It's even worse than lowered productivity for me. I just start getting straight-up depressed; just absolutely terrible feeling. No energy, no drive, no light. And then I realize that somewhere in the last two weeks I stopped my regular exercise regiment for some reason or another and pick it back up - cured instantly.
It's easy to fool yourself into thinking that the funk caused the stop in exercise but that's nearly never the case.
EVERYBODY, hacker or not, should be getting regular exercise. Please. You won't regret it.
As a rule of thumb, the best predictor of your mental health is what you do physically, and the best predictor of your physical health is what you spend all day thinking about.[1] Kind of funny how that works.
[1] Assuming you're not outright poisoning yourself or something.
My problem with deliberate exercise is that it doesn't feel purposeful (vague notions of improved health notwithstanding). Picking up a chunk of iron just to put it back down again or stomping on a moving platform just to remain in the same place feels about as useful as typing out a bunch of boilerplate code just to delete it shortly afterwards. I might change this attitude should I find more interesting activities.
Instead, I choose to integrate exercise into my lifestyle rather than go out of my way to do it. Serious gym rats will scoff at me, but it's far more satisfying to carry a 10-kg watermelon home from the supermarket 3 km away.
It's also a lot easier when the exercise is compulsory. Twice a day I pass through 1.5 km of hilly terrain to reach my bus stop, and the panoramic view of the city along the way is certainly a nice bonus.
I too hate treadmills and lifting weights -- it's just dreadfully boring. However, if you pick up a sport, you can hone your coordination skills and progress to become a better player. I find that it's much more motivating when you're competing with people. And, I feel much better knowing that I am acquiring a useful skill that can be measured against in competition.
Personally, I play competitive table tennis (very unlike garage ping pong). What's good is that you can actually do this inside, and, it's cheap to play at clubs. It's also a sport that keeps your mind sharp. I even wrote a whole article about why I think it's a great hacker sport: http://jamesyu.org/2009/01/11/why-table-tennis-is-a-great-ha...
I used to think EXACTLY like you. I'm not kidding, exactly.
A friend got me into the gym, and it turns out it's a hell of a lot different than I thought. Lifting 10-lb dumbbells forever will make your brain go numb, but if you boost the weight up to the point you can only do 3x5 or 5x5 (3 or 5 sets of 5), the weight becomes the purpose. I don't know how to put it better than that- once you're halfway through a rep, you have to devote all your ability to getting the damn thing back in the air.
The first 1-2 trips will not be very exciting because you'll be learning technique and starting with low weights so as not to overshoot your abilities, but give it a shot and stick it out for 2-3 weeks, and see how it goes.
(It will get to the point where you don't want to go or you don't want to do the next set because it's hard- but that is easier to get past than the frustration with pointless menial labor)
So you buy a watermelon every day? No. That is the problem with your method, you really should be doing something every day.
And if you are not sweating, it is not exercise. Make as many excuses as you want, lots of people do, but you will feel better if you do actually exercise.
"Picking up a chunk of iron just to put it back down again"
Then you sort of missed the point a bit. The point of the exercise is
a) to challenge your physical, and yes, mental limits in a ways nothing else in the modern world really does, and
b) master the form of the exercises, which can be surprisingly intricate, and
c) become stronger, moving on to ever more challenging weights.
Do you have any sort of physical or fitness-related goals you could set for yourself for your exercise? Working towards a goal makes all the difference.
A goal could be anything from training to run a 5K, a marathon, being able to squat your body weight, be able to do five pull-ups, lose 10 pounds etc...
That is why I started surfing. Nothing motivates you to max your heart rate than another set coming that will put you through a spin cycle if you don't get back outside the impact zone before it arrives. It has to be a part of your life.
One of my cofounders has a PhD in neuroscience. Whenever I am stuck on a technical issue, he encourages me to get up and exercise for a while. His reasoning is that vigorous activity increases bloodflow to the brain, which in turn leads to creative problem solving.
