
The Software Developer’s Guide to Fitness & Morning Productivity - tysont
http://www.etherealbits.com/?p=68
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antirez
I can't agree more. I can not imagine me doing this work without exercising. I
do two workouts per week in the gym, two hours per session, very intensive.
All the other days I run at home using the treadmill for 30 minutes, and do
around 60 pushups in the morning, 60 in the evening.

So it's just 2+2 = 4 hours at gym, plus 0.5*5 = 2.5 more hours, plus the
pushups that is very little time. Let's say 8 hours per week of time spent
exercising, but the benefits are huge: it's easy to focus during the week
staying sit down without any pain, bad feeling or alike.

Even after a day of doing many things I often reach home that I'm still pretty
rested, and sometimes I add a few hours of work if I feel like there is some
interesting problem to fix for Redis, or to write some doc, and so forth.

Btw in the previous years I used the treadmill as I do now, but I did not used
to do the bigger workouts nor the pushups. I changed my schedule only 12
months ago adding the new stuff, and it's a totally game changer, apparently
just running was not enough for me.

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neutronicus
I don't know if this is what you do, but I've definitely noticed that working
seriously on the power lifts (squat, deadlift, overhead press, bench press)
has made my joints feel better throughout the day.

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rjh29
They are also extremely hard to do correctly, and any mistake in form can and
will injure you, either over time or due to one bad lift. I personally can't
understand why they are so often recommended to beginner lifters.

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Stwerner
Buying a book like Starting Strength by Rippetoe and starting with low weights
goes a long way to getting your form good enough that you won't seriously
injure yourself.

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jdhopeunique
Just to add one anecdotal data point, I've done that and so far(for about 1
year) I have not had any problems. I do squat, deadlift, bench press, press,
pullups, and situps. I've worked my way up to 230lbs + bar in deadlift and
200lbs + bar in squat. I experience a little muscle soreness in the back but
that is all. I still need to watch what I eat and walk to burn calories since
I still need to lose a little weight.

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brianmwang
My comment on the article, which is still awaiting moderator approval:

“Get your heart rate up to your target zone and try to keep it up for 20-30
minutes. Pick a few exercises and do them in circuits with little or no rest
between exercises (and a short rest between sets), at high intensity. Lean
towards workouts that work large groups of muscles, for example doing push ups
(or better yet, burpees) instead of bench press.”

There are a few problems with this advice:

1\. The arbitrary goal of increasing your heart rate for 20-30 minutes
completely ignores the most important question: what are you trying to
accomplish?

2\. Circuit training is only appropriate for particular goals. We shouldn’t be
prescribing it without the proper context.

3\. Implying that push ups or burpees are superior to the bench press,
especially in the context of working large muscle groups, again ignores the
question of what you are trying to accomplish. If we are talking about
strength training in general, then the bench press is superior to push-ups and
burpees are almost completely irrelevant. If we’re talking about calorie
burning and conditioning, then burpees are superior. But again, without proper
context and asking the right questions, this sort of advice isn’t particularly
helpful.

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buddydvd
> I’ve touched on why I find working out in the morning to be especially
> beneficial, but I would recommend working out at a time where you know you
> can be consistent; if you try to vary your workout daily according to your
> schedule you’re going to be way more likely to skip it.

Yes, do find a time where you know you can be consistent. I run daily and,
having tried different schedules, I find that running at 11pm allows me to
achieve very good consistency (I've ran 1,500 miles in the past two years and
the last time I skipped a day was back in February and that was because I
caught the flu.) One problem with running in the morning is that if you
oversleep, you'll likely want to skip it.

In addition to finding the right schedule, I recommend living near a gym, as
that will help you avoid making excuses to skip days. I live at a place where
there's 24/7 access to the gym and that helped a lot.

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carbocation
I wish you'd write this up and submit. You say it so casually and yet it's an
epic achievement!

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buddydvd
Thank you. I'll do that.

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moistgorilla
People need to start viewing their body as a whole. Your body is a system and
when one part of the system starts to decline it affects all other parts of
your body, especially your mind.

