
Paul Graham Thinks You Should Exercise - sethbannon
http://sethbannon.com/paul-graham-thinks-you-should-exercise
======
WestCoastJustin
This is not rocket science. You need only to take a glace around the office to
notice that our industry is not exactly the healthiest. We are sitting all
day, eat pizza, and guzzling energy drinks (mind eye: google "cartman gamer"),
obviously this is an exaggeration, but in some cases, it isn't! Adding
exercise can go a long way, you do not have to think of this as wasted time,
you can listen to audio books, podcasts, etc while you are doing your thing.

My main gripe is that as engineers and measurement freaks, I want to research
exercise before actually doing anything, and then want to measure my results.
There is no clear action path down this road. Diet and exercise are two side
of the same coin. Maybe I'll produce some content on this topic since I have
spent the last couple years getting my house in order.

For example, say, starting tomorrow, you wanted to "eat healthy" and
"workout". What would you do? There is _nothing_ that will give you a grocery
list + meal plan, along with a workout routine. You need to do all this
research first!

~~~
jgrahamc
I would urge you to very much think of it as 'wasted time'. There's an
obsession here from some people with filling every moment with information
(such as audio books, podcasts, etc.).

While exercising it's a perfect time to have no other stimuli and let your
mind wander. Just let it wander. It's really useful to do that because rather
than listening to other people's thoughts you'll have thoughts of your own.
Unexpected thoughts at that.

~~~
jacquesm
Or better still instead of doing pointless exercise: do something useful. Help
someone build a house, go shopping for old ladies in the neighbourhood, chop
wood for your stove (or your neighbours stove), chase pickpockets, and if you
have them play with your kids (or someone else's kids!).

Anything as long as it is useful _and_ you get your exercise.

~~~
samstave
I've been standing on the corner all morning. Zero pickpockets.

I went to the construction site across the street - and they threw me off when
I was asking to borrow a hammer.

(Those were really weird examples of "useful exercise")

~~~
jacquesm
I helped my neighbour build his house, plenty of exercise there, and I re-
built my own as well (even more exercise).

Nice fringe benefit: I got to know my neighbours really well.

------
kyllo
In my view, exercise is _mandatory_ if you don't want serious health problems
at a young age.

I could go on all day about which specific types of exercise are best, but it
really depends on the person. The key is to find an exercise that YOU enjoy
doing, and make the time to do it regularly.

Personally, I enjoy powerlifting and grappling. There are literally zero days
where I drag my feet and have force myself to go to the weight room, or to
jiu-jitsu class. I look forward to these activities all day while I'm at work.
To me, they are fun and rewarding.

Find a sport or form of exercise that is _fun_ to you, and just do it, a lot.
Enter amateur competitions if you can. Doesn't really matter what it is, as
long as it makes you sweat. It will help keep you fit, relieve stress, and
even help you meet people and make friends, making you a happier person all
around.

~~~
jlees
I completely agree that doing something enjoyable is absolutely the best
approach, and if you want to optimise for various things, that's great - but
don't knock the millions of folk who are getting off their arses and actually
moving about. (It also makes me happier to think of people out there enjoying
exercise, than "putting in their time" on the treadmill like hamsters.)

Sadly, finding a form of exercise that fits is easier said than done, as with
so many things.

If you are unfit, there are many barriers - both physical and mental - to just
trying out new sports until you find the right one. Even less unfit people can
be paralysed with fear of the unknown, over-abundance of choice, etc.

College and workplace activity offerings are great, as are good gyms, because
you can just try out a bunch of classes once and see what works for you. But
it took me many years to get to the point where I was brave enough to walk in
the door of a Crossfit gym, which I now thoroughly enjoy.

Maybe the point here is that if you have friends or acquaintances that "don't
like exercise", bring them along to something you love or have always wanted
to try (ideally the latter - doing someone's favourite sport with them is way
intimidating if you're new to exercise, failing together is much more
enjoyable).

~~~
kyllo
Yes, the older and more out-of-shape you are, the harder it can be to find a
sport/exercise you like, and to form new, healthy habits and break old,
unhealthy ones in general.

But a very common question that people ask of recreational sport coaches is
some variation of "I don't think I'm fit enough to even do this yet, what
should I do to get ready for it?" And unless you already have a serious
medical condition, the answer is almost always "Just show up and give it a
try."