Anecdotally, this has served me well so far. Our entire architecture came to me during the middle of a hellish session on the treadmill.
I wouldn't agree at all with 'the gym don't count' - I'm an on-off gym user for years now and can say that my energy levels are so much higher when I am exercising multiple times weekly, whether is be cardio or weight lifting. My general mood and spark is multiplied, to the surprise of many who believe they are exhausted most evenings and certainly couldn't put any spare energy to a workout.
When I'm not working out - I also suffer a peculiar kind of depression mentioned here in the comments. Yet I'm not sure how much of this is due to a release of certain chemicals in the body, or the psychological hit of knowing you're letting yourself go. Either way, I'm back in the gym after 3 weeks out: last week I struggled to get up, today I'm up and coding at 5am. Much like exercise itself, work out what's best for you and realise the importance of training your body as much as we all train our mind.
I'll second everything said here. "The gym doesn't count" is an utter lie. If you've led a multiple-year sedentary lifestyle, a mere 15 minutes on a treadmill in the morning will show you an immediate difference in your motivation and mental clarity.
Also, fat-asses: you don't have to kill yourself at the gym. Look up on the internet what your target heart rate should be, and stick to it. If you feel like you're going to fall over and die, you're making it too hard on yourself.
If you're just getting started, developing the habit of going regularly (at least 3x/week) is immensely more important than minutes ran, reps, or pounds lifted.
It's incredibly hard to start and stick to a routine if you're not used to it. I've only done it three times in my life, but it paid off every time. And the years in between were racked with life-altering depression and failure.
I have found weight lifting to be the best kind of exercising for me. When I was at studying and working part-time I found that if I went jogging I'd still continue thinking about work and school stuff. When I'm lifting, thats the only thing I'm concerned about. When you have squatted down with heavy weight on your back, you don't stress about anything else than getting back up. Strength training can also help prevent typical physical problems hackers face, such as neck and back pains.
I can't back this up with statistics but I'd hazard a guess that a portion of antidepressant subscriptions are entirely related to a sedentary lifestyle.
My world goes completely to shit if I'm not exercising on a regular basis, it changes everything.
The World Health Organization predicts that depression will create the second greatest burden of disease by 2020, requiring cost-effective prevention and intervention strategies. The evidence to support the benefits of exercise in offering protection from depression and as an intervention in the treatment of mental illness is growing. The literature is reviewed with 11 prospective longitudinal studies that include measures of physical activity and depression at two or more time points showing a protective effect from physical activity. Fifteen randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and three meta- analyses provide evidence that exercise can reduce depression and that it can be as effective as cognitive therapy. Four RCTs report exercise as an intervention in alcohol addiction and two RCTs in the use of illicit drugs. While many of the studies reviewed have methodological weaknesses, including lack of concealment in randomization, limited use of intention to treat and blinding, the benefits of exercise far outweigh the risks. There is evidence that exercise protects against depression and is an effective intervention and adjunctive intervention for the treatment of mild to moderate depression. Exercise provides some health and psychological benefits as an adjunct to treatment in complex mental health problems such as alcohol and drug rehabilitation. [1]
[1] MARIE E. DONAGHY
School of Health Sciences, Queen Margaret University, Leith Campus, Edinburgh
I think this is largely true. I've lost a lot of weight in the last eighteen months, and started exercising, and I find that my concentration and ability to handle abstraction are significantly better when I'm working out than not. Healthy body, healthy mind and all that.
Lately I've found the best way for meto consistently exercise is to incorporate it with hacking and work. I've started using my bike as my primary mode of transportation when I leave the house to program. So instead of driving to a coffee shop or library, I ride my bike. Its made a noticeable difference in my energy, creativity levels and ability to focus.
