The Software Developer’s Guide to Fitness & Morning Productivity

http://www.etherealbits.com/?p=68

by tysont • 14 years ago

136 68 14 years ago

ovechtrick2• 14 years ago

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

gridaphobe• 14 years ago

Agreed, I've found jogging to be particularly good at clearing my mind. I like going to the gym in the afternoon for that reason: I can work for a while, and then take a break to jog when I inevitably get frustrated by something :)

rjh294• 14 years ago

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.

ovechtrick2• 14 years ago

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.

buddydvd2• 14 years ago

> 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.

carbocation• 14 years ago

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

buddydvd2• 14 years ago

Thank you. I'll do that.

tedmiston• 14 years ago

Mornings were similarly not realistic for me. I've switched to a "midday" workout which for me comes at 5 pm every day. Currently doing 15-20 mins on the elliptical every weekday. My goal is to ease up to 30 mins daily. The benefit gained from 5*30 = 2.5 hrs / week is so much more than I could effectively accomplish putting that extra time into code.

pthread• 14 years ago

Morning? What's that?

kbutler• 14 years ago

The last few hours before you go to sleep.

pumainmotion• 14 years ago

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.

moistgorilla• 14 years ago

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.

robryan• 14 years ago

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.

truncate• 14 years ago

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.

crusso• 14 years ago

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.

antirez3• 14 years ago

low-carb is cool but make sure to get some carb before/after exercising. Especially it's important to mix some carb with proteins after the workouts.

solarmist8• 14 years ago

It depends on your goals. If you're super low carb and trying to lose weight they a moderate amount of carbs would be good, but if you aren't low carb and trying to lose weight then I'd skips the carbs (Carbs after a workout are mainly used to boost protein uptake in the muscles, not to restore energy, you don't burn enough during a workout to need more than time to restore the glycogen in your muscles).

dsawler• 14 years ago

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.

rangibaby2• 14 years ago

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.

gbelote• 14 years ago

This has been true in my experience. I'm not sure if this approach is always better, but over time I've been gradually reducing carb intake and what used to feel impossible without being miserable (50-60 net carbs/day) is now painless.

However with the gradual approach, you probably won't get that dramatic shedding of weight some people talk about. I don't care about that, personally, because I get enough satisfaction out of steady progress and make a game out of optimizing my diet with delicious yet low/moderate carb food.

antirez3• 14 years ago

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.

neutronicus• 14 years ago

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.

solarmist8• 14 years ago

I know exactly what you're talking about. Whenever I have back pain I know I've been away from deadlifts too long.

rjh294• 14 years ago

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.

solarmist8• 14 years ago

I'd suggest splitting your two hour workouts into one hour chucks or even making them separate workouts.

There's been a good amount of research implying if not stating out right that an intense workout of more than an hour does more harm than good.

After about an hour you've burned most of the glycogen in your muscles and are just spinning your wheels (ie overworking your muscles rather than breaking them down to build them up).

mertd• 14 years ago

There's been a good amount of research implying if not stating out right that an intense workout of more than an hour does more harm than good.

This is an extremely generalizing statement. Could you please provide citation(s)?

For example the term "hitting the wall" used commonly among marathoners practically means depleting the glycogen. However this generally happens around the 2 hour mark (assuming no replacement during exercise).

Not all exercises are created equally. A walk in the park is a form of exercise and so is endurance running. Shall we just assume these are equally demanding and stop at the 1 hour mark regardless?

stiff7• 14 years ago

To me, "two-hour long" and "very intense" in the gym is a contradiction, unless antirez means aerobic work. In my experience if you do heavy squats, deadlifts, presses etc. you will be done in maybe 45 minutes, will have not much energy to do anything else for the rest of the day and it will take all the time until the next workout to fully recover. If you are interested in the best fitness results, this is necessary, for keeping the mental performance high as much as possible the intensity has to be much more moderate.

qwar• 14 years ago

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.

namank• 14 years ago

Goes for all skilled jobs where your create.

hoka2• 14 years ago

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.

iamgilesbowkett4• 14 years ago

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.

bobbles• 14 years ago

Even though you were walking gently, the fact that you did the exercise every day is generally more drive and intensity than most people will be willing to achieve

solarmist8• 14 years ago

Drive and Intensity to me means frequently (daily or bi-daily for fitness) making small amounts of progress on your goals.

Intensity without drive. Working on something for 8 hours then forgetting about it for a week or more.

Drive without Intensity. Working on your project all the time, but never getting anywhere with it. (Always in planning/research, making it perfect, etc)

hoka2• 14 years ago

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.

davidhperry• 14 years ago

Would you mind elaborating on your diet change(s)?

mkramlich• 14 years ago

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

brianmwang• 14 years ago

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.

stiff7• 14 years ago

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

Zakharov• 14 years ago

What would be good foods for doing this?

stiff7• 14 years ago

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.

rjh294• 14 years ago

And what if we take protein supplements and don't have these issues? It sounds like it only affects a small portion of the population - just like pretty much any other food. How many people are intolerance of gluten, or lactose? Would you suggest bread or milk are bad for your long term health?

stiff7• 14 years ago

At least a significant percent of the population, if not the majority, is said to be lactose intolerant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk#Lactose_intolerance

Besides that, if you ingest a protein shake and eat nothing for a few hours the toxic waste products of digesting the protein will stay in your bowels longer then with a richer meal.

tomjen3• 14 years ago

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.

wowoc• 14 years ago

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

philwelch• 14 years ago

Yeah, I don't get high unless I've cardio'd for at least 45 minutes. 10 minutes isn't nearly enough.

shanecleveland• 14 years ago

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."

The Software Developer’s Guide to Fitness & Morning Productivity

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