extra in the evening after the kids are asleep. I find it a
lot harder to tear myself away from the desk in the middle of the day and go
work out.

------
ahmadss
For those looking for an easy way to begin forming new habits, I'd definitely
recommend professor Fogg's "3 Tiny Habits" guide. link -
<http://tinyhabits.com/>.

------
milliams
He should have recycled the Red Bull can and just filled up a bottle of water
from the tap in his apartment.

------
candre717
Fitness is a cornerstone of success. I wish more people took it seriously.

~~~
esrauch
Plenty of people take it too seriously. Everything in moderation.

------
codemac
So what's your evening routine, and what evening habits do you find most
helpful?

I feel like there was a tiny bit of prep work before you could just wake up
and run in a circle :D

~~~
joelg87
Absolutely! I have an evening routine, and it's key to achieving the morning
routine. I need 7-8 hours of sleep or I'll burn out within a few days and fail
with the routine one morning. I'm still following it pretty much how I
describe in this article from last year:
<http://joel.is/post/5303723252/creating-a-sleep-ritual>

------
njx
Instead of all the Red bull crap, just start doing some Pranayam and
Meditation for 5 to 10 minutes. All your other dependencies will drop off, I
promise

------
wcchandler
This doesn't seem like a habit. It sounds more like an addiction.

------
swah
The power of habit:

1) Notice how patio11 isn't commenting here.

2) Closes tab.

------
xkcdfanboy
Working out on stimulants is one of the easiest ways to overstress your heart
and can cause permanent cardiovascular damage. Happened to a friend of mine,
his CK levels were through the roof, he ripped his heart muscle because he
used adderall before workouts.

For a hacker news post, I'm sorely disappointed. The body will secret
epinephrine once you start working up a sweat, there's no need to add caffeine
and shitty simple sugars to your body before a workout. Eat a brown rice
granola bar or bring some Gatorade with you if you really need the sugar boost
to get going. Usually, glycogen stored in the liver from previous days will
suffice to rocket the body's bloodstream with sugar.

~~~
peterwwillis
For an xkcd fanboy, you sure aren't putting any science or facts behind your
claims. Randall would be ashamed.

Adderall is an amphetamine, lasts about 10 hours and is basically a controlled
substance, banned by major competitive sports organizations as a performance
enhancer. Caffeine lasts about five hours and (as far as I know) isn't banned
anywhere. There's more sciencey ways to compare them but i'm lazy. Check the
wikipedia pages.

There is also little to no risk of cardiovascular disorder from using caffeine
in "normal" doses (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine#cite_note-
Dam08-18>). The thing that actually strikes me as interesting about the Red
Bull thing is its ingredients and perceived benefits. Here's a brief
description of the ingredients:
[http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/15-07/st_r...](http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/15-07/st_redbull)

Apparently not only can the caffeine make you more likely to be dehydrated, it
takes between 45 mins and 1 hr to absorb fully into your blood stream. So
really, if you want to try to use caffeine (or a caffeine-like substance like
Guarana) make sure you take it about an hour before your workout for peak
results. And i'll remind you all that continuous use of caffeine can make you
dependent and dull the supposed benefits over time. And also, stay hydrated 24
hours before you work out; chugging a bottle of gatoraid while you run is not
being hydrated.

(All that being said, I think it's a lame cheat to use a stimulant or
performance enhancer when working out. Unless you're trying to win a marathon
(which is still cheating) you don't need any "extra edge" provided by $2.50
sugar water. Do the reps and get sleep and eat good food and you'll benefit
the most)

~~~
grk
The "sugar water" is better than normal water because it's isotonic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotonicity#Isotonic>

~~~
tallanvor
You don't need anything other than plain water for normal exercising (anything
under 2 hours will generally count here). --Sports drinks will simply add
calories and are not going to enhance your performance.

If you're going to be working out all day or doing something like a marathon,
then you need to consider something to help replace the salts you lose when
sweating.

------
its_so_on
Man, I feel like I did a week's worth of exercise just reading that. If you
want to sell the exercise habit, this blog post isn't the way to do it.

To be honest, I only even read half of it. (All of the above says nothing
about the exercise habit, nor the point of the post. Just the actual effect of
reading the post.)

I feel like: if I had the actual habits described in the post, few things in
life would feel as good or as rewarding as immediately breaking them, forever.

This isn't to say this is true: just that this is the impression the blog post
leaves me with, due to the style, writing, format, etc.

------
sparknlaunch
Unsure if Red Bull is the best pre gym workout drink. What about eating
something? What about buying the drinks in bulk and keeping them in the
apartment instead of going to 7/11 everyday?

Nevertheless humans loves routine and working effectively for two hours
(coding, then gym) is a productive use of those early hours of the day. Many
waste it in bed.

~~~
karolist
I'm no doctor, but Red Bull on an empty stomach before the gym in the morning
sounds like the worst drink possible. I knew a guy who drank Red Bull before
and after the gym, immediately after he ate 2 snickers to "restore his energy
tank", I think he lasted 2 months before he stopped his exercise efforts.
Where do people get the idea that Red Bull and exercise is related? Have they
started to market it that way perhaps?