Not central to the authors point, but I think surfing, and exercise like it (mountain biking, for instance) are superior to simply hitting the treadmill. Getting out into nature and getting some vitamin D is a whole lot better than doing the rat-run in a gym cardio room. That said, anything is better than nothing.
In northern California, it's often cool enough to require covering most of your skin. A person surfing at Linda Mar is almost certainly wearing a wetsuit and gloves. This covers almost all of the body and drastically reduces vitamin D production.
To reliably get vitamin D, take a supplement. Exercising outside is more fun than a gym, but it won't make you any healthier than doing the same thing indoors.
My sport of choice is beach volleyball (2v2). My problem is that I'm wildly obsessive - so instead of just going out there and playing volleyball for a couple hours, then heading home to work, I stay at the beach for 5-6 hours, and after that I'm completely spent. And then the next day, if it's mildly nice, I'll just head back to the beach because I'm completely obsessed with improving my game.
I'm finding that late fall is doing wonders for my productivity, since the beach is colder now (but damn nice for Wisconsin November), I'll only spend 2-3 hours down there once or twice a week, rather than 6-7 hours 4-5 times a week (summer schedule).
But I do recommend picking up a sport. Good exercise and doesn't feel like a waste of time, the way lifting does (though I do try to do lifting to improve my game, even if it's boring as watching grass grow).
If by 'pain' you're referring to the bone and joint pain alot of runners eventually incur, try swimming an/or biking too. I find you can get the same cardio workout minus the pounding and wear & tear.
I work from home, and either run or swim during lunchtime. It's great, I get so much more done. If you start, the first weeks you will feel very tired and it seems counter-productive. After a while, you suddenly realize that you are way more productive. If you run races regularly, you'll also see progress, which is great for motivation and general self-esteem.
That being said, the trick to keep running is to stay injury-free, and this is harder than it may sound. Don't run very long distances, take a lot of rest (I run every other day and sleep a lot), and do lots of interval running. Listen to your body: never, ever ignore injuries. If you feel pain, don't run until it's gone. Don't think you're special and tough and you can run through the pain (I did that, and it didn't work).
...and don't buy expensive running shoes. The more padding a shoe has the more it leads to bad technique that actually increases the impact on joints. Humans are made to run, go thin-sole or 5fingers to teach yourself proper technique.
I notice ideas come to me more readily when exercising, especially on the beach. Sometimes I get such a flood of ideas I run faster to get home to write them down. If you can't get outside, juggling is a great indoor exercise, and it also helps with focus.
My "exercise hack" (if one might call it that) is to do some isometric holds in my closet doorframe, and around a few of the sturdier metal bars in my vicinity when I go on walks. The holds aim for around five seconds length at maximum intensity(but without overly spiking blood pressure, something which is learned with practice).
It takes 5-10 minutes per day and has a dramatic soothing effect almost immediately.
Exercise makes an amazing difference. I began a marathon training program six month ago, and it has dramatically impacted my energy level.
I haven't gotten sharper in the past six months, but I'm more robust to energy-sapping conditions. An occasional bad night of sleep doesn't ruin my work day. I have a lesser mental block when starting big projects. I'm not worn out after a long work day, so I've worked more on pet projects without sacrificing time with my girlfriend. I have a major incentive to eat light, since nothing is worse than a hard run with a stomach full of grease. As a plus, I now understand the value of working incrementally towards a large goal.
I didn't find it difficult to work into my schedule. My highest-mileage week only took six hours of my time, and most weeks were less than four hours.
For people who can't get motivated about treadmills or lifting weights and who have the space, a full length (floor to ceiling) punch bag comes highly recommended. I lost 60lbs in 6 months by channelling my aggression and frustration into that bag for 15 minutes at the start of each day. Take a few Muay Thai classes at your local gym so that you know how to punch and kick, then go to town on that bag as often as you can. After the first 3 weeks you won't be able to go a day without using the bag, it's addictive and probably one of the most effective forms of exercise after running.