Most people don't realize this, but even if you're overweight, slow and weak,
you don't need to put yourself through a "training montage" in order to
prepare for a sport. The best way to get in shape for a a particular sport, is
just to start playing that sport. Just ease into it volume/intensity-wise as
appropriate for your level of fitness.

------
kyro
Exercise is a source of confidence, motivation, and resilience -- a free and
unlimited source. So not only will it benefit you, but keeping yourself
physically and mentally healthy will likely increase the chances of your
startup succeeding. I say that because people often feel, including me, that
exercise comes at the cost of productivity, when in fact it multiplies it.

------
bfe
I realized the limiting factor in my performance is not time, it's mental
energy. Since I started running almost every day, the time it takes to run
more than makes up for itself in added mental energy.

And if you bring someone you need to talk with with you to run (or at least
walk) outdoors in the sunshine, it sometimes turns into a more focused
discussion than you might have had indoors at your usual places surrounded by
your laptops and phones.

------
yawgmoth
The fable here is that neglecting facets of your lifestyle has consequences.
Exercise tends to correlate heavily with consciously managing diet and mental
health.

I am thankful that someone as PG is a proponent of this sort of thing because
the state of workplace culture (in many places) is already unhealthy enough
(e.g. bagel Monday, pizza Friday, donut Wednesday, coupled with excessive
sitting and high caffeine consumption). We all could benefit from employers
who felt it a responsibility to keep their employees healthy (though the onus
is ultimately on individuals, of course).

------
dnautics
Actually I find that 7 minute workouts (which I heard about on hn) have vastly
improved my life in the past four months.... So thank you, HN.

~~~
HudsonMauer
Have any favorites you care to share?

~~~
mlwarren
This article ([http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-
scientific-7-mi...](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-
scientific-7-minute-workout/?_r=0)) was popular on HN months back.

Looks like [http://www.7-min.com/](http://www.7-min.com/) has made a timer
application for the workout routine.

~~~
awaxman11
[http://7min.io/](http://7min.io/) is also really good for the 7 minute
workout

------
varelse
A long time ago my very athletic college girlfriend dumped me for a very
athletic version of me. In the final weeks of that doomed relationship, I
desperately hit the gym to try to stop the inevitable end of that first love.
I failed.

But what I succeeded at was vowing to never again get dumped for someone that
was pretty much me but in better shape. So the rest of the failed experiments
on the way to meeting my wife found new and innovative ways to reject me.

These days, when I'm in a technical interview, and I get asked how I solve
problems, I answer with something like "On a treadmill, running at 7-9 mph,
until the answer becomes clear to me." About 2/3 of the time, the person
asking the question is taken aback and I've just saved myself from working at
a company full of couch potatoes half my age and heading twice as fast into
effective old age. Really, we won't get along, let's just move along.

And about 1/3 of the time, the person seems to get that I'm using exercise to
get away from the information deluge of the workplace to give my brain a
chance to do its thing. These are the only jobs to which I give any
consideration.

The day you stop moving is the day you start dying IMO.

~~~
tomjen3
I am not quite sure how that would work if you worked on a project alone and
need to review a large stack of code or you work with somebody else, you can't
exactly take 3 minutes on a threadmill.

~~~
varelse
If you work on a team, mark time on your calendar where you are _busy_ and
stick to it - there are very few emergencies that really are more important
than maintaining your own personal productivity - in the rare event that you
hit one, throw an exception.

And that may sound self-centered and harsh, but really, your most valuable
time at work is your time in flow. If your employer doesn't value that, and
feels free to interrupt you willy nilly as well as drop you into the middle of
a 1960s boiler room of coders happily jabbering away instead of writing code,
your project and likely your company is doomed.

If you're working alone and you're blocked, go exercise, it works like magic
because it monkey wrenches your brain out of the infinite loop that's keeping
you from seeing the solution. If you aren't blocked, go exercise anyway. Make
it a regular habit.

Finally, review that stack of code after you come back from the gym. You'll be
in a much more receptive state to do so.

------
stephth
With the 7 minute workout, you have no excuse not to exercise daily. All you
need is a wall, a chair, a mat if the floor doesn't have carpet, and about 8
minutes. You get a full body endurance workout with all its long term and
short term benefits - makes you feel more awake right away and helps you sleep
better at the end of the day - and just 8 minutes later you can be back on
your keyboard.

You can exercise more if you want to, but unless you have an impeding health
problem, you have no excuse not to do this much.

[http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-
scientific-7-mi...](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-
scientific-7-minute-workout/?_r=0)

I used this iOS app to learn the exercises (I started by learning 6 exercises
and then evolved from there, in less than two weeks I was doing the full
workout), and I use it every day to guide me:
[http://www.uovo.dk/apps/7minute.html](http://www.uovo.dk/apps/7minute.html)
(There's plenty of others similar apps out there which I haven't tried but
this one works for me)