Going for a jog every day doesn't cut it though, people need to change their
diet as well. It's not about eating less but about eating right. Ramen every
day for dinner is not good for you eat chicken with salad. Oreos for breakfast
isn't good for you eat eggs or greek yogurt. Drinking soda isn't good for you
drink water or milk.

You need to get rid of the instant pleasures to get the more lasting ones such
as increased confidence, intelligence, and energy. Making the change is
definitely worth it.

edit: You should also get a healthy amount of sleep (6-8 hours). Too many
people think they can function on 5 hours when only a small percentage can
work effectively with that much rest.

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robryan
I think though for someone currently doing nothing, the jog is a step in the
right direction. I think the right amount to be doing is something you can
keep to, can always add to it later.

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truncate
Yeah, going to gym straigtaways is way too painful. I started gym once, and I
my whole body was in pain for whole 1-2 weeks. (I gradually left after a
month) I think, had I started in bit by bit, experience would have been
better. I have to start again this summer break, and hoping to start bits by
bits this time.

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pumainmotion
Over the last year or so, after gradually changing my lifestyle to include
some exercise and giving some attention to what I eat, I can personally attest
to the fact that productivity and efficiency has greatly increased. There is
also a marked improvement psychologically in terms of the will and desire to
do things. There really seems to be an increase in energy levels as compared
to before, and I seem to have a clearer dialogue with my body now. Post-
workout metabolism has done wonders for my previously irregular and haphazard
appetite.

I also agree with the bit about protein consumption in the morning. It can be
a simple smoothie, along with scrambled eggs & some almonds, or it could be
one of those whey-enhanced protein shakes - either way, it'll keep you going
in full steam till lunch time.

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crusso
Interesting. I just listened to the Security Now guy (Steve Gibson) who has
been going super low carb and has done a couple of geek specials on the
subject. Very good information in the two podcasts he did. Here's the link to
the first one:

<http://twit.tv/show/twit-live-specials/124>

If you have a lot of energy problems during the day -- besides exercising,
going completely very low carb is a good way to even out the post-carb crashes
that plague lots of people like myself.

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dsawler
Dropping carbs dramatically after living a life where you ate a normal/high
amount of carbs is going to, most likely, make you miserable. If decreasing
your carbs is of interest to you, do so slowly over time.

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rangibaby
I can't really agree with this. The hardest part of going cold turkey "no
carb" is the first week; after that, just watching weight literally fall off
(I lost 15kg in two months) and having a constant energy level without the
"carb crashes" are an excellent reward, which is important considering the
time most people give up dieting is early, before they've really had a chance
to change their lifestyle.

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escoz
completely agree with you.

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qwar
Can't agree more. Here's a relevant talk with a Stanford lecturer talking
about thethe science of "willpower". She specifically mentions exercise as
being proven to increase measures of willpower (things like being able to
delay gratification in the short term to fulfill long term goals).

<http://twit.tv/show/dr-kikis-science-hour/135>

And who couldn't use some more willpower?

Interestingly, another thing she mentions as having significant benifits is
meditation. I've seen that anecdotally in successful people, as well.

As for exercise, it's very true that finding something that works for you is
very important. Just to throw another idea out there: For me, I struggle to
get full benefit out of going to a standard gym. What I've found works
fantastically for me is going to a Crossfit gym in the morning. They're short,
high intensity, varied, interesting workouts. Having a group of supportive
people around you, and a skilled trainer has been invaluable. I've had great
success (and fun) with this.

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shanecleveland
I find that a consistent exercise routine helps to implement good habits in
other parts of my life, such as making good food choices, sleeping well, etc.
And it certainly spills over into my work, as well. I just have more
confidence and improved sense of well being. One thing that keeps me going is
keeping in mind the long-term benefits. Not only will it improve my day, but I
have a goal of living a long life with all my capacities.

I've recently started swimming and love it. If you have access to a pool, I
cannot recommend it enough. I'm also in the middle of the "100 Pushup
Challenge."