I commute by bike (2x30 min/day), go running 1h30 once a week and have a rowing machine (1h/week). I don't want to live without these highs. It also helped me in productivity and mental illness.
[+] [-] kevinherron|15 years ago|reply
It's easy to fool yourself into thinking that the funk caused the stop in exercise but that's nearly never the case.
EVERYBODY, hacker or not, should be getting regular exercise. Please. You won't regret it.
[+] [-] swah|15 years ago|reply
Although I do think that doing something like painting a house or doing gardening for a couple hours would also do the trick.
[+] [-] Alex3917|15 years ago|reply
[1] Assuming you're not outright poisoning yourself or something.
[+] [-] bilban|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CoreDumpling|15 years ago|reply
Instead, I choose to integrate exercise into my lifestyle rather than go out of my way to do it. Serious gym rats will scoff at me, but it's far more satisfying to carry a 10-kg watermelon home from the supermarket 3 km away.
It's also a lot easier when the exercise is compulsory. Twice a day I pass through 1.5 km of hilly terrain to reach my bus stop, and the panoramic view of the city along the way is certainly a nice bonus.
[+] [-] jamesjyu|15 years ago|reply
I too hate treadmills and lifting weights -- it's just dreadfully boring. However, if you pick up a sport, you can hone your coordination skills and progress to become a better player. I find that it's much more motivating when you're competing with people. And, I feel much better knowing that I am acquiring a useful skill that can be measured against in competition.
Personally, I play competitive table tennis (very unlike garage ping pong). What's good is that you can actually do this inside, and, it's cheap to play at clubs. It's also a sport that keeps your mind sharp. I even wrote a whole article about why I think it's a great hacker sport: http://jamesyu.org/2009/01/11/why-table-tennis-is-a-great-ha...
[+] [-] sliverstorm|15 years ago|reply
A friend got me into the gym, and it turns out it's a hell of a lot different than I thought. Lifting 10-lb dumbbells forever will make your brain go numb, but if you boost the weight up to the point you can only do 3x5 or 5x5 (3 or 5 sets of 5), the weight becomes the purpose. I don't know how to put it better than that- once you're halfway through a rep, you have to devote all your ability to getting the damn thing back in the air.
The first 1-2 trips will not be very exciting because you'll be learning technique and starting with low weights so as not to overshoot your abilities, but give it a shot and stick it out for 2-3 weeks, and see how it goes.
(It will get to the point where you don't want to go or you don't want to do the next set because it's hard- but that is easier to get past than the frustration with pointless menial labor)
http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-tra...
p.s. as noted in the article, the gym is not quite the same as exercise, but this was in response to your specific point.
[+] [-] megablast|15 years ago|reply
And if you are not sweating, it is not exercise. Make as many excuses as you want, lots of people do, but you will feel better if you do actually exercise.
[+] [-] grammaton|15 years ago|reply
Then you sort of missed the point a bit. The point of the exercise is
a) to challenge your physical, and yes, mental limits in a ways nothing else in the modern world really does, and b) master the form of the exercises, which can be surprisingly intricate, and c) become stronger, moving on to ever more challenging weights.
[+] [-] usaar333|15 years ago|reply
1) Commute with it rather than taking a car or bus
2) Explore the neighborhood / local trails /etc with it.
[+] [-] brown9-2|15 years ago|reply
A goal could be anything from training to run a 5K, a marathon, being able to squat your body weight, be able to do five pull-ups, lose 10 pounds etc...
[+] [-] rjurney|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sga|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codypo|15 years ago|reply
Anecdotally, this has served me well so far. Our entire architecture came to me during the middle of a hellish session on the treadmill.
[+] [-] jamesriley|15 years ago|reply
When I'm not working out - I also suffer a peculiar kind of depression mentioned here in the comments. Yet I'm not sure how much of this is due to a release of certain chemicals in the body, or the psychological hit of knowing you're letting yourself go. Either way, I'm back in the gym after 3 weeks out: last week I struggled to get up, today I'm up and coding at 5am. Much like exercise itself, work out what's best for you and realise the importance of training your body as much as we all train our mind.