~~~
tomjen3
And after that your neighbor complains because you started to jump around at 6
am.

Really all those exercises you can do anywhere - yeah you can do them anywhere
if you live in the 'burbs.

~~~
stephth
That's not a good excuse. There are plenty of hours in the day from which to
choose an _8 minutes_ window.

------
hackula1
A few months ago I traded in bourbon and podcasts after work for yoga. I keep
it simple and fairly easy. While I would probably be even better off doing
intense cycling and/or lifting, basic yoga is doable for me after a hard day
of work. Not only do I feel much more in shape, but I feel drastically more
relaxed as well.

------
Toenex
Working exercise into you're day is a good way to ensure you stick to it. I've
always cycled to work and not only does this mean I do hundreds of hours of
exercise that I wouldn't otherwise do it saves money and is probably quicker
than commuting by car. I also feel more alert when I get to my desk.

------
gmonaco

        Not making time for exercise now seems akin to cutting out food because you have no time to eat
    

So now we just need Soylent for Exercise ;-)

FWIW, I agree with the article. Also, exercising seemed like a chore at first,
but now it's fun and I look forward to it.

~~~
smtddr
gmonaco, I got your back.. er abs..
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17DcJRW88pk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17DcJRW88pk)

------
amattn
Exercise is a positive return on the time investment.

A good workout (7-30 mins), a 15-30 min bike ride or a 10-20 min run will more
than pay off with improved productivity and energy throughout the day.

------
Hansi
Why are there so many articles posted on HN about this? Want to live long and
be productive exercise and eat mostly healthy must be common sense at this
point right?

I'm not knocking on the OP for posting this but am interested in hearing
comments on why this keeps getting repeated. I sure know that everyone around
me on a day to day basis knows this independent of whether they follow it or
not.

------
Mankhool
I think the health results of daily excersize are a fringe benefit to the
perseverance and dedication required to do so. Once you have perseverance and
determination, you can DO anything.

------
diziet
I'd met Seth rock climbing at Dogpatch Boulders in SF. There are a lot of
startup founders and people working at startups that go rock climbing -- make
sure to check it out.

------
pstack
With all due respect to Paul Graham and on behalf of my fat ass and all my
fellow (especially telecommuting) fat asses out there, /screw that guy/!. :D

------
dionidium
I think the point of this article is that the author has been to the gym at
least once a week for a year and he wanted us to know that.

------
darkstar999
I don't think hitting the gym once a week counts. You should at least do some
light cardio daily.

------
phogster
What type of exercises do you guys recommend for someone that sits at a desk
all day?

~~~
freiheit
Anything that you'll actually _do_ every week and gets your heart rate up.
Bonus points if it gets you outside. Walking. Running. Bicycling.

Personally, I like biking to work. Integrates the exercise right into my
routine and doesn't really take that much more time than my other commute
options. I also do longer weekend rides (40-70 miles).

------
1qaz2wsx3edc
Why is someone other then Paul G. telling me what he thinks.

------
j_s
I'm curious what pg's exercise routine is.

------
mhurron
Well so do I, but I don't get a headline on HN because of it. What makes him
so damn special.

------
a3voices
>Yesterday Foursquare alerted me that I had been to a gym at least once a week
for the past year.

That's very insufficient. You should be exercising 5 or 6 days per week, if
not 7.

------
guard-of-terra
Am I the only one who's not going to?

Have more interesting/less awful ways to spend my time. Go to a concert, for
example.

~~~
enraged_camel
We'll see if you can still go to concerts once you develop serious health
problems at the age of 40.

~~~
tomjen3
Don't be too sure, there are plenty of old hackers still around.

~~~
enraged_camel
Look at the population as a whole. Statistically speaking, people who don't
work out are much more likely to develop health problems.