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hoka
Great advice.

Just remember that whatever you do, do it with drive and intensity or don't
expect results. In much the same way that leaving a tab open on Codeacademy
won't magically make you a better developer, loafing around in a gym won't get
you the results you want. Especially if you're lifting: if you aren't sleeping
enough, eating properly (moar protein!), and training hard, you won't see the
progress you're capable of.

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iamgilesbowkett
I have to disagree with this part:

"do it with drive and intensity or don't expect results"

I made a pretty radical change in my diet and dropped 82 pounds. I think the
first 70 or so came off in 6 months. It required some focus, but not a lot. I
had done a lot of reading about habit, and was already professionally trained
as a hypnotist, so I combined habits with hypnosis and made a fairly dramatic
behavior change with pretty minimal effort.

Likewise, at the same time, I was going to the gym every day, but because I
had a severe health issue, I was working out very, VERY gently. I was
basically walking on a treadmill at 3 miles per hour for an hour every day.
It's more active than not exercising at all, but I couldn't call it a "drive
and intensity" situation.

I think this whole "drive and intensity" myth is the major problem with Hacker
News as a community, in fact. I abandoned hacking entirely for almost a year,
during which I just sold how-to videos and coaching on my blog. I made decent
money and there was not a lot of drive or intensity involved there, either.

Drive and intensity can be great things, but I've definitely had a great
number of experiences which point to them being inessential to success. I'm
happy to go so far as to say that neither are of equal value to research,
clarity, good logic, or sound strategy.

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hoka
Yeah, I can definitely see room for disagreement with how I worded it. What I
really meant was "do it with drive and intensity or don't expect optimal
results."

I'm active enough on enough fitness communities to see plenty of people make
good-great progress on their own or ho-humming things. Compared to a
completely sedentary lifestyle, ho-humming it will result in great progress.

Drive and intensity for something unproven (working on a side project,
startup, etc) obviously yields unpredictable results. That's where the problem
with HN is. But for something like exercise that has a long body of research
and countless case studies, drive and intensity (provided proper form,
nutrition, etc) only improves results.

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iamgilesbowkett
I think that's fair. I think plenty of people would describe a dramatic change
in diet as an intense thing, and I certainly don't think there's any harm in
intensity, as long as it's intelligently applied, and it's different from some
kind of demented obsessiveness.

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stiff
If you care about your long-term health, it is much better to get your protein
(and all other nutrients, by the way) from an actual meal and not from a
supplement, because of digestive issues:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whey_protein#Digestive_Issues>

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Zakharov
What would be good foods for doing this?

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stiff
In my opinion, if it's just about enhancing recovery after a workout, ideally
you would eat any food rich in high-quality protein (chicken if you have
access to grass-fed, pork, nuts if you vegatarian etc.) + some green
vegetables (voluminous but low in calories, to supply fiber that will help
digest the protein) and after the main meal maybe a grapefruit or orange
(vitamin C speeds up recovery). If you look to gain weight, you can
additionally eat more carbohydrates with the meat and also eat some carbs
before the workout.

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ovechtrick
Another benefit I've found is that the majority of my "eureka" moments happen
while I'm alone in the gym.

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rjh29
If I may ask, what are you usually doing when you get those moments? I'd love
to be able to spend time at the gym thinking, but usually when the blood flows
out of my brain and down to my muscles, I'm lucky to be able to add two
numbers together.

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ovechtrick
Usually while lifting. They seem to come when I'm thinking about nothing at
all! I don't think about it on purpose... just happens.

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tomjen3
A lot of say you feel great after an exercise section, but how? I always feel
sweaty, my throat feels constricted and I feel I need to go drink some water.

And that is true, even if I only do it for 10 minutes in the morning.

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wowoc
Endorphins. It's strange that your body doesn't produce them.

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namank
Goes for all skilled jobs where your create.

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pthread
Morning? What's that?

~~~
kbutler
The last few hours before you go to sleep.

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mkramlich
Summary: exercise is good. Eating right is good. Both can help your career.