Edit: spelling correction
[+] [-] Deejahll|15 years ago|reply
Also, fat-asses: you don't have to kill yourself at the gym. Look up on the internet what your target heart rate should be, and stick to it. If you feel like you're going to fall over and die, you're making it too hard on yourself.
If you're just getting started, developing the habit of going regularly (at least 3x/week) is immensely more important than minutes ran, reps, or pounds lifted.
It's incredibly hard to start and stick to a routine if you're not used to it. I've only done it three times in my life, but it paid off every time. And the years in between were racked with life-altering depression and failure.
[+] [-] Kuytu|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skm|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] momotomo|15 years ago|reply
My world goes completely to shit if I'm not exercising on a regular basis, it changes everything.
[+] [-] burnedouthacker|15 years ago|reply
[1] MARIE E. DONAGHY School of Health Sciences, Queen Margaret University, Leith Campus, Edinburgh
[+] [-] rjurney|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Eliezer|15 years ago|reply
As far as I can tell, everything said about exercise is lies. Or perhaps mileage varies. Just remember, mileage varies, and also, you're not alone.
[+] [-] jfb|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davidamcclain|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marcinw|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chewbranca|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alexwestholm|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AngryParsley|15 years ago|reply
To reliably get vitamin D, take a supplement. Exercising outside is more fun than a gym, but it won't make you any healthier than doing the same thing indoors.
[+] [-] rjurney|15 years ago|reply
Editing now to clarify, thanks!
[+] [-] chops|15 years ago|reply
I'm finding that late fall is doing wonders for my productivity, since the beach is colder now (but damn nice for Wisconsin November), I'll only spend 2-3 hours down there once or twice a week, rather than 6-7 hours 4-5 times a week (summer schedule).
But I do recommend picking up a sport. Good exercise and doesn't feel like a waste of time, the way lifting does (though I do try to do lifting to improve my game, even if it's boring as watching grass grow).
[+] [-] vidar|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kiba|15 years ago|reply
Though, I can't help but feel the pain of my exercise.
[+] [-] balakk|15 years ago|reply
Vary your run; do different distances, speeds etc. But don't neglect shoes; indulge in a new one every 500 Km.
[+] [-] SkyMarshal|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ponce|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chriseidhof|15 years ago|reply
That being said, the trick to keep running is to stay injury-free, and this is harder than it may sound. Don't run very long distances, take a lot of rest (I run every other day and sleep a lot), and do lots of interval running. Listen to your body: never, ever ignore injuries. If you feel pain, don't run until it's gone. Don't think you're special and tough and you can run through the pain (I did that, and it didn't work).
[+] [-] dasil003|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hwolf|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chipsy|15 years ago|reply
It takes 5-10 minutes per day and has a dramatic soothing effect almost immediately.
[+] [-] udrr|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rjurney|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amanuel|15 years ago|reply
Of course I am totally wired up with a heart rate monitor/watch/iphone/gps which makes it more fun.
Whatever works for you. Run or whatever gets you pumping then hack like you never have.
[+] [-] jakevoytko|15 years ago|reply
I haven't gotten sharper in the past six months, but I'm more robust to energy-sapping conditions. An occasional bad night of sleep doesn't ruin my work day. I have a lesser mental block when starting big projects. I'm not worn out after a long work day, so I've worked more on pet projects without sacrificing time with my girlfriend. I have a major incentive to eat light, since nothing is worse than a hard run with a stomach full of grease. As a plus, I now understand the value of working incrementally towards a large goal.
I didn't find it difficult to work into my schedule. My highest-mileage week only took six hours of my time, and most weeks were less than four hours.
[+] [-] phpnode|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ponce|15 years ago|reply